An Analysis Of Baldwin's Essay If Black English Is Not A Language

Language identifies the speaker, it gives the speaker the power that the language holds and also the need to be noticed is needed to survive. In the case of a mute and a deaf person they use sign language which was developed after long history that was as hurtful as the history of black English. Accepting it too was hard and also giving them their rights was also a struggle, thus with that in mind black speakers need recognition for their language and accepted since they also had their share of struggle and fight to get their rights that they were born with. Being denied rights that they were born with as humans isn’t it just harsh? This essay is about the birth of a new language that was brought to life after the hateful history and the strong

meaning that it holds when the speakers speak the language. The argument of the essay is not about if black English is a language but actually it’s role to existence, the role that when white speakers hear black English being spoken, that they are not ready to accept but ignore it because they know the reason it was made and used by the speakers.

Overall, James Baldwin’s authorial intention in his article “If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?” is to portray how black English speakers are viewed as having an illegitimate language because of the issue of acceptance of its history through his use of syntax, diction, and language. Language defines the speaker, gives power to the speaker, and the way the speaker is viewed in society, the author explains this thoroughly by emphasizing on how language is the key to identity by his use of syntax. Black English is not a language that society is ready

to accept and adapt to, a language that when white speakers hear, are not ready to remember but ignore and just bury the history it withholds. Language “is the most vivid and crucial key to identity.” Baldwin uses repetition, which is a form of syntax, in his essay to emphasize and show the reader what language is and what language possesses “power.” The author gives an example where some parts of France are forced to learn English because of English speakers “contempt of their language” because their language is not accepted as a language but is “being described as a dialect.” Same with black English, white speakers try to destroy black English because of the hatred of the history the language holds. Language sure does die however, a language with willing speakers to speak and communicate with should not be killed just because some people with a different language do not accept that language.
Language is when a group of people communicate with each other and can understand each other, Baldwin portrays this by his use of Diction. Language is made for survival “to outwit death” it is something that gives the speaker identity. Baldwin uses the diction “crucial” to emphasize the real need of a language, the need for the speaker to be identified and survive in the world. Moreover, the author explains that black English is viewed as a “dialect” even after the long history that it holds. This is how black English is viewed because white speakers find it hard to accept that there was such a history that ever happened, that it is due to the slavery that the black speakers went through for 450 years that they were forced to make a language of their own to communicate. As society develops the acceptance of the language gets harder, it is just as hard to accept and remember the history of centuries ago that they know they committed, however, the pain and the harsh treatment that black speakers received were not only harsh but also cruel.
In his thorough analysis of the reasons behind why the white speakers continued denial of accepting black English is because of the history that it holds, the unforgettable history that cannot be erased by his use of language.

Baldwin makes a call out to America in his last paragraph explaining how both the child and his elder have concluded that they cannot learn from people that have managed to learn so little; people that understand so little about humanity. Black speakers who are minorities in this foreign land came here as slaves, they were treated less than humans, they were used as workforce for more than 4 centuries. To communicate with their “own people” they were forced to create black English, which helped them communicate since they came from different countries all over Africa. Baldwin says “...what white Americans would sound like if there had never been black people in the united states,” he uses sarcasm to portray how also white speakers adapted to some of the black English that was created due to slavery, that they are not ready to accept. Words such as “jazz” which is a sexual term but was purified by white speakers into “jazz age,” if they adapted some terms and purified them is it not the same as using the language? A language that they are not ready to accept because they know the hateful act of centuries ago. What happened in the past should be it, where history went wrong and awful things such as slavery happened should stop, however, the judging and

accepting will not just come in handy because as society advances so does criticism increase and they more the past history is brought up.
Black English is viewed as an illegitimate language because of the history it holds, because of the history that when white speakers hear the language they are not ready to accept and they are not ready to remember but bury it. Language identifies the speaker, and if the speaker is denied the language, that due to the need to survive that they created, is it not just so harsh and cruel act that even society should give its support and help get equality? Equality and human rights will give to the black speakers, however, with just that, does history just fade like a wound and does the suffer and the hurt they got be healed? That is why black English with all odds today still lives, while the speakers speak it in the same way as how the language was spoken and taming a wild tongue is undo able. Their language reveals who they are by the perseverance that they had to go through, the slavery they faced which led to the formation of their unaccepted language by white speakers while they later all but just call it a “dialect.” Their patience through slavery and harsh treatment done centuries ago was not in vain since the language “black English” holds the meaning of it all.