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[quote="Sarah"]I suppose that the reason I disagree is because I do not really understand what is meant by "being a sufficient motive for violence" or because I do not believe that there is a sufficient motive for violence ever.  Tiffany defines linguistic dispossesion as "a person is unable to express himself verbally, he is isolated, unable to communicate with the world'. When I think of that  definition, I have to question if that really exists. It may be a temporary condition but I feel that people eventually adjust and assimilate. Rodriguez learns English. Polish becomes a "dead language".
 Eva Hoffman writes "We want to be able to give voice accurately and fully to ourselves and our sense of the world".  Ouselves and our sense of the world changes.  When relating this to « black english », James Baldwin actually  states that it came out of being able to communicate ‘‘when neither one could speak the other’s language’’. He also goes further to say that ‘‘If two black people, at that bitter hour of the world’s history, had been able to speak to each other, the institution of chattel slavery could never have lasted as long as it did’’. That is a fascinating thought . Along with the changed in lives, there are changes in language. There are also co-optations of language.. in which people who are not from that background will learn and speak a language. It’s all subjective. It shouldn’t be an excuse for violence.  Baldwin also writes ‘‘We, the blacks  are in trouble certainly but we are not doomed, and we are not inarticulate because we are not compelles to defend a morality that we know to be a lie’’ We adapt. It is actually fascinating to see how the switch occurs. How people switch between standard english and black english depending on their environment. I am actually working on fine-tuning my switch. How some people automatically speak their native tongue when they become angry or under the influence of alcohol. It is fascinating. Willie Jordan’s story I think is an attempt to link language with experience : Black English with Black experience. Which cannot happen to often in this current day and age, Not only because Black English has evolved but because I do not agree that there is an endemic or essential black experience. I know that there are certain issues that occur more frequently in certain communities ; in lieu of The NYPD's murder of Sean Bell and attempted murders of Trent
Benefield and Joseph Guzman, I have to disgree with officer Charles’ comment  in June Jordan’s piece ‘‘ Over-reaction, Didn’t have nothing to do with race’. However, it also has to do with American history and socio-economics. The term « reasonable fear » that has been reverberated in newspapers did not occur overnight and not by mistake. Incidents are not isolated but I question if they really have  anything to do with linguistics.[/quote]

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