Context & Exigence:

When this text was written in 1985 many things were going on like terrorism, police brutality, and racial inequality. 

Text:

This text was published in “On Call: Political Essays by June Jordan ( Boston: South End Press, 1985).  

Author:

June Jordan is a Jamaican- American writer, poet, playwright, essayist, and political activist.

Audience:

Wille Jordan’s family, Africans American, the court, and the police department are responsible for the death of her student’s brother, at the state university of New York.

Purpose:

The author wants to educate AAVE to other students that can be black Americans, those who are interested, and the people who think AAVE is incorrect when it has its own set of rules.

Wille’s brother had suffered police brutality from racial inequality which ended up in his death. Wille shared his experience with June and she tried to convey to us readers and to people that she was protesting about black English.

Argument:

AAVE is not wrong English. You speak for yourself about what your identity is.

Evidence:

“There are three qualities of Black English- the presence of life, voice, and clarity”. (Jordan 6). This shows that AAVE is not so bad after all, you are still communicating in English but just in another dialect. 

Rhetorical Strategies:

I like how there are certain rules for the use of AAVE. It’s hard to follow but I never knew there was such a rule therefore it can be used as English.

Citation:

“June Jordan.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/june-jordan.