Jordan’s essay blended so many genres and issues in
exploring the prejudice against Black English in and outside of the classroom.
What’s ironic is Jordan’s quoting of her students’ own responses to The Color Purple: “Why she have them
talk so funny. It don’t sound right” “It don’t look right, neither. I couldn’t
hardly read it”(161). Jordan captures her student’s responses very well; they can speak up once
the elephant in the room-Black English- is brought out into the open. It’s that
self awareness, the aha moment, when I saw how immersed the student’s were
within the traditional pov of literature, that it has to sound and look a
certain way.
But I could definitely relate: reading idiomatic language
can be so hard; one example comes to mind from Wuthering Heights, some of the “rustic”
language in there is so hard to get through. But there’s a place for the colorful word imagery of cultures
who use the English language and literature is a great way to break the ice on
these types of issues. Student’s can start to think about characterization and
why the author decided to let her characters talk a certain way.
But the final manifesto isn’t a response to fiction, it’s a very
real situation. What’s great about the piece is that it also blurs the lines:
it starts out with exposition and creates a very analytical argument with
transition sentences; it’s almost as if Willie is solving the case for us by
following a very procedural outline for his brother’s murder. One of the
resistances to Black English, to any hybrid really, is the view that it is vulgar:
“Rule1: Black English is about a whole lot more than mothafuckin.” It’s interesting
that Willie does not use Black English in his essay, but he does use a well
timed “BULLSHIT” to call it like it is.
In a composition classroom, the source materials we select
are sometimes seen as secondary-the learning outcome is first and foremost. But
there is something to be said about the specific literary needs of a classroom.
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