Language is the most vivid key to identity, it defines people and their experiences. African Americans have been deprived of many things throughout history, and many people seem to forget of all the suffering they received in the past. I believe that when you take someone 's language you are taking their identity, therefore I argue that Black English should be considered a language because it reveals the cruel truths of American society. In “ If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What is?,” James Baldwin agrees with me and stresses “ The argument has nothing to do with language itself but with the role of language” (798). In other words our argument is not only with Black English being a language, but with what Black English
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During the time of slavery or Martin Luther King era, white Americans did not want to educate blacks and for that reason blacks had to evolve their own form of communication. Baldwin states “Subsequently, the slave was given, under the eye, and the gun, of his master, Congo Square, and the Bible--or in other words, and under these conditions, the slave began the formation of the black church, and it is within this unprecedented tabernacle that black English began to be formed” (800). This implies that blacks were taken from their own identity, and it wasn’t until they were “allowed” to have a church, that they began developing their new identity, Black English. Black English was the way blacks distinguished themselves from others, and the way they kept safe from white Americans. When Talking to my friend Taylor James, who is African …show more content…
According to an article in Jet Magazine, “Should Black English Be Considered A Secondary Language?”, Oakland school Superintendent Carolyn Getridge says that it is necessary to teach teachers Black English, so that they could understand their African American students better in order to teach their students more efficiently (Rice). Like Baldwin said “ A child cannot be taught by anyone whose demand, essentially, is that the child repudiate his experience, and all that gives him sustenance, and enter a limbo in which he will no longer be black” (801). Putting these two ideas together, we must consider Black English as a language so that we can understand the African American child that is constantly not being understood not only because of their language, but because of their experiences. I say Black English very much exists and not only does it exist, but it is something that without, America wouldn’t be the same
During the time of slavery or Martin Luther King era, white Americans did not want to educate blacks and for that reason blacks had to evolve their own form of communication. Baldwin states “Subsequently, the slave was given, under the eye, and the gun, of his master, Congo Square, and the Bible--or in other words, and under these conditions, the slave began the formation of the black church, and it is within this unprecedented tabernacle that black English began to be formed” (800). This implies that blacks were taken from their own identity, and it wasn’t until they were “allowed” to have a church, that they began developing their new identity, Black English. Black English was the way blacks distinguished themselves from others, and the way they kept safe from white Americans. When Talking to my friend Taylor James, who is African …show more content…
According to an article in Jet Magazine, “Should Black English Be Considered A Secondary Language?”, Oakland school Superintendent Carolyn Getridge says that it is necessary to teach teachers Black English, so that they could understand their African American students better in order to teach their students more efficiently (Rice). Like Baldwin said “ A child cannot be taught by anyone whose demand, essentially, is that the child repudiate his experience, and all that gives him sustenance, and enter a limbo in which he will no longer be black” (801). Putting these two ideas together, we must consider Black English as a language so that we can understand the African American child that is constantly not being understood not only because of their language, but because of their experiences. I say Black English very much exists and not only does it exist, but it is something that without, America wouldn’t be the same