Attitudes of white Americans toward Africans and African : Americans - Essay Example

The author argues that the English language spoken and used by Blacks were considered nonsense by whites and considered of low standard.“Legions of teacher s and other citizens have considered black English to be black nonsense and had insisted that it no place for black English in the Curriculum”(Gilyard,10) The author in this book attempts to re- establish a condition of pluralism in the education system in his times. He gives his experience and example of his life to demonstrate that the education system of a country reflects the culture of the majority and minority always remain biased and prejudiced.

He explains that the English of white all time remained acceptable and acknowledged, where as Black English remained nonsense and of inferior standard. Even though the African Americans are a part of American culture their status was ever inferior to the whites, and, they even had hard time acquiring the competency in English language skills. The author had his upbringing in America, and had to experience a divided experience when it came to his social environment. He had to face the Black American culture as well as the culture of White Americans.

Upon finishing his first grade, he along with his family shifted from Harlem to Queens. This new neighborhood was occupied by both whites and black, but they schools were divided on to two different districts. This showed the racist attitudes of white towards Black people and how the education of black was affected in a negative way. The author explains in his book that he was anti – Queens and very much despised living in that place. It could be due to the fact that he faced much racism from white children The author points out that the word “Black English” through out his book to make it clear that it had been the name given to his English and of the other African American’s English.

According to (Gilyard ,27)“I will use Black English through out this text to refer to my native tongue, that is, the language variety I first acquired and the one I have always been able to use with greatest facility”. The writer here establishes that the English of White were considered of superior quality and black’s version of English was always considered less worthy and inferior. The author states that he built up skills in speaking and listening of Standard English with great effort and repertoire .

He states that he increased his social awareness during his school years in public school due to his English skills. The book shows how an African American community used to suffer to acquire the verbal communication of English language in order to match the white American and also the Jewish community. The author felt that acquiring grammatical efficiency like whites did allow him to create more social contact with white Americans and he like this idea. This book is a memoir of Keith, and a story about his life as an African American who struggled in his teenage and adolescent to overcome his Black English dialect.

He is elaborating in this book, how his sister and mother played with different dialects in an effort to relate to the superior English language of whites. The writer also details his own experience while in the public school and how he managed to polish his black dialect to equate with the standardized English language of the whites. The author as a student was highly influenced by the English of the white and desperately wanted to turn his dialect in to a