“If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?” By James Baldwin, goes into depth of what a language is and what it represents. Baldwin makes a bold statement that he wasn’t trying to specifically argue about the language but the role languages play. He states “People evolve a language in order to describe and thus control their circumstances, or in order not to be submerged by a reality that they cannot articulate. (And, if they cannot articulate it, they are submerged.)”. Languages come to life to be able to communicate and describe our thoughts and emotions to one another. Being put into situations where we don’t understand what is being said, we feel lost, almost like being under water. He says that language is also power and that language can be dangerous. He comes to say that it can reveal ones private identity, hidden hopes and can either disconnect or connect one to the community. Language gives us power we can mistreat, it can allow us to reveal things that are better undiscovered. In his writing what caught my eye is when he says, “ Now, I do not know what white Americans would sound like if there had never been any black people in the United States, but they would not sound the way they sound. Jazz, for example, is a very specific sexual term, as in jazz me, baby, but white people purified it into the Jazz Age.”. I agreed when he says this. Black people have influenced and continue to influence many people of different races, such as, how we speak, dress, etc. In this quote he is also saying that they made a foundation in which white people tried to make their own. He also states “The brutal truth is that the bulk of white people in American never had any interest in educating black people, except as this could serve white purposes.”.  He feels that the only reason the white people taught the black people their language was so they can be slaves. It would be easier to command and push someone around if they understand your orders. In saying this he makes a point that a child can’t be taught by someone who doesn’t have the right intentions with him.

“A language comes into existence by means of brutal necessity, and the rules of the language are dictated by what the language must convey.”. This part caught my attention. It made me think about where languages even came from. He mentions in his writing how the whites educated blacks for the wrong intentions. It was brutal, they were only taught how to communicate with whites, to be taken advantage of. We use languages as a form of communication, we give words meanings, we give words placements, such as bad or good. We put words into categories. We convey with words what we want, whether it is good or bad. We hurt people with our words. And we make languages to separate one another, and make it known we are all not the same.

James Baldwin’s op-ed “If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?” was a piece I did not realize I needed to read.  My initial reaction to the title was bewilderment yet great interest in discovering what Baldwin wanted to convey. Once I began to read, I felt myself connecting with Baldwin and agreeing with and understanding his stance on the comprehension of African American culture in America.  In this op-ed, Baldwin explains how the creation of a language “ comes into existence by means of necessity, and the rules of the language are dictated by what the language must convey” (Baldwin 2). The creation of Black English is a prime example of this. According to Baldwin, the force that drove the establishment of Black English was the significant language barrier between slaves imported into the U.S.  Because they derived from a variety of African tribes and nations, they were unable to effectively communicate with each other in order to maintain a community and survive. This “brutal necessity” of surviving in a foreign land as a slave drove Black people to develop their own language. However, there are people who do not acknowledge the existence of Black English. To this, Baldwin challenges them in explaining the circumstances that force a new language to come about, and how the severeness of slavery was enough to be an exigence for the development of Black English.  

One of the several points Baldwin makes that caught my attention was his analysis on African Americans’ lack of education throughout history.  He states “ The brutal truth is that the bulk of of white people in American never had any interest in educating black people, except as this could serve white purposes . . .” (Baldwin 2).  Captivatingly, Baldwin emphasizes the truth about the historic relationship between White and Black Americans. Black America’s ignorance was not a product of their own choices and actions but the result of the constant belittling and suppression from White America.  The refusal to provide the same education to African Americans was a tool used to keep White people in power. Educated people of color, even in today’s society, are a threat to the power of white supremacy in America.

In “If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What is?”, James Baldwin discusses the importance of language. He discusses that every person has a common language in which they articulate. Through these variety of languages, people express different realities and experiences they must go through. He shows this by writing “Frenchman living in Paris speaks a subtly and crucially different language than from that of a man living in Marseilles; neither sounds very much like a man living in Quebec; and they would all have great difficulty in comprehending what a man from Guadeloupe, or Martinique is saying . . .”(Baldwin 1). Baldwin also mentions that people must accept other’s achievements and identity which can be done by accepting one’s language including black language. Your language says a  lot about the type of person of who you are. He mentions how we, as humans, must not penalize people of color for creating their own language the shows the reality and struggles they have endures throughout history. “Black English is the creation of the black diaspora” (Baldwin 3). Black English represents black history and their struggles they have faced ever since they came to the United States chained to each other. Lastly, Baldwin mention how “. . .white people in America never had any interest in education black people, except as this could serve white purposes . . . A child cannot be taught by anyone who despises him, and a child cannot afford to be fooled”(Baldwin 3). This is very important because white people that despise people of color refuse to truly teach people of color, to help them become the best person they can be just because these type of people do not see the potential of a black child and that is something these children cannot afford.

James Baldwin, a brilliant writer, states “He cannot afford to understand it. This understanding would reveal to him too much about himself, and smash that mirror before which he has been frozen too long”(Baldwin 3). I found this very interesting and in fact, true. By saying this Baldwin is implying that white people refuse to understand black language for a reason. This reason is because white people were the ones that caused this language to form. They forced people of color to struggle, to lose their native languages and adapt to horrific, unsafe environment they must and continue to experience. White people cannot afford to neither accept nor understand black language because it will force them to accept and view who they really are as a person. It will allow them to understand their history as well; the history of plundering and denigrating the black body and that is something they refuse to accept. However, I believe the past will catch up with these racist, white people and sooner or later they will have to accept not only black language but the reality of their own history.

In “If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?,” James Baldwin addresses the way a language evolves and goes on to describe how “black english” evolved and grew into a language.  Baldwin explains how people evolved a language to “ . . . describe and thus control their circumstances, or in order to not be submerged by a reality that they cannot articulate.” In other words, he is saying that people evolve a language in order to be able to control the circumstances or situations they live in or in order to avoid being overwhelmed and consumed by a life or situation that they cannot control.  He also mentions that language is a form of identification when he says that “ . . . It reveals the private identity, and connect one with, or divorces one from, the larger public, or communal identity.” The language someone speaks helps identify them or distinguish them as part of a larger group. For example, in England and America, English is spoken but each has its own characteristics that help compare one to the other which makes both languages incomprehensible to each other.  Baldwin then goes on to explain how black English emerged when he says that the language came to existence out of a means of “brutal necessity.” They had to create a language that the white man wouldn’t be able to understand for their own protection. Slaves did not come into this country speaking the same language and if they did, slavery would have never lasted as long as it did. This directly connects to his previous point where he says “What joins languages, and all men, is the necessity to confront life, in order, not inconceivably, to outwit death.”  Black English evolved by means of survival.

In addition, I found it interesting when Baldwin says, “He cannot afford to understand it.  This understanding would reveal to him too much about himself, and smash that mirror before which he has been frozen for so long.”  Here he’s talking about how white men could not afford to understand the language that has evolved as black English because it would reveal to them to the truth of the lives they lived.  It would reveal to them how cruel and evil they were and why this language had to be created in the first place. Understanding this language would finally reveal to them the reality they refuse to face and see for themselves.  I found this interesting because the reason a language evolved could reveal the reality of something to a greater public which is something that seems obvious to me but also complex.

I wasn’t really confused on anything other than the phrases he used in the second paragraph on the second page such as “let it all hang out.”  Overall I found this article to be extremely interesting and it made me think about our language and how it affects the way we see the reality we live in.

Rachel really like how you explain the concept but also use example and evidence  to back up what you was talking  about. You also help understand more of the reading. You explained what you was talking about so it helps  me understand what your writing.

In “The Rhetorical Situation” by Lloyd F. Bitzer, he defines what a rhetorical situation is and the components that make up a rhetorical situation. Bitzer mentions how rhetorical situations is defined by “the context in which speakers or writers create rhetorical discourse”(Bitzer 1). One of Bitz’s main arguments is that there must be a situation for rhetors to come up with arguments. He provides an example of this by talking about Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, this is consider to be a rhetorical situation in which it influences social actions. Bitz mentions the three main components that make up a rhetorical situation which are exigence, audience, and constraints. He states how “exigence is rhetorical when it is capable of positive modification and when positive modification requires discourse or can be assisted by discourse”(Bitzer 7). This shows how exigence demands a proper response and it can be fixed by using rhetoric. The audience is an important factor because they are the ones who listen, interpret, and hopefully influence to enact a change. They are in between rhetoric and putting things into action. To add on, a rhetorical situation contain constraints which involves people, events, objects, and relations. These constraints have an effect on the audience and rhetor, when the orator enters the situation, the orator can have “ personal character, his logical proofs, and his style”(Bitzer 8), this can create a disconnection with the audience and rhetor.

Bitzer’s definition of rhetorical situation works  around three components exigence, audience, and constraints. He goes in depth with the three components and explain   and he also gave us example. Rhetor brings his own imperatives to the circumstance and any of these requirements may can possibly influence the intensity of the talk. When reading the rhetorical situation by Lloyd Bitzer, he has shown me what the meaning of a rhetorical situation but  many time during the read he confused me or I like that I interpret what he was say in a different way. For example when he explains the concept of audience in a rhetorical situation what it meant and what role they play. Bitzer explains “ a rhetorical audience consists only of those persons who are capable of being influenced by discourse and of being mediators of change . . . the rhetorical audience must be capable of serving as mediator of the change which the discourse functions to produce”(8). What I got from this is  that not everyone is an audience member could hear a speech but choose not to act on what the speaker is saying. But there was some text that i had trouble understanding. An example of something that i trouble with was the concept of exigence I’m having trouble finding out what it means. An example would be “a defect an obstacle, something waiting to be done”(6) how i look at the concept of exigence is that not all situation are rhetorical. I wanted to know if I’m correct.

Throughout the reading, “The Rhetorical Situation,” by Lloyd Bitzer, I learned that a rhetorical situation is when persons, events, objects, and relations have a demand that can remove a topic by introducing the situation it can limit people’s decisions and actions to finding a solution to the demand. In addition, there are three types of rhetorical situations: exigence, audience, and constraint.

A rhetorical exigence is “. . . a defect, an obstacle, something waiting to be done . . .” (pg. 6). Rhetorical exigence is basically the reasoning towards why the rhetorical situation was being made. However, a rhetorical exigence is when there’s an action that can be made to change the situation and that addresses the rhetorical situation. In the essay, Bitzer uses the example of pollution to demonstrate what a rhetorical exigence is; pollution can be reduced by having awareness and taking action of the situation.

An rhetorical audience “. . . consists only of those persons who are capable of being influenced by discourse and of being mediators of change” (pg. 8). Only the people that the rhetorical exigence is affecting or are interested in would be the rhetorical audience. For example, if someone gave a speech of elimination of animal cruelty, only the attention of people were interested about animals well being would be drawn by those actions. Those people would be categorized as the audience of specific topic.

A rhetorical constraint is “. . . made up of persons, events, objects, and relations which are parts of the situation because they have the power to constrain decision and action needed to modify the exigence” (pg. 8). A rhetorical constraint is when anything or anyone has the power to restrict the people from letting the demand occur. For example, there could be two sides of a situation if one side is well supported with arguments and evidence by a well known figure compared to the other side, people would mostly be restricted.

Something that catched my attention was how Lloyd Bitzer refers to what a rhetorical response is. In the essay, Bitzer states, “(7) Finally, the situation controls the rhetorical response in the same sense that the question controls the answer and the problem controls the solution” (pg. 6). Bitzer refers to different situation have different solution which is called rhetorical discourse and to find one people usually develop thoughts and actions. People develop thoughts and actions to figure out the different solutions to different situations, everything is determined by the other. In the essay, Bitzer uses the example of the fishermen fishing, he describes the fishermen’s actions before and after one of them almost catches a fish, the situation of obtaining the fish, and the solutions being shouted out to have the fish. This is an example of rhetorical discourse.

In “ The Rhetorical Situation “ by Lloyd F. Bitzer he states that a rhetorical situation is shown depending on what the situation may bring. Whether is be for political reasons (deliberation ) like the Declaration of Independence or like the Lincolns Gettysburg address or it could be about any person, object, or thing. There are 3 constituents that are in any rhetorical situation which is exigence, constraint , and audience.“ An exigence is rhetorical when it is capable of positive modification and when modification requires discourse or can be assisted by disclosure(Bitzer 7).” An exigence can change anything and anyone in a positive way if they choose to listen, show any interest, or if it was addressed in a way where the audience can understand where you are coming from and see it from  your eyes. Now a rhetorical disclosure can change someone’s perception about something and influence someone’s action/decision but there has to be an audience. “ A rhetorical audience consist only of those persons who are capable of being influenced by disclosure and of being mediators of change(Blitzer 8).” Lastly, the rhetorical situation has constraints which consist of people, objects, events that are related to the situation. In which orators have the power to modify the situation by harnessing the constraints or adding additional important constraints.

One idea that did stick out to me was the fact that there were 3 components needed in a rhetorical situation. Also the fact that it could come in many ways. Like the fact it was used during historical events like the Winston Churchill Gettysburg address

What I gather from reading “The Rhetorical Situation”, by Lloyd Bitzer, was that a rhetorical situation is basically when a specific situation is in need of a solution. This was made clear to me when he stated that “……rhetorical because it is a response to a situation of a certain kind.”(page 3), which explains the idea of in order for it to be a rhetorical situation it must have a response of some sort. In this essay he also talks about the fact that “there are three constituents of any rhetorical situation”(page 6):

• Exigence: Which is like the purpose for what the rhetorical situation is being made(“an imperfection marked by urgency”page 6). It is any problem that can be change through an action, and that the rhetorical situation can address. Ex: if you were to be having a speech about racism, and how it is wrong, then racism would be the exigence.
• Audience: This is an easy concept since it refers to the group of people who are capable of acting on the exigence stated, “consists only of those persons who are capable of being influenced by discourse and of being mediators of change” (page 8), in other words just the people that the discourse is being directed to. Ex: if you were making a speech on a college campus, about a topic such abortion, then your audience would be the women on that campus.
• Constrains: This one is in my opinion the trickiest one, since is not as simple as the other 2.  According to Bitzer, constrains is a “persons, events, objects, and relations which are parts of the situation because they have the power to constrain decision and action needed to modify the exigence”(page 8). In other words is anything that limits the audience from acting on the exigence. Ex: if any controversial figure were to have a speech, its reputation and and the audience thoughts and view on that person, could be consider a constrain.