Reflection

I think the hardest essay was the second one. I had a hard time explaining what my views are and what I thought my own subversive discourse community was. I had a hard time trying to connect it the right way. I kind of had a hard time figuring out exactly what a subversive discourse community was, so that was my problem to begin with. I like reading "Mother Tongue" I think it mainly is because i like Amy Tan and they way she writes but it was easy to understand her points and to write about them, and pout them in my own words to completely understand them.

"A Clack of Tiny Sparks"

In this passage Cooper shows there are certain words that we use to label certain people that are so nice words like fag. I really do not think it is right that people use such words like that. I get mad when my boyfriend or his friends call girls bitches. Some poeple take those words to heart and it can keep a person from being their true self because they are scared of the hurtful words that come with it. Most people do not realize they are hurting other people by saying those words to people because they are not in the same situation. It makes a person internalize their real identity because people won't accept the way they really are. This can cause problems for that person becuase they are keeping their feelings and how they really are inside, and it should not have to be that way.

"In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens"

In "In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens" Walker talks about how her mother and grandmother tried to be individual black women that expressed themselves. They used language to try and get the freedom they wanted and they way they used their language helped them a lot with the situation. I think women still use that kind of repression sometimes in the present day, and i dont think men have to face much linguistic repression, for some reason they have it easier in that category. I think men do have certain ways they are expected to talk and use their language depending on race and the fact they are men. It all depends on the person though. Some poeple do not have that kind of expectations for other people but most people do have certain expectations for other people based on gender and race.

"On Being a Cripple"

First of all in "On Being a Cripple" Mairs talks about having the challenge of having a disability and how people treat her different because of her disability and not learn who she really is just because she is cripple. This has a lot of similarities to what Dolnick was getting at in "Deafness as Culture." She pretty much just adds more about the problems of being different. She expands with another form of a disablility and goes more into how people didn't care about how her language brought out her true identity, it was more of how she looked and was different. The two stories have very similiar views on the way people connect identity and language with people that have disablilities or that are cripple or blind.

"Deafness as Culture"

In "Deafness as Culture" you learn there is ways to define someone's identity outside their language. Deaf people can't hear you voice or their own and so they do not really use language to define someone's identity. Deaf people are all put in their own culture, some poeple do not see being deaf a disability, which can change the way a disabled person looks at a deaf person, but a person without any disabilities would put deaf people in the disabled category. It is crazy how people label you something and that turns out to be your identity to other people even though it really isn't you. One little thing that to the person doesn't change who they are, and change the way someone else sees you which can really affect a person. It also talks about how people do not like to accept people being so different with a disablility or by being deaf so they try and do what they can to fix it, by putting implants in their deaf kids to keep them from being completely deaf.

"If Black English isn't a Language..."

Baldwin's view and Tan's view are sort of similar, where they both talk about how their language has a lot to do with their identity. Baldwin talks about the fact that blacks only learn because whites need them to know certain things for the whites benefit, and they had to create their own language to communicate when they first came to the United States, and white people judge them on thier language and say they aren't smart, just like Tan says in her story about Asains. I think Tan believes that no matter what in the United States they use just regular english and anyone else that either doesnt use it or doesnt use it right gets judged dramatically. Baldwin is saying he thinks there are all sorts of versions of the english langauge that can be used in the United States and that no one should be judged its the only way that they can communicate within their own that people that speak English can still unederstand.

"Mother Tongue"

I think people do make assumptions on people's intelligence when people have an accent. In the story the doctors thought because she had an accent they could get away with saying they lost the CAT scan and think she had no clue what was even going on. They pretty much thought she was dumb because of her accent. I think it happens more often than most people think. I think people do use a person's language to determine their intelligence but I dont think it always reveal a person's intelligence. A really smart person could use really poor language and someone would judge that person and say they are dumb because the way they talk. I mean sometimes it does reveals a person's intelligence, it just depends on the person. A person could also hide that they aren't very smart by using really good language like in a job interview and someone could think that person is really smart and hire them.