Knowing that Baldwin was a black man from Harlem, one can assume he had put up with discrimination. He describes his relationship with his father saying, “I had not known my father very well” and this explains why he never learned to deal with hatred, and let it eat him up like it did to his father. His father was also very religious, and consequently, Baldwin saw Christianity, in which he grew up, as a mechanism by which African Americans channeled their desire for revenge against white oppressors. By describing his background in this fashion, he is able to gain empathy, credibility, and a large sense of ethos from his readers. Baldwin’s pathos is seen in his pure unadulterated hatred of white people.
In discussing Black English, John McWhorter talks about the theories of the origin of the language. McWhorter talks about how people have made claims that Black English is related and comes from African languages. He also tells how their research on this subject is unreliable and “sketchy.” These people making these claims are outside of linguistics, meaning they practice things such as education and speech pathology. People like Dr. Smith, a teacher at a medical college, suggested that Black English is a mixture of African languages with English, where these African languages have altered English into a new language.
7. Baldwin uses the term nigger in order to emphasize his point that other people do not truly decide who or what he is, they only decide what they think he is. This argument would have been less emotionally effective had he used a less provocative term. 8. Baldwin is saying that the American identity is a false one based on idealized and inaccurate depictions of who their ancestors were.
In James Baldwin’s essay titled “If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me What Is?” Baldwin highlights his major argument by capitalizing the words in the title so that it can stand out to the readers. His main idea is that all languages are equal, and there is an inequality in society where one is judged by the way they speak. Baldwin wanted the readers to understand that all languages do serve a purpose no matter how a person articulates it. Baldwin also wanted to convey that there is racism that is placed upon a black person just because of the way they speak.
If Black English Isn't a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is? By James Baldwin explains to the reader what black English is and where black English comes from. Baldwin writes about how humans use language as a means of controlling the world around them. Baldwin explains that people may speak the same language in one area of the world, but then people who speak the same language elsewhere are no longer speaking the same language. Baldwin using French as an exampling, Baldwin compares french-speaking people from Quebec to people who live in Paris.
Baldwin uses an advanced vocabulary throughout the essay, but only uses slang terms when referring to African Americans. By using phrases like “But if I was a "nigger" in your eyes”, he shows the audience what the words culturally imply such as stupidity and ignorance. Since this is
In the speech a letter from a region in my mind James Baldwin uses figurative language by helping express his limitations and confusion that he and different african american felt throughout their lives. In his speech Baldwin uses figurative language to help portray a message to the audience while going more in depth with certain details. He explains how he
The essay, "If Black English Isn’t a language, Then Tell Me, What Is It?" by James Baldwin tell us how the English language has become a system of marginalization for Afro-descendant society in the United States. According to Baldwin, the role of black English is associated with American history, since language reveals and defines the speaker. In addition, the author affirms that the existence of a common language among the inhabitants of a country does not prevent the pronunciation of this varied from one region to another. Besides, this essay indicates that the necessity to confront life and its eagerness not to disappear join all languages.
Language Vs. Power There are 2,700 languages with over 7,000 individual dialects spoken around the world today. Children who come to the U.S come from all over the world bring these languages and dialects with them to their classrooms. The use of language in different settings play a big part in determining who has power, especially within classrooms.
“James Baldwin Wrote About Race and Identity In America”). Throughout his books and commentary pieces, Baldwin repeatedly points out that Christianity is responsible for supporting slavery and calls out black Christians who use it as an excuse to live comfortably with oppression. However, he does not fail to give credit where it is due: Baldwin expresses his gratitude toward Christianity for helping the African-American community come together in order to protect themselves from racism (VOA. “James Baldwin Wrote About Race and Identity In
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.
“If Black English Isn’t a Language Then Tell Me What Is” In the essay “If Black Isn’t a Language Then Tell Me What Is” (The New York Times, 1979) written by James Baldwin, the author asserts that the African American community has altered the English language into a new language during the last five centuries to accommodate the black experience in American history despite the white’s attempt to submerge it. To begin the essay he makes his argument clear by referencing the alterations the French made to their native language to describe how people will eventually “...evolve a language in order to describe and thus control their circumstances…”; furthermore he continues to analyze how the caucasian people of America have only accepted the black language when it came out of a white mouth; he ends the essay by reinforcing his position, elaborating on the racism black’s have faced when they were denied the right to an education unless it was for the white benefit. His liberal purpose is to bring light to the subtle racism that African Americans experience even after the Civil Rights movement and to acknowledge the cultural influence they have in America. His writing appears very personal and intimate like he’s voluntarily opening up to his audience by letting them know of his own struggles as an African American, targeting mostly minorities and people who feel oppressed by white America.
James Baldwin brings up a certain point time and time again throughout, I am Not Your Negro, is that whites never acted the way they did because they were white. In the essay, “Notes of a Native Son”, Baldwin even states that “She did not ask me what I wanted, but repeated, as though she had learned it somewhere, ‘We don’t serve Negroes here.’ She did not say it with...hostility”. Baldwin’s personal views on racism and the ideas behind it allow the reader to extrapolate the notion that racism has not simply been taught to people. Rather, they have been indoctrinated with it and they simply abide by the rules of segregation because it is the norm.
Rhetorical Reading Response Baldwin In James Baldwin's personal essay, "If Black English Isn't a Language, Then Tell me, What Is?" (1979), the author defines the development of language as primarily a political act through which a group of people establish a distinct identity. Baldwin shows this by giving examples of how language allows a group to define and express who they are from their own point of view, instead of having their reality expressed or misrepresented by another group. Baldwin's purpose for this essay is to defend, in an eloquent and convincing way, the idea that black English is a true language, in order to show that it meets the criteria of what defines a language as a method of expressing reality.
Although it hadn't always been clear to him before, he was now seeing the result of unequal treatment of blacks by whites. Because Baldwin knew blacks and whites should have been treated as equals, he understood where his father's anger had come from. Although it hadn't always been there, Baldwin realized that he was beginning to feel the same anger his dad had felt. Hatred, after all, wasn’t just a poison. It was something that helped him understand his father more and realize that he is now like his
