Rhetoric of Black English  

Nobody Mean More to Me Than You And the Future Life of Willie Jordan by June Jordan is rife with rhetorical strategies and descriptive language. This essay was originally in June Jordan’s, On Call: Political Essays and is inspired by the experiences she had while teaching classes centered around teaching students about Black English and how the students react to a classmate’s brother being unjustly murdered by police. She tells the reader what she told her class, as if they are one of her students. Jordan effectively ties in her lessons in class with how the murder was treated by the public, how her students put themselves into action in the face of discrimination. She uses analogies, vivid descriptions and figurative language, and data to support her claims, among other rhetorical devices in order to communicate with her audience, get them to feel her emotions, and enhance her credibility.  

Jordan uses an analogy in order to show the difficulty, but also the endangered position of Black English. “Black English is not exactly a linguistic buffalo, but we should understand its status as an endangered species, as a perishing, irreplaceable system of community intelligence, or we should expect its extinction…” (363). By using this language, she shows that Black English is falling out of popularity and being stifled by adults who have faced discrimination because of it. There are even multiple points where people in the story criticize Black English while using it themselves, further describing how much people look down upon it. Jordan wants to create a sense of worry in her readers, but further, she wants to make them question why we view Black English so differently from “normal” English and why it’s seen as so wrong in our society. She demonstrates her knowledge of the subject and the world as a whole, becoming a more trustworthy source of information.  

June Jordan uses data & statistics to support many of her claims throughout this essay, such as, “…there are five countries, or 333,746,000 people, for whom this thing called “English” serves as a native tongue. Approximately 10 percent of native speakers of “English” are Afro-American citizens of the U.S.A.” (363-64). By including this, she forces the reader to see her points in a more logical view and makes it seem more scientifically backed. This is a device from the Logos appeal, meant to get readers to think critically and see the author in a more knowledgeable light. Jordan wants the reader to acknowledge what she says and believe her. In order to convince the people who read this, she would need to get them to understand her credibility, understand that what she says can and should be trusted. 

Her use of vivid descriptions and figurative language allow the audience to feel what she felt and see what she saw. “That morning Officer Charles had the good fortune to escape without being boiled alive. But barely. And I remember the pride of his smile when I read about the fate of Black policemen and other collaborators, in South Africa. I remember him, and I remember the shock and palpable feeling of shame that filled the room” (372). When reading this, you can imagine the exact emotions and feelings Jordan and her class felt when the Officer said what was so wrong to these students and what went against everything they’ve known and learned, you can see the smile on his face, contrasting everything that had been discussed that day, and the aftermath of the emotions left in the room once he finished. “It was as though that foolish, deadly, young man had just relieved himself of his foolish, and deadly, explanation, face to face with the grief of Reggie Jordan’s father and Reggie Jordan’s mother” (372-73). Jordan’s use of simile clarifies that the officer did not actually say this to the parents of Reggie Jordan, but he might as well have because of how awful his words and what they stood for were. The simile and imagery put the audience in place of Jordan and understand her experience, getting them in her frame of mind to get her train of thought and understand her stance. 

June Jordan gets her audience to question the discrimination of Black English, but also, gets them to feel the way she felt and understand her as a trustworthy. She uses the rhetorical appeals of Ethos, building the credibility of the author, Pathos, appealing to the emotions of the audience, and Logos, relying on logical senses and reasoning. She illustrates the problem of police brutality and discrimination of Black people, even in their language as she’s been told about it and as she’s experienced it. June Jordan convinces her readers to listen to her and to believe that her argument makes sense, that it is true.