Facebook Post III

June Jordan

Just as Spanish is to Hispanics, a way to communicate to the world where we come from, after reading this I realized that Black English for African Americans is a way of saying, “we are here, and this is who we are.” Everyone depends on language as a means of discovery to the world. As the author mentions, the extinction of the language will also extinguish the people that contributed to it, that is their own and proud, singular identity. Furthermore, I noticed something important mentioned by the author, which was that language can be use against or to your favor; “Countries as disparate as Zimbabwe and Malaysia, or Israel and Uganda, use it as their non-native currency of convenience”.
One must understand that America is full of different kinds of people; this can be racially, sexually or cultured. However and unconsciously, white standards are the ones controlling our official and popular judgments of verbal proficiency. This creates the sense that the English spoken at our houses is wrong and incorrect and perhaps we should consider to forget about it and learn the white English, this being the “Standard English.” I find it amazing how your personal verbal skills, can tell people your identity, this including, age, sex, and even the locale/urban/rural/southern/western part of where you come from. It is sometimes weird, to have a conversation with a black person, and that you miss their accent within their Black English.

As shocking at it may sound, the parents of these people, have beaten out the fallback of patterns and rhythms of speech that Black English requires. However, it will not matter, how hard people try to avoid it, this will always remain as a source of identification for them, because as rebels as we all are, they know that their language and how they speak represents the presence of life, voice and clarity. Black English is “a system constructed by people constantly needing to insist that we exist, that we are present”. This is why I agree when they wrote the letter in their language, not in the language of the killers. As for people to start accepting who they are, they must first start accepting themselves, without any fear of the consequences. They needed to come out of the dark, because one never knows what will happen, and they do have the power to make a change. This means, not following what people has said it is right, but contradicting and trusting their beliefs.