Questions on James Baldwin’s “If Black English Isn't a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?” ANSWER ALL: 1. What tone of voice does Baldwin adopt in the first paragraph of his essay? Is it effective? According to Baldwin, how did Black English develop in the United States? Analyze the historical references in the essay as you respond.
James Baldwin’s “If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?” was written to display Baldwin’s justification for Black English, also known as African American Vernacular English(AAVE), being a real language. He believes that this argument has nothing to do with the language itself but with the role of language. He gives you the background on Black English and things that contributed to the development of the language. There were many different contributions, one of the main ones being the black church. Baldwin claims that, “Black English is the creation of black diaspora” (800). In other words Black English was created from the dispersion of African Americans from their homeland to America. Baldwin then goes on to say that because they were taken from different tribes, there was no communication among the African Americans. They were only given Sunday as a free day and a Bible all while under the supervision of their master and his gun. At this moment they began to form black church where Black English began to form. This was because the church gave the slaves a common ground in which they had to learn to speak to each other to communicate. Therefore, they began to take bits of the language they heard spoken from their masters and turned it into their own language. Baldwin believed that, “ A language comes into existence by means of brutal necessity, and the rules of the language are dictated by what the language must convey” (800). Black English was formed