Rhetorical Reading Response: "If Black English isn't a Language....What is?" by James Baldwin

I think 'you' right by Kai Thomas

If Black English isn’t a Language, then Tell me, What is?, by James Baldwin (1979), claims that the argument of whether Black English is a language is not about the criteria needed to be a language but the role Black English has in society, namely in the lives of the speaker (the users of the language) and the audience (the people who do not use the language). The author explains the situation and this theory in the introduction, describes the role language in general has on society in the body paragraphs by using anecdotal evidence, and proposes a possible cause to these phenomenon by using historical evidence paired with logic in the conclusion. His purpose is to reveal the importance of the role of language in society, in order to further reveal the reasons in which the audience would not and could not allow Black English to be a language. James Baldwin’s relationship with the audience seems to be forged over his authority on the subject (ethos) due to his experience as an educated black man and traveler of the countries he speaks of.

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I personally agree with James Baldwin’s message that there are many more instruments in play when we talk about what makes a language a language. As he says, there are many political forces that come from the need to profit and/or control the speakers for a number of disparate reasons, one mainly being to gain power (Baldwin). Moreover, there are human forces whose necessity is to account for and control life, and that becomes just as important as the prior when we consider how language is a part of our own identity (Baldwin). Many people do not notice how visceral language is in our society; its impact is most often appreciated in the arts, but in actuality, it transforms every other facet of life, in every instant when we use our interpersonal skills. For example, simply the meaning of the sentence, I love to eat food, is transformed when we choose diction to dramatize the connotation of some words- it now becomes- I am such a freakin’ foodie! Like this, the core meaning of the sentence has been preserved, but an emotional message has been attached to it for others to recognize the full extent of that meaning in relation of the speaker.

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The organization of this essay is very strategic because, as the audience reads, we gain a glimpse of the author’s thought process, which makes the reading an even more personal experience. From the straightforward, slightly informal introduction which explains the argument and his response, the body paragraphs are comparatively more descriptive in its use of anecdotal evidence to portray the different roles of language. This descriptive, anecdotal evidence is very important in his way of connecting with the audience because it allows people who aren’t black to experience just what the argument entails; noticing that he doesn’t use mostly black-specific experiences to make his point is instrumental when realizing that the author notices his own biases and is actively engaging with the whole audience despite it. For example, he writes comparatively in the body paragraphs about “A Frenchman living in Paris,” Marseilles, Quebec, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Senegal, and more when describing the human and political forces in the role of language, so that everyone may examine their own roles of language in their own lives (Baldwin). In the conclusion, however, he cites almost matter-of-factly that “A language comes into existence by means of brutal necessity, and the rules of the language are dictated by what the language must convey” (Baldwin). This describes not only why Black English is a language but how as well, when he describes in conjunction how blacks came to the United States. “Blacks came to the United States chained to each other, but from different tribes: neither could speak the other’s language,” so under the eye of violence from his master and the will of Christianity, the Black church was formed and Black English came along with it; it was formed out of a necessity to describe and understand life the way the speakers saw it (Baldwin). In this way, Black English meets the criteria for it to be a language. It is just the political and human forces that stand in the way when recognizing it fully.

Works Cited

Baldwin, James. “If Black English Isn't a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?” The New York Times, The New York Times, www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/29/specials/baldwin-english.html.