According to “‘Blaxicans’ and other Reinvented Americans,” Richard Rodriguez argues throughout his essay, that culture should be what defines a person’s identity, as opposed to race. Rodriguez portrays his mentality on these aspects when it is implied that an individual is able to assimilate to another culture (214-216). Therefore this reveals Rodriguez’s beliefs. Rodriguez demonstrates that although a person may have been born with a specific race, that does not define them. Rodriguez, an American, transferred to a Chinese culture and says that this makes him Chinese.
Gloria Anzaldúa, in the essay “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” (1987), claims her experiences as a Chicano taught her that her culture was not looked at highly in comparison to the English language. Anzaldúa argues her view about her Chicano language by giving examples of both cultures Chicano Mexican and American cultures. Anzaldúa’s purpose is to inform her audience on how it is to grow up in a Chicano speaking family. Anzaldúa writes in a frustrating tone throughout the story of her life experiences. Thesis: Anzaldúa use of her personal experiences, and Music, Film and Literature are relevant sufficient and
Both authors go in detail about their ethnic backgrounds and blend their language for us to better understand throughout their story. Gloria Anzaldua describes herself as a Mexican-American Chicana
For instance, she states, “…we don’t identify with the Anglo-American cultural values and we don’t totally identify with the Mexican cultural values. We are a synergy of two cultures with various degrees of Mexicanness or Angloness” (85). This quote exemplifies what many Mexican-American think and that is, that we aren’t a part of just one culture, but rather a mixture of both. Furthermore, there are obstacles that a Mexican-American may face, such as discrimination from one or both cultures. This is seen when Anzaldúa says, “Pocho, cultural traitor, you’re speaking the oppressor’s language by speaking English, you’re ruining the Spanish language…” (77).
Here we learned the she was treated in college, rather forced, this cause here to delve deeper into her Chicano roots. Her ethnicity means so much to her that to conform and forget what it means to be Chicano is not an option for her, and neither is losing her accent. We know this from Anzaldua statement that reads, “Attacks on one’s form of expression with the attempt to sensor are a violation of the First Amendment.” here
In the book, Other People’s Children, author Lisa Delpit does and excellent job compiling her experiences as a black educator through various essays and responses. It is though these essays and responses that Delpit tries to educate the American educator on the diversities we see in the classroom. She makes it known throughout the book that we need to make sure all students receive the same educational opportunities regardless of cultural background, race, or ethnicity. One thing that really stood out to me in this book was that she suggests that we appreciate linguistic diversity in the classroom. Stating that some student’s don’t have access to the “politically popular dialect form” also known as “Standard English”, and these particular
Race and ethnicity as socially-constructed categories separates friends from the same background. In the article “Best of Friends, Worlds Apart,” Cuban immigrant Joel Ruiz finds himself stuck between two worlds after landing on American soil. Ruiz’s childhood friend Valdes traveled to the United States together and settled down near one another. Valdes lives a well-off life in the Caucasian community as a Cuban. On the other hand, Ruiz identify himself as Cuban, yet, whites see him simply as black.
Marquez’s deliberate attempt to create confusion convey that there is not always a solution to rid a community of differences. The differences in individuals in a community create diversity. Marquez’s short story is an example of how society discriminates differences of individuals instead of accepting
James Baldwin’s essay on “Black English” comes from the perspective of a distinguished black man, articulating the idea of “What is English”. Baldwin writes in an eloquent tone that creates an atmosphere supporting his argument on why black english is a language because of his racial background. In Order to further his claim he utilizes antecedent to explain how “black english” evolved over time. He also employs antithesis to compare different languages,African Americans and white people.
Laura is a Mexican immigrant currently living in Harlem, a city in New York that is notorious for having the majority of the population being Spanish speakers and some English speakers. Laura faces a challenge because she speaks Mixtec- an indigenous language, causing her to face a language barrier between her and the rest of her community. She worries that she will get lost in translation causing her to feel helpless in her own community “‘I feel bad because I can’t communicate with people, ”she said mixing Spanish and Mixtec. “I can’t do anything”’(Semple).
The Skin That We Speak The way a person speaks is a direct link to a person’s culture and the environment which he or she was raised in. A person’s language, skin color as well as economic status influences the way he or she is perceived by others. Lisa Delpit and eleven other educators provide different viewpoints on how language from students of different cultures, ethnicity, and even economic status can be misinterpreted due to slang and dialect or nonstandard English by the teachers as well as his or her own peers. The Skin That We Speak: Thoughts on Language and Culture in the Classroom by Lisa Delpit and Joanne Kilgour Dowdy, who collected essays from a diverse group of educators and scholars to reflect on the issue of language
”(Anzaldúa, 72). Even other Latinos and Latinas don’t truly accept her just because Chicano Spanish is slightly different than normal. Chicanos don’t really belong to any one group and instead of being considered a part of many different cultures, they aren’t a part of any
Language can either separate someone from this larger identity or connect him or her to it. This essay shows that black people in America have been systematically and institutionally marginalized by white society that their creation of separate and distinct language was a necessity, and this essay brings to light the struggles my community ---------- the black community --------- had faced in an effort to break through stereotypes and erroneous assumptions .I personally enjoyed how Baldwin incorporated historical examples into his essay, such as the Irish and the Germans, because it showed me that African Americans were not the only ones who felt marginalized by the way they use
Learning about different point of views of how certain individuals and their situations and looking at how individuals are being discriminated for how they talk and finding my own context as a writer. Within this essay I will discuss about the films “A Walk in My Shoes” and “Talking Black in America”. I also will be discussing a few details within the two films. With “A Walk in My Shoes” I’ll articulate with how these individuals wanted to become teachers with having the struggles at home. With “Talking Black in America”, I’ll go over how African Americans are being discriminated about how they’re talking from where they live.
Language ideology, boundary, communities, and linguistic code mixing/switching, heteroglossia and transidiomatic are ways in which people define their linguistic identities and sense of belonging, engage in stratified power-driven relationships, and attitude towards language use. Mendoza (2008) situate her linguistic ethnographic study in a community of Latina teenager school, to examine their linguistic identities and how they are shaped by their language attitude and ideology, and the affect of that on educational practices. Latina girls from different categories such as European-Mexican, Rural-Mexican and American-Mexican/Jocks, are interacting and reflecting boundary demarcating and language ideology and attitude through their daily lives at the school. Urciuoli (1990) presents a case study of Puerto Ricans speech community in NYC, in which linguistic boundaries are at some situation clearly defined, and at other blurred depending on the ethnicity, socioeconomic class, gender and race affinities, such as Puerto Ricans interaction with their black neighbors versus white outsiders. The result of that is reflected on “sense of language around relationships” and
