The Importance of Language

 Hi Readers, and welcome back!

    This week I read pages 221-298 of my book, "Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together In The Cafeteria." The pages covered a lot about different racial groups apart from African Americans, and some of the struggles they have suffered through. 

    One story throughout the reading that really stood out to me was on page 245, and it explained how a Mexican man named Richard Rodriguez was told by nuns at his parochial school to have his parents stop speaking Spanish at home, in order for him and his siblings to learn English more quickly. While this argument isn't directly through the author Beverly Tatum, I believe this is an argument worth bringing attention to. 

    Tatum describes this transition as; "His family was no longer close; no longer bound tightly by the pleasing and troubling knowledge of our public separateness... As we children learned more and more English, we shared fewer and fewer words." After explaining this, Tatum goes on to use the word familism a lot throughout the reading. Familism means "a social pattern in which the family assumes a position of ascendance over individual interests." (Familism) In this case, had slowly started to deteriorate after the use of Spanish in their home had withered. A crucial part of their culture and heritage had been taken away from them and it strongly affected their family. I personally think that this was wrong for the nuns to ask this of Rodriguez's family. While on one hand, it was important for them to be generally fluent in English, it is unreasonable to ask them to dismiss their own native language. Nevertheless, what is your opinion on this, do you believe that education should be prioritized over family values? 

    Another upsetting point that was brought up in the reading was about how bilingual students had learned that their language was devalued by the dominant language or culture. Some felt ashamed to be bilingual when really it is an incredible thing to be! I honestly wish I was bilingual because I think it would be very cool to be able to speak and understand an entirely different language. However, other people had created a stigma around bilingual people which made them feel inferior and ashamed to be a part of their culture. I think that people can just be very afraid of anything that's different from them, or what they're used to, and that is a very unfortunate way to think. Close-minded people put limitations on others because of their own fears or insecurities. 

    After this week's reading, I learned that it is really hard to understand everything that individuals struggle with, and so it even though it might be cliche you really have to put yourself in other people shoes and think about how you would react to these things if you were in their position. The only way to have a mediated understanding of anyone you meet is to do just this. I hope you guys enjoyed this week's post, and I will see you next time with my final thoughts!

Works Cited:

"Familism." Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster,
     https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/familism. Accessed 2 Apr. 2021.

Tatum, Beverly Daniel. "Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the
     Cafeteria?" : and Other Conversations about Race. New York :Basic Books,
     2003.