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During the Mid 1970s, the Black artist began embracing their identity and dedication to black culture through literature. Literature that was created during this period, criticized the government for its mistreatment of black people in America. It displays this style of criticism through two famous pieces What America Would Be Without Blacks by Ralph Ellison and If Black English Isn’t a Language Then What is it? by James Baldwin. These two pieces exemplify the impact Black culture has on mainstream white culture in America. But, the articles by Ellison and Baldwin implement differences from a political and linguistic point of view.
What America Would Be Like Without Blacks by Ralph Ellison and If Black English Isn’t a Language Then What is it? both discuss the impact of mainstream America appropriating and adopting black culture. Ellison addresses how many of the politically appointed white men at the time tried to send the enslaved African Americans back to their homes in Africa. Ellison believes it is comical that White People in America tried to erase the history of Black culture because black culture benefited mainstream white entertainment. For example, Ellison states how the black language is a collection of “tongues brought together in the struggle of a diverse region” this sound is created from the “African voice” and “African Ear” and the white people in America have adopted it as a dialect they claim to have created by themselves. Ellison explains how an artist such as Mark Twain appropriated black culture as a political scheme to create the literature mainstream America adores. Baldwin makes a similar example when he highlights the linguistic impact black culture has on America. He continues to explain how black people have created terms such as “jazz me baby” and “sock it to me” to show the importance of black language in society. These terms are created through many African languages, creating Black English as the language. But when adopting this language mainstream America implements a twist, without crediting the true creators of the term and language.
During the Mid 1970s, the Black artist began embracing their identity and dedication to black culture through literature. Literature that was created during this period, criticized the government for its mistreatment of black people in America. It displays this style of criticism through two famous pieces What America Would Be Without Blacks by Ralph Ellison and If Black English Isn’t a Language Then What is it? by James Baldwin. These two pieces exemplify the impact Black culture has on mainstream white culture in America. But, the articles by Ellison and Baldwin implement differences from a political and linguistic point of view.
What America Would Be Like Without Blacks by Ralph Ellison and If Black English Isn’t a Language Then What is it? both discuss the impact of mainstream America appropriating and adopting black culture. Ellison addresses how many of the politically appointed white men at the time tried to send the enslaved African Americans back to their homes in Africa. Ellison believes it is comical that White People in America tried to erase the history of Black culture because black culture benefited mainstream white entertainment. For example, Ellison states how the black language is a collection of “tongues brought together in the struggle of a diverse region” this sound is created from the “African voice” and “African Ear” and the white people in America have adopted it as a dialect they claim to have created by themselves. Ellison explains how an artist such as Mark Twain appropriated black culture as a political scheme to create the literature mainstream America adores. Baldwin makes a similar example when he highlights the linguistic impact black culture has on America. He continues to explain how black people have created terms such as “jazz me baby” and “sock it to me” to show the importance of black language in society. These terms are created through many African languages, creating Black English as the language. But when adopting this language mainstream America implements a twist, without crediting the true creators of the term and language.
When analyzing these two pieces the authors explain the process of media and politics purging black culture/ bodies while filtering it back into mainstream culture. In What America Would Be Like Without Blacks Ellison explains how Lincoln believed “…..his involvement [was] a plan of removing the nation as a means of healing… The shattered ideals of democratic federalism”. He illustrates from a political approach that after slavery the ultimate form of renovation to an improved society would be to get rid of black people in the land. This act Lincoln was stating was not to give black people the luxury of going back to their original homes, but aching to remove black people from living as free individuals among white people in America. Although they wanted to remove black people from the country they were still gratified over the effects of black culture in society, and they used this to capitalize off of what black men created.
It also exemplifies this idea of capitalizing and purging black culture in Baldwin’s piece through a linguistic approach. Baldwin explains how throughout history American society classified “Quebec French” as a language, not a dialect because white people respected those that looked like them and their forms of language. But for black English or AAVE, it is viewed as a mere dialect because of the lack of respect white America has for Black culture. Society struggles to believe it benefits the community so they do not classify it as a true language. Baldwin also makes an amazing point about the act of purging black language and culture in school. He describes how white people in America “never planned on educating black people” the only goal was to strip black children of their culture and identity. The stripping of culture attacks further generations because children that become adults cannot pass down the black tradition to their families. But pieces of black culture or still ultimately creating entertainment while black adults are white-washed because of how they were taught in school.
In Conclusion, the use of black culture over time has been a commodity for conventional media in America. Although the culture is respected through television, literature, and art it does not respect the people that created the culture through the struggle for their benefit to America. This act of violence towards black culture is clearly seen in the two pieces that explain it from a political and linguistic approach
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