Black English - Baldwin - Review

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Both Tan and Baldwin gave examples of living with being stereotyped. For example, Baldwin focuses on the fact that whites say that Black English is improper, yet, they use “our” signifying expressions, not even knowing what they mean and there being many different types of English spoken in the world. And Tan, says that when people called or said his name, they used mostly Anglicized pronunciation because there was more than one way to say it. He avoided meeting people because he didn’t want to go through the process of pronouncing his name and explaining what it meant.

Blacks and Hispanics are stereotyped all the time because they are a minority and I don’t believe its right. Do you? How would you feel if someone assumed something because of the color of your skin, or the language you spoke, or the way your name was pronounced? I believe that our language is a way to express our identity, that’s how they come together. Mainly speaking that because no one wants to lose their identity to the ability to fit in and be just like everyone else. If everyone were just alike the world would be boring. We use our identity as the capability to stand out. Most of the time lot of others are afraid to be proud of who they are because they don’t want to be judged by society. In society its like you pick one or the other, you can’t have the best of both worlds. They want you to think that it’s a bad thing to be multicultural and have an identity at the same time. When we are with our family and friends we’re one person but when we get out into the community, it’s like we have to put on this mask that tells everyone that we’re something that we’re not. In other words your identity is something that cannot be taken from you. Your identity is part of you.