Only some of you have chosen to write about June Jordan, Tracy Lysicott, or another author. Please post what you see as the argument of your chosen text here. Be sure to announce clearly about whom you are writing.
5 thoughts on “Other writer’s “Argument””
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June Jordan’s argument is that people in America try to silence others by making standard English the norm. Or more specifically that black people in this country are being silenced and stripped of their identity and a way for them to reclaim it is use black English.
In June Jordans essay, June claims that Black people are unwanted in the United States. She does this upfront by illustrating the diminishing language of Black English while also including the tradgedy of Reggie Jordan, an unarmed black man who was mudered by Brookln Police.
The argument that the author presents is the disparity between Black English and Standard English and how one should not hold supreme over the other. Although, in America the White standard remains supreme and serves as the basis of one’s proficiency and level of correctness while using English in writing and speech. She believes that this shouldn’t be the case and that people should form their own level of self awareness. This is mostly implied throughout the text upfront as she wants the reader to come to the conclusion on their own.
Langston Hughes argument in “Theme for English B” is that even though events such as slavery and Jim Crow laws, etc. have made an undeniable preconception between African Americans and white Americans, there are still similarities that make both races American which mainly white Americans choose to ignore. This is explicitly stated in the poem. It is also delayed as the author stretched out the topic and explicitly stated it in the third stanza. Langston wanted this poem to be acknowledged by are African Americans like him who have been stereotyped by white Americans that don’t understand the hardships they put them through. This poem can take away some inferiority one may have had before reading this poem because the white community. More specifically, an individual who can relate to this the most would be African American students who are asked to write a paper about themselves but feel discouraged because they didn’t have the same privileges and experiences as a white individual.
Black English should be accepted as a language just as Black people should be accepted as equal citizens.