As per the discussion post, I was tasked with analyzing the piece of rhetoric in order to explore the author’s message. Language is something that almost every person in the world partakes in. It is something that links all of us, banding us together through shared understanding.
I have never written about language, yet alone “black english”. Honestly, I wasn’t aware that the slang that you hear on the streets fall into a category of their own. I think all forms of communication are valid, wether its borrowed from another culture, learned, or adopted.
“If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?” – James Baldwin
Language is a hidden universal truth. It is the first thing every child learns to do. Through the power of language, we are able to convey our thoughts, desires, wants and needs to another. And though there exists many different languages globally, the language barrier knows no limit. As humans, we are able to learn one another’s dialect in order to transfer knowledge and communicate. James Baldwin, “If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?”, dives into the exclusion of “Black English” as a valid language and its origins. He explores the roots of Black English from the beginning of when Africans were taken as slaves to different countries such as Britain and the USA. He annotates the distinction between White English and Black English. Now quite frankly, I have never separated the two based on race or color but rather, “proper” or “slang”. After reading this article, I began to understand more about the origins of, in my mind, “slang” language. Baldwin made an excellent observation, one that I would have never surmised on my own. He clarifies, “Blacks came to the United States chained to each other, but from different tribes: Neither could speak the other’s language. If two black people, at that bitter hour of the world’s history, had been able to speak to each other, the institution of chattel slavery could never have lasted as long as it did.”
Language is so powerful that if only the slaves of that time would have spoken one another’s tongue, perhaps the way society exists today could have been different. I am from an English speaking country in South America. When I moved to the United States, speaking “American” English was not a challenge. I assimilated pretty quickly into school and made friends in no time. However, I remember this one specific incident where a new girl from Bangladesh joined my 5th grade class. The teacher immediately pulled me aside, and told me that since I am from Bangladesh, I could teach her English. I never once spoke any Bangladesh to anyone simply because I did not know the language. And though a different type of ignorance was exhibited in my story, it shows that people remain blind to what is right in front of them. In the United States, it is common knowledge that If you want to apply for a job, or meet the parents, or just seem impressionable, you must speak “properly” rather than use slang. As Baldwin refers to it as “Black English”, so will I. If you were to apply for an internship and greet your potential boss with, “What’s up?”, I can guarantee that you will never get the job. Society has already set the standard of what is “proper” or in this case, “White English”, and all else is on the outskirts of American culture. When anyone of importance speaks, they are always authoritative, direct and use proper English. Society has been guided to accept a certain level of appropriate speech and to reject slang in a serious setting. Though slang or Black English are used by all types of races, There are appropriate times when “Black English” is accepted, and then there are not. The ways in which we choose to communicate affect the way in which we are perceived by others. It can help us to grow or limit us. In my mind, all forms of communication are valid. Black English is a part of language as it is how some people in society are currently communicating and expressing ideas.
Link to Article: https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/29/specials/baldwin-english.html
