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If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell me, What Is?. Simeon Hendricks, Shyam Suraj and Emily Brown. By: James Baldwin. Persuasive Strategies. Cause and Effect Organization Anecdote. Thesis. The language that one person speaks defines your reality. Quotes.
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If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell me, What Is? Simeon Hendricks, Shyam Suraj and Emily Brown By: James Baldwin
Persuasive Strategies Cause and Effect Organization Anecdote
Thesis The language that one person speaks defines your reality.
Quotes • “People evolve a language in order to describe and thus control their circumstances or in order to be submerged by a reality that they cannot articulate.” (138, Paragraph 2) • “It goes without saying, then, that language is also a political instrument, means, and proof of power.” (138, Paragraph 4)
Quote Continued • “Now, no one can eat his cake, and have it, too, and it is late in the day to attempt to penalize black people for having created a language that permits the nation its only glimpse of reality, a language without which the nation would be even more whipped that it is.” (139, Paragraph 6)
Essay Type • Persuasive and Argument Essay • Deductive Method • General concept of language and its purpose • Specific example of slavery in the US • Relevant Issues • Slavery • Using his own bias • Very confident formal language
Précis • The debate surrounding Black English is rooted in American History. Language is created to articulate and control ones circumstances. The link between languages is Man’s need to confront life & outwit death. By extension, language is the most important key to identity. Slavery would have been better combated if communication influenced both man’s realties, instead no common language was shared. It is reactionary to penalize Black people for creating a dialect that unveils only a fraction of the reality being controlled. There was a need for my sister, or brother to articulate to me, the threat of the man behind me. The man could, would, & cannot afford to understand, until today, as this understanding would revile too much about the origin. “It is not the black child’s language that is in question, it is not his language which is despised: It is his experience.” (James Baldwin 140)