Schiff 1Tyrone Schiff Kelly WilliamsEnglish 12530 March 2006Seeking To Be UnderstoodFor the ordinary person, a regular day would consist of waking up, gettingdressed, and heading out into the world ready to interact with a multitude of personalitytypes and dispositions. A fundamental tool that is essential to all of these interactions isone’s ability to communicate effectively and in a way that is easily understood by all.Communication, whether by spoken word or written text, is intrinsic to all human beingson this planet. The first word a baby sputters out is a milestone in their lives, signifyingtheir first attempts at communication through language. Possessing eloquence, mastery of a language, and the art of communication are highly sought after traits. Although thereare over 5,000 languages spoken in the world, there are certain languages that stretchtheir influence over the rest. In America, English has established itself as the language of choice when it comes to generally accepted communication. When immigrants enter thecountry, it is of high priority to learn how to speak the language as best as possible and asquickly as possible. The English language, however, is often used as a tool to belittlethose who are not “native” speakers of the language. Furthermore, people in differentcultural groups establish different meanings for words that can often be lost in translationdue to a lack of similar experiences between those groups. This leads tomisunderstanding and the perpetuation of stereotypes. Essentially, the English languagehas transformed itself into a device where the dominant group can maintain its prowess

Schiff 2over the weak minority. Thus, communication within and among different cultural groupsis used to coerce the less dominant group into a submissive and conforming unit.Communication and language is often used to flounder and defeat minoritycultural groups. For instance, consider an excerpt for Gloria Naylor’s piece, “Mommy,What Does ‘Nigger’ Mean?” and its relation to deprecating another, “I didn’t know whata nigger was, but I knew that whatever it meant, it was something he shouldn’t havecalled me” (525). It is evident that the person who heard this word, nigger, being said tothem realized that there is a distinct negative connotation accompanying it. The speaker goes on to explain that even though she had heard the word many times before, she hadnever considered it a bad thing. The speaker recognizes it as a “term of endearment,” and“a disembodied force that channeled their past history of struggle and present survival”(526). These are very positive connotations of the word; what would make her consider this word negatively now? Society and dominant culture in America have come to labelthe word nigger in a very filthy way.Regardless of whether or not the student who called the speaker in Gloria Naylor’s story a nigger was black or white, the dominant culture in America has stolenthis piece of African-American language, and tries to sustain it as a symbol of hate andracism. Within groups of African-Americans this word is also used to communicate,“some group within the community that had overstepped the bounds of decency…”(526). Within their own cultural group, African-Americans use the word nigger tocontinue its negative connotation. Although Naylor argues that, “they transformed‘nigger’ to signify the varied and complex human beings they knew themselves to be,” itis important to remember the context in which the word first came up (527). It was said in

Schiff 3a mean way that devalued the speaker. The word nigger was used to communicate ideasthat were intended to render the speaker sad and demoralized.A similar case of using language and communication to overpower minoritygroups is found in Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue”. Amy Tan describes a scenario where thelack of understanding of language and communication are used against the individual inorder to discourage them from pursuing goals they might have. Amy Tan points out that,“Asian students, as a whole, always do significantly better on math achievement teststhan in English” (593). Amy Tan explains further that she, and probably many other Asian-American students, comes from a home that has “broken” or “limited” English(593). This puts these students at a disadvantage immediately, because almost allachievement tests are administered in English. The households in which these studentslive might lack the communication skills to develop their understanding of English wellenough to be tested on the subject.What is worse is that these tests scores are then used indicatively as the Asian-American’s talent, and what follows is “teachers who are steering them away fromwriting and into math and science…” (593). Asian-American students are practicallyforced into these roles of math and science due to their inability to learn and effectivelycommunicate in English. If an individual yearns to express themselves through words in acreative manner, a language should not be the hurdle that holds them back from doing so.Clearly, this is yet another way in which the dominant culture tries to take advantage of the minority through usage of language and communication. Even though an Asian-American student may love to read and write, their low scores on English achievementtests causes the student to become depressed and shy away from partaking in courses and