Donnaven Clark 

 

Comp English

 

Intro

James Baldwin is an author with close connections to the history of slavery, he grew up in a predominately white Harlem area, was the oldest of nine siblings, and lived during a time period where racism was still very prominent. He knew at a young age that he was black, and  the already established prejudice from his white oppressors; this awareness caused James Baldwin to constantly be in the library learning and expanding his knowledge. At a young age Baldwin was a preacher at a church, this  was one of the main reasons that he became the type of author that he is, the bible and language of the church left a strong influence on him and his writing style ( Baldwin 2);  turning him into an author that speaks on the lack of attention and respect the black culture receives.

After reading his piece “if black english isn’t a language, then tell me what is’ ‘, you can just see how much he actually cares for our community. In Asking blunt and clear questions  that are hard to avoid with enough notoriety; it is clear that  this piece is focused on the appeals to not only the black audience but the white American audience as well. Not only in this piece but in his others Baldwin was known for his ability to appeal to the audience by using just the power of his words, this piece in particular however speaks on the ironic injustice the language of english has on minority culture specifically black culture; addressing issues such as the  hypocrisy hidden within the english language, the power language holds in controlling groups, and the ignorance that is thought to young black children from the english language. 

 

Body

” A child cannot be taught by anyone who despises him, and a child cannot afford to be fooled”. James Baldwin throughout this piece focuses on the inequalities of not knowing a language and how severe the results could really be. Baldwin appeals to kairos by addressing an issue that has been around for years before him and still happens today; calling language a “political instrument with the means of proof of power”(Nytimes Baldwin 11) Baldwin believed that language was a way of showing one’s identity; further showing the lack of recognition black people get for their language, because of how the “white Americans” took ownership of these phrases. Turning phrases such as Jazz me into a derogatory term “sock it to me”, or “let it all hang out”; with phrases constantly being taken away from black culture;  it leads back to the question of how can a child be taught by anyone who despises him, even in today’s age the things we are taught is from the point of view of ” white American” which have been the oppressor for such a long time; this leads to a lot of young people of color to be fooled, and not knowing the truth. This is is something seen even in today; I have been learning in this english class constantly about formalities and how the general youth is taught what is proper language; when in actuality english is not a standard language, it is made up of multiple different languages and so not one specific way of talking is “proper American english”;  specifically in this James Baldwin piece, I realized just how important our our diction, and syntax is especially in the black community that I am apart of.

“People evolve a language in order to describe and thus control their circumstances, or in order not to be submerged by a reality that they cannot articulate… language, in which, as it turns out, they are not saying, and cannot be saying, the same things” ( Nytimes Baldwin 2 ) This was a part of the writing that also stood out a lot; Baldwin in this paragraph  speaks on how languages with much stronger cores and consistency at some point would still need to collaborate for people of different languages and upbringings to somewhat understand each other; however with the english language, a language with an significantly lower core and consistency of words that is actually english words; for some reason doesn’t allow black english, which could also be identified as informal english, or broken english. An example where you can see this would be places like job interviews, or when talking to elders, or even professors. It is seen as a lack of formality; with this way of english language being taught, children of black culture start to believe that this is the only right way to speak, and any other way of speaking comes off as ignorance, when its actually the other way around; it is okay to speak “ informal english” because that’s what the english language is, a bunch of different languages put together.

Baldwin is an artist that constantly focuses on the struggles of the black culture that occurs in America. I was able to find myself relating to Baldwin so much in this piece, growing up I thought constantly that I was speaking incorrectly when talking to my friends or the sometimes occasional talks with my middle school teachers in which I would say small filler words such as like, or maybe even saying things like “yea, cos, and watcha” Those are words that I would of never put in my essays or really say to an elder of mine; however after reading this piece I realized that there is nothing wrong with how i talk, english is a language that was formed from the combinations making it one of the hardest languages to learn if it is not somebody’s first language, and because of that there is no actual wrong when speaking my english. After understanding this piece I feel that writing has become much more enjoyable for me since now i no longer have to worry too much about how I write my pieces, as long as the audience is able to understand my writing and they are able to visualize my way of speaking and can identify that it is me who is speaking in my piece then I am doing no wrong, and with following white America’s ideology of ‘proper english” i feel that my voice will never be heard properly.

 

Citations:

“—.” The New York Times, The New York Times, https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/29/specials/baldwin-english.html?source=post_page—————————.

“James Baldwin Biography and Quotes ~ James Baldwin Biography.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 4 Aug. 2020, https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/james-baldwin-about-the-author/59/.