Commentary On The Essay 'Black English' By James Baldwin
Divided by Speech James Baldwin uses this essay to address a divide taking place in our country. Not by our appearance, nor by our beliefs. The divide that is taking place in our country is by our speech, our slang, and as well as our culture. A thin line exists between every language. This line isn’t separating different languages, but the same languages within multiple cultures.
The author of “Black English” begins the essay with the use of anecdotes. Expressing a common theme with each story he tells, despite the lack of real people in these stories. The situations that were in these stories are very much real, but most of us ignored it’s existence. The author use of language here is articulate
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The tone wasn’t exactly meant to draw in a younger audience but it shouldn’t discourage them from reading it. The piece itself calls out to those who aren’t aware or those who want to nourish their minds. It’s context is eloquently presented and the explanations are a bit circuitous but still informative none the less. But the true audience is the one’s who disregard other forms of English created within the circumstances that they themselves have created for the creation of this form of English. To be more specific, the whites who deny the existence of black English, stating that there is only one way to speak proper English. They are how ever lack the ability to understand that the language they speak is when examined closely, is a mixture of many different languages. Meaning that there isn’t any proper way of speaking a language that uses a mixture of other languages, which it itself is still changing as the years pass. There author poses a question to the reader very early on. He continues to express the idea of the question throughout the essay. The use of antecedents to show the progression of African Americans is used to show evidence of the these different forms of the English language. This division in the English language is very real but is also overlooked. James covers this divide, not just within the english language, but every language. French is one example of this divide, the French spoken in Senegal isn’t the
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