Reflection #2

The most enjoyable essay that we read in class was In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens. I enjoyed this essay very much because black history has always been one of my favorites to cover. Though it is a tragic history it is very intellectual to read about their struggles and how they managed to push though them and rebel against the dominant society. It was an easy essay for me to write about because it is a topic I feel passionately about, although it is the one topic I do not think I'd ever be able to take a different stance on. This is one of the essays that I'd recommend to you, as a teacher, to reuse in future classes, but I also think that it would be a better essay at the start of class rather then near the end of the class. It was overall one of the best essays to write about and easy to read and enjoy.

Reflection #1

One of the essays I thought was difficult to write about was Secrets and Anger? By David Mura. I thought this essay was one of the harder ones I had to write about because it was hard to be able to agree or disagree with his stances. I agreed that the idea of casting an Asian American for an Asian American theater show (Such as Miss Saigon) was an obvious answer to the casting call, but as a white woman I also thought that casting a white person for the theater performance was also a step forward for the white society. I was torn with the situation but I decided to take one stance and write on that instead of trying to focus on two different stances of the story. The idea of segregating either society from one another was a thought that I did not enjoy toying with. I did, though, enjoy writing on this essay because it forced me to take one side over the other and be able to write about it rather than just focusing on the side I am the most comfortable with.

A Clack of Tiny Sparks

Cooper forces the particular issue of being gay in an American culture that has not fully accepted the idea of being of a different sexual orientation. Our language is coded to label individual sexual identity because of the words we use to describe that identity. We use words like Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Faggot, Homo, Nancy Boy, Queer, and Queen. These words prove to be our coded language for our sexual orientations and we use them on a daily basis to describe another's sexual orientation. Whether or not it be true people still call others these names, mainly to just describe a way a person is acting. People internalize these linguistic codes by making what they are called their identity. When someone is called a faggot they may continue to act the same way, further encouraging people to call them names. It impacts their since of identity by making that language their identity.

In Search of our Mothers' Gardens

In this essay written by Alice Walker she describes trying to find her voice in a society attempting to keep her as a woman, and as a black woman held down. Language was constantly involved in this journey because she was not allowed to be literate. She and her mother, and grandparents were all held down by not being allowed to learn how to read or write. Their language was what they picked up and what they learned through being a servant to the white masters. I think the idea of the repression of black women, or the repression of women in general still exist, but it is not prevalent in our society. Men do not face linguistic repression because throughout society they have always been the dominant people. The gender and racial expectations built into language are not specific to men as they are to women. Women have more expectations to live by than men do, and when women do not follow those expectations they are talked about more than men are.

Secrets and Anger?

I completely agree with his decision because if I was a minority at the time and a play about Asian-Americans OR something in Asian culture was produced I'd feel humiliated if a white person was casted. Art is about casting and showing the world what they do not see. I think that Mura's white friends wanted to convince Mura that the directors were doing the right things when casting (supporting white friends) instead of admitting that the director was wrong and did it on purpose to color-blind people. In Mura's situation I would have not let the issue go so easily and told them how I felt as soon as I felt it. If these two white people were really friends and artist as they claimed to be they would automatically understand and see what I would be trying to say. If I was Asian-American and I was turned down a role in a play to someone who was white, when the play was about Asian culture it would be completely humiliating to not only me but my culture as well.

One Being Cripple

Mairs basically restated most of what Dolnick said about how language is used to identify people. Although they also identify people by what they can or cannot do. Example being a crippled. People again look down on those who cannot function the same as everyone else, or what is not considered normal. It is really all about first impressions and how one is viewed. Often times we look at someone and only take them at face value and not who they really are. We don't stop to listen to them to talk to them because we automatically think that just because they are different in are un-superior to the rest of us. On Being Cripple it shows us that because we don't know the person and who they are we really don't understand them fully because we do not take the time out to get to know that person. If we really listened to the person we might understand them through their language as well as through their identity.

Deafness as a Culture.

In deafness as a culture Dolnick tells us that language isn't only spoken but also shown in sign language. This is the way the communicate and people look at them differently the majority of the time because they are not able to speak the English language. As in Tan's Mother Tongue we know that people look at those who cannot speak perfect English differently than those who can. This is a way of identifying people in a culture and influencing identity. When people call people names such as disabled or retarded or whatever names they can think of they start to identify themselves with those labels. There are several pre-conceptions that are used because of language, whether or not it be true. For Example: Retarded is someone who is mentally disabled, Disabled is someone who cannot fend for themselves and is often looked down upon and someone who does not speak perfect English is often viewed as stupid.

If Black English Isn't A Language...

In connection with Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue” Baldwin makes a stance that language and the way a person sounds is connected with their identity and whom they are. If you are white you talk a certain way, if you are African American you talk a different way, if you live in Britain you talk differently than people in America. I think that Tan and Baldwin both focus on the same issue of language defining who a person is. It also allows people to make judgment calls on that person’s intelligence even though the person talking may be extremely intelligent. I think that the two do not entirely agree because Baldwin is focusing on an English language and how it is used by African Americans and whites in the United States while Tan is focusing on English being used by someone from another country and how that effects what people view them as. I think that because the two of them do not entirely agree it strengthens both of their arguments because they both have completely different focuses but still come together in the same debate about what language and who it is used causes people to pass judgment on others.

Mother Tongue

In most cases language does not reveal intelligence, it only reveals how well they may or may not know another language. In Amy Tan’s story about her mother it seems like the doctors made an assumption that just because her mother could not talk fluently in English that she was uneducated and did not understand what they (the doctors) were saying to her. Sometimes language does reveal intelligence because sometimes people who only speak English can sound very uneducated if they do not know how to use the language. It does not always mean that the person is unintelligent but it does show that the person does not know how to speak properly. I think that accents make people start to assume that the person with the accent is uneducated and does not know any different but I know that just because someone may have an accent does not mean that that person is uneducated. Tan’s mother is an example of someone who knows what is going on and is treated poorly because she has an accent, and that did not reveal anything about her as person or about her education. It does not reveal education in every case, only in the few were the person is really uneducated.

How To Tame A Wild Tongue

I only speak English so I only truly have one language mode. If you consider the way I talk to my peers and then the way I talk to my elders I suppose those could reveal my identity. If I was talking to someone of my age and I was told by someone older that my language or what I was saying was uneducated I suppose that would be an attack on my person, because I know that I am educated. The fact that I can change between talking to my peers and elders so quickly and change my language from being informal to extremely formal shows that I am educated enough to have a conversation with someone older then me. If someone my age were to attack the way I was speaking I would most likely just laugh it off because I don't think it would be an attack on my person.
The way I talk shows my identity because it is me talking in a normal way. It varies between who I am talking to but it does not have a drastic change. It shows my identity by me learning and growing as a person but yet being confident and vocal in my opinions.