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

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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 …show more content…

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 …show more content…

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

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