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The Pros and Cons of Assimilation In everyone's life, there are elements of culture and language, that both play a role in our society. The essays "If Black English Isn't a Language, Then Tell Me What Is? " written by James Baldwin, and "Children of a Marriage" written by Richard Rodriguez, discuss how their influences can be either positive or negative. They also talk about how language and culture are continuously evolving and how they are the basis for today's world. Language plays a very important role in our society.
It is our means of communication. Without a common language a group of people cannot function together. As Baldwin writes "If two black people, at the bitter hour of the world's history, had been able to speak to each other, the institution of chattel slavery could never have lasted as long as it did. " When they were brought here, they were from various tribes, with different languages. Baldwin explains how "language is also a political instrument, means, and proof of power. It is the most vivid and crucial key to identity: It reveals the private identity, and connects on with, or divorces one from, the larger, public, or communal identity. " He writes how in some cases it can be dangerous to speak certain languages. "To open your mouth in England is (if I may use black English) to ' put your business in the street. ' You have confessed your parents, your youth, your school, your salary, your self-esteem, and, alas, your future. " Rodriguez says how to the Latin-Americans, Spanish, which is their native language, is also their pride. "The symbol of Hispanic culture has been the tongue of flame - Spanish. " Latin-Americans chooses to speak Spanish in-order to preserve their culture. Rodriguez looks at culture as more of a spiritual thing.
Rodriguez portrays a fear of losing culture, which is ultimately only a link to your past. By assimilating with other cultures you lose your own identity. He tells how when you come to America your culture gets commercialized. He writes how "Americans reach right past a fledging, homegrown Hispanic-American culture for the real thing - the darker bottle of Mexican beer." America is unlike all other countries. What is America but a big "melting pot" of cultures? It allows any type of culture to exist.
This is the main reason that Baldwin is so disturbed. How can such a country not accept Black English as a language? How can they openly discriminate against a culture they is such a part of what America is? Many terms used in English are really adapted from Black English. Terms such as jazz, funk, right on, get with it, and trying to get down, are all adapted from Black English.
Baldwin writes how America would not be what it is today were it not for black people. America needs other cultures to exist. "Now, no one can eat his cake, and have it, too, and it is late in the day to attempt to penalize black people for having created a language that permits the nation its only glimpse of reality, a language without which the nation would be more whipped that it already is. " Rodriguez also agrees, that America's strength derives from its diversity. If you were ever in Epcot Center, in Orlando, Florida, you would have seen how many different cultures exist. Only in America can you experience all these cultures first hand. Whether it is by eating from various restaurants that are culture oriented, or from enjoying the variety of music that can be heard on the radio. The continuo's evolution of culture and language is often triggered by the necessity to survive.
Black English was the outcome of slavery, due to the fact that the whites had refused to educate the black slaves. The slaves had to unite with a common language so that they would be able to revolt and free themselves. Baldwin explains 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. " The slaves had to create their own culture and now they want that culture to be preserved, to remind them of where they came from and how much they have accomplished. Rodriguez on the other hand, accepts the assimilation and the inevitable loss of culture, as a necessary means of survival. "Expect marriage. We will change America even as we will be changed. We will disappear with you into a new miscegenation.
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Research essay sample on Latin Americans Black English
