Kerneil Melius
Molly Mosher
FIQWS Composition
12 October 2021
Summary
Jamaican American poet, essayist, teacher, and activist June Jordan, published in 1985 what would become an advocate to normalize Black English, an essay “Nobody Mean More to Me Than You And the Future Life of Willie Jordan”. Throughout the beginning of the essay, Jordan advocates her claim that people and students should normalize Black English. Jordan also shows us readers how she introduces this idea to her students. She supports her claim with real classroom situations and a book by Alice Walker “The Color Purple”.
June Jordan’s purpose is to inform people that Black English should also be considered as a language because it’s part of African Americans culture, educate people like her students that it’s okay to speak that way, and call to action from outsiders that they should accept Black English because it’s Important. She adopts an intimate tone for her audience who likely consists of young Afro Americans, other professors and people from different cultures interested in June Jordan’s claim.
June Jordan uses a prize-winning accomplishment of Black literature that White readers across the country had selected as a best seller by Alice Walker to introduce the concept of Black English to her students and us readers. The students’ reactions and criticism targeted the language of the essay. Criticism as “Why she have them talk so funny? It don’t sound right” and “It don’t look right, neither. I couldn’t hardly read it.” Jordan was surprised by the students’ reactions towards the article because it was not what she expected, she used it as a learning moment to advocate for Black English. Jordan was surprised by the students’ comments because even though they spoke that way with their friends, they didn’t accept it in writing form. Jordan tried her best to help the students normalize Black English as a language so it would be accepted by working with them to translate lines from the Black English to Standard English.
June Jordan Mentions “At this, several students dumped the book. Just about unanimously, their criticisms targeted the language.” So I wrote the opening lines of The Color Purple on the blackboard and asked the students to help me translate these sentences into Standard English:” This was a great exercise for the students because it allowed them to connect Black English to standard English. Which is very important for her readers to see because it shows the similarities between the two languages and in connecting the two they will be able to realize that Black English is not much different. Then the readers will begin to feel some acceptance and become more comfortable using it.
In addition June Jordan also introduces readers to Willie Jordan. Willie Jordan is a young black student that attended Jordan’s class. Willie Jordan had little interest in women’s poetry and Black English but instead he wanted to research and bring light to South Africa through his independent study project . But sadly Willie faced an unexpected death in his family. According to Jordan “Brooklyn police had murdered his unarmed, twenty-five-year- old brother, Reggie Jordan”. Willie brought the situation to June’s attention and she went on to try to find justice for the family and bring recognition to the tragedy. According to June Jordan “She contacted every newspaper and media person She could think of.” Jordan made it her priority to help Willie and his family because the cops were giving his family the run around so she decided to step in. Based on this situation Jordan used it as a learning lesson for the students, she presented the case and they discussed police violence when it comes to blacks. According to Jordan “the murder of Reggie Jordan broke like a hurricane across the room.” Throughout the discussion most of the students expressed how they related to the situation because “they knew somebody close to them who had been killed by police”. Many of the students in the room felt very sorry for Willie and came together and tried to make a change. According to Jordan “ They decided to compose a personal statement of condolence to Willie Jordan and his family, written in Black English.” This was a great way for the students to try and bring Willie comfort in a tough time and implement the concept of Black English at the same time. Secondly “They decided to compose individual messages to the police, in Black English”. Based on this we can tell that compared to the beginning of the essay to now we can see the impact Jordan plays on her students because they are sending an even deeper message by sending the messages in Black english.
In conclusion, by supporting her claim with real classroom situations and references from “The color Purple” by Alice Walker, June Jordans advocacy for Black English in my opinion would be very successful when it comes to the impact the concept had on her students. The essay starts off with the students providing negative criticism to the language to end with them being comfortable expressing themselves using Black English and even sending important messages using it. The essay by June Jordan is significant to young Afro Americans, other professors and people from different cultures interested in learning more about Black English. My rhetorical analysis is significant to people interested in learning about June Jordans essay but not looking forward to reading her essay, just looking for a quick summary that highlights the key points. This text affected me in a positive way because through June Jordan was able to analyze how Jordan took a topic that is not commonly taught and use her skills and effectively fulfill her purpose.
