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Reflections on Black English - Research Paper

Reflections on Black English

Reflections on Black English

Professor Worthington
English 1A
February 23, 2011

From the beginning of American History, Blacks have used language as a means for survival, “by means of brutal necessity in order to outwit death.” As slaves, we were denied proper education and forced to abandon our native tongue. In order to survive in a foreign land we combined English with African languages. During times of segregation in the Jim Crow South, we humbled ourselves to Whites by addressing them with a “Yes Ma’am” or “No Sir.” Failing to address a White person in this manner resulted in a beating and sometimes death. Even as educated Blacks today, we are constantly shunned by our ...

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slavery in America. Over the centuries, their language and religion were watered down with the English language and teachings from the Bible. Blacks were left with only two options here: conform or die. As a result of this ongoing battle for survival, we created our own American culture with our own church and our own language. We took a situation that was forced upon us and out of brutal necessity, we owned it. We took the early European ways forced upon us and made it work to benefit our survival.
From the beginnings of American history, language has been used to control the distributions of power. Slaves were denied education and schools remained segregated well after the end of slavery. Segregated schooling and inequalities in the quality of education among races has left our Black communities struggling to catch up. And as Baldwin puts it, “white people in America never had any interest in educating black people, except as this could serve their purposes” (Baldwin 3). The ...

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PAPER DETAILS

Added: 4/5/2011 10:15:52 PM
Submitted By: oginca
Category: African Studies
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 1043
Pages: 4

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