Rhetorical Analysis Of If Black English Isn T Language

In the essay, “If Black English Isn’t Language, Then Tell Me, what is?” (1979) Baldwin asserts that “Black Language” is part of the American community, and background, but its social background makes people deny it. He supports his claim by using his personal experience while also including examples of how languages are involved, and it is a key to identity; he also uses pathos and linguistics diversity to encourage his readers to support his claim. Baldwin purpose is to inform his readers about the situation in order to augment how black language is not only a language itself, but how it unveils things about the early days of American society. His intended audience are language analyst, and readers who may not understand black English.

Different cultures have been forced to adapt to the people in power and what they do with the adaptation of other languages instead of allowing different cultures the right to evolve. Baldwin states, “Now, I do not know what white Americans would sound like if there had never been any black people in the United States, but they would not sound the way they sound” (Baldwin). From this sentence, Baldwin can support his claim, explaining that without black language American English would not sound the same, or at least have the same concept. He further uses the example of a world-wide music category, jazz, and the many terms that the Americans used from the black language, into their own. Without the experience that the black went through in America, the English that we all know today would not have existed, because there would be nothing to copy