Good Arguments With Bad Grammar By John Mcwhorter

The Definition of our Dialect Imagine living in an era where your dialect identifies who you are. Visualize the lifestyle of someone who speaks differently than yourself. Individuals that speak with a “Black English” dialect are often labeled as unprofessional in their lifestyle or the workplace. How we speak shouldn’t characterize our talents, character, ability, or success in life. Our performance in our everyday life and professionalism should speak for us. People may have bad grammar due to the educational environment they were offered or the social environment they were raised in. Someone who speaks “Standard English” may present the desired dialect, but may lack professional skills that the job is looking for. Will we allow the professional realm to be built on stereotypes rather than character? Will we allow our children to grow up thinking they are unqualified because of

According to John “There is an extent to which scornful condemnation of “bad grammar” is one of today’s last permissible expressions of elitism” (McWhorter). First, he states this to illustrate the power those in authority have over applicants and rather those applicants qualify in their own judgement, rather than the performance, talents, or abilities of the applicant. Language changes over time, if we criticized applicants based on the way they spoke. We defeat the purpose of upbuilding one another and adhere to the purpose of judging a book by its cover. If someone speaks differently than ourselves, it does not give us the right to place them in a category of our own judgement. What we consider different in our own eyes could be the knowledge. Someone who uses “Black English” should not be depicted by their dialect, but by their character and performance as a