If Black Isn't a Language Than Tell Me What Is

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impossible. I had tonsillitis once, and I lost my voice for almost a week. Not being able to communicate my pain, something that I needed, or even just to have a pointless conversation with someone was so frustrating. I feel like language is something that everyone takes for granted because it’s a part of everyday life for us. However, if the ability to be understood was taken away from us, we would strive to find a way to achieve that. This is precisely what the blacks did when they created Black English. They came up with a way to warn each other when the whites were coming, but to not let the whites know that they were doing it. I have heard negative things about Black English, but I think the origin of it is quite genius. I also feel the only people that would still argue Black English is not a language are people who have the same mindset of the whites during that time. They are intimidated by the idea of not understanding their language, and they do not want them to have that power over us. Even though that is precisely why Black English was created in the first place because the blacks could not understand our language.

The idea of language being a privilege had never entered my mind until reading this article. It is a real eye-opener to see how something that I use every day could be taken away from me. Baldwin did a great job explaining the origin of Black English, but also the importance of language revolution. I feel that we can tie this article to our lives now and the language we use. If someone can argue that Black English is not its own language, then they would also be saying that a language does not evolve. For instance, we do not speak the same English that was spoken when America was first founded. In fact, we speak a language that is far from it, and when reading old English, we have a hard time understanding it. Is this not any different than the way we look at Black English? To me, it is not different. Whether it was Baldwin’s main intention when writing this article or not, he has made many people think about the revolution of language and how it effects our lives today.

Works Cited

Baldwin, James. “If Black Language Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me What Is.” The Black Scholar, vol. 27, no. 1, Spring 1997, pp 5-6. Paradigm Publishers, URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41068700