Why Me, Why Not Me? By Jalisa Starling

Jalisa Starling’s personal essay “Why Me, Why Not Me?” (2014), asserts that humans have the tendency to misemploy psychological mechanisms intended to cope with unexpected misfortunes. Starling supports this claim by giving a descriptive story of how her family tragedy made her lose her way in life and her belief in God, pointing out how the use of why me can impact a person’s life in a drastic way. Starling’s purpose is to illustrate that situations seen as disasters that can be worse than what it seems in order to consider the reader in such situations we should ask ourselves “why not me?” due to the human ability to handle situations. The intended audience of this essay is to people who takes adversity to extreme measures.

Starling's essay was a tragic personal essay that can touch anyone who reads it, regardless of having gone through such an event themselves. The essay really made me think about why it is that people turn so easily to god. With the death of her family and her being so young, it's easy to understand why she naturally gravitated towards a strong disbelief in religion and in God. I've never been the type to prey to god, let alone believe. So it was easy for me to relate to her guilt, and to her disbelief. Like Starling, many of us could go through these things in life, and somehow things always seem to come together. I'm a firm believer that things happen for a reason. Just like Starling, it is when these things happen that we can possibly find ourselves asking the same thing "why not us".

In Jalisa Starling's personal essay, "Why Me, Why Not Me?" she tells us her side of how her family got murdered when she was just ten years old. She explains how when we go through life sometimes things happen and we tend to say " Why Me?". Starling was visiting her aunt and hanging out with her cousins at the time of the murder and she had no idea until she, "called the house phone over 30 times trying to get someone to answer" (Starling 164) and then her aunt got a call from the hospital and she knew the reason for the missed phone calls. She goes on to describe to us that she locked herself in the bathroom and prayed her family had survived. The only member to her family to survive was her brother Tony. She asked herself and god "Why Me?" and began to push God away because what happened to her wasn't fair. She sums up her essay by telling us she meets a Godly man and he takes her to church, ends up getting married and has two kids. She now asks herself, " Why Not Me?" because everything happens for a reason.

"How it Feels to be Falsely Accused" by Josh Green

Josh Green narrative essay, “How it Feels to be Falsely Accused” (2014), which originally appeared in Atlanta Magazine, magnifies that the criminal justice system is flawed. Green supports this claim by sharing the allegations of Clarence Harrison case. Green allocates Clarence story in order to make aware of injustice in the justice system and to point out the ways that people commonly are accused of false accusation. The intended audience of the essay are for people from Atlanta who have shared similar experience with Clarence Harrison and who like the Georgia Innocence Project to advocate for their injustice.

Like Josh Greene many of us have gone through what he went. Though it might not be as severe, most of us know what it is like to be falsely accused. His story made me think of how much it hurts when you're accused of doing something you know more than you could ever know anything in your life, yet still be punished for it. I put myself into his position and only thought about how stressful it must have been and how much anxiety issues he must have built from being in prison for so long, knowing good and well he was an innocent man. Like him, having this feeling was extremely relatable to me  more than likely to any reader, because being accused of not doing something can sometimes have a huge effect on aspects of our lives that we may not get back.

In Josh Green's story, "How it Feels to be Falsely Accused" he tells us that he was wrongfully accused as a rapist and thrown in jail for, "seventeen years, nine months, and twenty-six days" (Green 221). Though he was sentenced to life in prison then set free, he says that he has lost most of his life. The state rewarded him one million dollars in restitution but bad investments and taxes took most of that money away. He also states that even when your out, " you never get your family back" (Green 222) because his kids blame him for absents and blame him for what they been through while he was in prison. Green then had a bad accident during a snow fall and was hospitalized and there lost the rest of his money. Green now lives off his wife's school kitchen steward income and realizes that his life is gone. When they wrongfully accused Green, they not only took, "seventeen years, nine months and twenty-six days"(Green 221), they took his youth, his chance for success, his family, and yet Green thanks God and takes each day at a time to recover.

"Watch Your Language: Teaching Standard Usage to Resistant and Reluctant Learners" by Mark Larson

In the article, "Watch Your Language: Teaching Standard Usage to Resistant and Reluctant Learners" (1990) Mark Larson suggest that teachers should not correct a student's grammar, but instead teachers should accept and support the language each student bring to school. Larson informs us by flashback of his experience in a 'Hurdle' class, a English support class, and his opinions about abolishing those types of classes. Larson provides the reader with his insight of a "Hurdle class" in order to create a new class to help students learn the material better. Larson writes this article to students to provide students with a perspective, so they would know what they're doing, instead of abiding by the rules for a grade.

Mark Lawson's "Watch Your Language: Teaching Standard Usage to Resistant and Reluctant Learners", talks about how student's language should not be corrected by teacher's at school, but it should be accepted as well. In order for changes to be made that are acceptable, the students should know the language as well. English language can be difficult to learn and understand, but if the English language is not being taught the original way, then English will turn into something completely different. I agree with Lawson's suggestions. Students should be able to contribute their own language in to what is Standard English.

The passage focuses on thinking of reading and writing in English classes as it's own kind of language and how his perception has changed on the way he teaches it. Growing up to be a teacher himself he found himself forcing students to learn the same concepts he did before realizing he needed to teach in a new way. So then came his new Methods which were to except the way students deviate from normal writing and using it to their advantage. He emphasized the importance of standing out, as well as the great magnitude of writing "that works for you" (Tom and Romano 1978).

“If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What is? By James Baldwin

 

In the article, "If Black Isn't a Language, Then Tell Me, What is?" (1917), James Baldwin explains that the way people speak today is because of multiple languages merging together. This article was published on July 29, 1979 in the New York Times. The audience is educated people reading the paper and adults who read the paper regularly. The main idea overall is not just "black English" but in different countries that bring slag over and merge with other ways of conveying ideas with people and their languages. 

In James Baldwin’s essay "If Black Isn't a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?" he speaks on how Black English is a language of its own.  He says there can be many versions of a language depending on where it is spoken.  He uses an example of a French person living in Paris that can’t understand the different language of a person from Quebec.  Baldwin supports his claim by using history, he talks about how Black English originated from slavery times.  When they came to America they all came from different tribes so they all spoke different languages.  Since they didn’t speak the same language, they came up with their own language.  Baldwin also includes how Black English influenced White English.  Words were taken from the Black English and was changed and used in White English.  He wonders how the white Americans would sound if there were never any black people in the U.S. and did not create their own language. 

In Baldwin’s article, “If Black Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What is?” he states that not only black English and the way black people talk, but also people from France, that if they never came to America, we would be talking differently and so on for every country. According to Baldwin when he says, “What joins all languages, and all mean, is the necessity to confront life…the price for this is the acceptance, and achievement, of one’s temporal identity” (Baldwin) he means that everyone talks differently. People down South will talk differently than people up North because up North it tends to get more formal. Everyone’s dialect is different based on where they’re from and other languages that have influenced them throughout their life. Another way Baldwin describes this is when he states, “I do not know what white Americans would sound like if there had never been any black people in the United States, but they would not sound the way they sound (Baldwin) because black people have a different dialect than we do and we have merged two dialects together. An example of this is “Jazz” (Baldwin) which can be used in a sexual way, and “sock it to me” which is basically saying the same thing but can be thought of just Jazz music. Throughout this article Baldwin generates this idea that without the continuous and interchanging communication today, we wouldn’t talk the way we do.

"Storming the Gate: Talking in Color" by Tiffany Hendrickson

In Hendrickson's personal essay "Storming the Gate: Talking in Color" asserts that people should not associate verbal expression by the color of someone's skin. Hendrickson shows is by giving the reader insight on how she managed to subdue the aversions that she encounter because of the "color of her voice". Hendrickson brings forward this issue in order to highlight the racial divide among black and white in this country by the power of the voice. Hendrickson makes reference to individuals who make racial stereotypes based off of the color of skin by the color of their voice.

I found Hendrickson's essay to be motivational, as she not only prevail through judgments but attend college to study upon the issue "talking in color". Hendrickson gives a definition on code-switching and explains how individuals use code-switching in conversations to differentiate their speech patterns and usage depending on their settings. I can relate because I have used code-switching when interacting with people. Growing up I attended a predominately black middle school and I was ridiculed because I spoke "white". I felt as if I did not belong due to the opinion I spoke "proper English" and not the way a black person should sound. Ironically, we place high value on intellect but how can a person display their intellect when their only judged on the way that they speak. With Hendrickson learning to overcome all the tough journey's that have happened in her life, in the end she has learned to accept and "value the power of her voice" (Hendrickson).

Hendrickson writes about herself being a white girl, but talking like a black girl. She goes on to explain how she, “would like to change the white world’s view of my speech, or at least to fully understand why my speech, and the speech of those who sound like me, are considered inferior” (Hendrickson) and that’s because we have this view of people who do not talk like us are not supposed to look like us or are not as important. Hendrickson writes as she goes through challenges of people looking at her and she knows it’s not because she’s from the “ghetto” but because her mother is deaf and that is the way she learned to talk. She writes about going to college and having a Communications major to prove that she can speak to people of all cultures, she just has to “code-switch” so her voice matches the audiences. Hendrickson overcame stereotypes and became more than she first thought she could, and not by believing what others thought of her, but what she thought of herself and what she knew to be true.

“Context” by Dorothy Allison

          Dorothy Allison’s personal essay “Context”(1994) asserts that knowing a person requires a knowledge of a person's personal experience and familial background. Allison supports this claim by using comparisons and flashback to express her views on judgment assumptions. Allison uses flashback and comparisons in order to show that context gives perceptions, and if not appropriately perceived, it can represent false assumptions. Allison writes to the general public because everyone makes judgments, but however she explains how context, experiences and background plays a vital role in perceiving an individual.

           Personally, it's very easy to relate to the memory Allison shared of her family vacation. She spoke about the look the man in the gift shop gave her because of her stepfather's comment. We've all been in those situation regardless of wanting to be in them or not. Sometimes it could be because of the people we choose to put ourselves around or sometimes we're too naïve to understand the situation we're in. It's hard sometimes to face judgment from people because of situations we know they don't understand. It's especially difficult when we're judged by people on situations we do not want to put them in either. That's what I feel Allison was trying to get across. 

         According to google the word context means, “the parts of a written or spoken statement that precede or follow a specific word or passage, usually influencing its meaning or effect”. Allison writes this short story about a man who is fearful for his lover to meet his family. In this story, the man came from a poverty-ridden childhood and the lover is from a well off family. The man talks about how the lover says, “I thought I understood what you meant when you said ‘working class’ but I just didn’t have a context”(Allison 132) meaning she had no idea what the mother meant. Allison then writes about how even the circumstances of his family and how ashamed the man might be about his family, he can’t help but wonder what his lover would think of his past and how he took things into context.

" College Students' Cell Phone Use, Beliefs, and Effects On Their Learning" by Elder, Anastasia D.

         


      
     Anastasia Elder’s article, COLLEGE STUDENTS' CELL PHONE USE, BELIEFS, AND EFFECTS ON THEIR LEARNING (2013), entails that cell phone usage in educational environments has an adverse effect on academic learning. Elders support this claim by providing surveys and case studies that presents the effects cell phones have on students learning and achievements in college. Elder’s purpose is to highlight college student’s personal perspective on cell phones usage in academic environments in order to jolt the awareness of the reader into considering how their own personal use of cell phones may obstruct academic learning for others and themselves. Elder makes references to college students who condone the abuse of cell phone during class periods and to the administration who prefers to enforce polices on cell phone use instead of abolish cell phone use.

        When reading Elder’s case study she ran through several ideas that pin points cell phones being detrimental to the school environment in a classroom, outside of the classroom like driving and walking around. I agree but also don’t because it depends on the situation. If you’re in class and you need research or to Google something, I’d like to have that handy. If your professor is talking then I would say put your phone away.However, I believe it really depends on the situation. I always have a phone in my purse, but not always have it out. Especially since I have family and a job I feel that having a phone is a necessity for me. Also, if you drive and you get in an accident or an emergency happens you need to have a phone available to get help. I am not saying to text and drive and to always have your phone in class, but to have one available to you somewhere near yourself in case of emergencies.

        Elder's case study is all about student cell phone use, beliefs, and how it effects learning.  Studies are showing the different outcomes from students who use their cell phones and students that don't use their cell phones in an educational environment.  Elder's statistics reported mixed results on the beliefs of cell phones, the results showed that most of the students were neutral in their beliefs that cell phones can be a distraction on their work.  Even though it can be a distraction it helps to become better at multi-tasking.  So there are good and bad outcomes on cell phone use, it can come handy in an emergency or it can be over used and that will cause distractions.  Overall Elder's case study can either have a bad effect or no effect at all on a student.

"Mother Tongue" author Amy Tan

     In her personal essay, Mother Tongue (1990), Amy Tan asserts that language proficiency should not determine a person’s intellect. Tan supports this claim by giving the reader insight of her personal experience, affiliated with preconceptions. Tan shares her self-discovery as a writer of language proficiency in order to help readers capture the essence of “limited English”, just as Tan did with her mother. Tan makes reference to individuals who are or have struggled with language proficiency and even to individuals who judge others of their inability to speak English fluently.

     The author of the passage had a very clear meaning as to what she was trying to get across. While reading through the passage I thought about not only myself, but all of us have had that same situation happening to us numerous times. Whether it was on the side of having someone you grew up with speaking broken English or being in front of someone and having to deal with listening to someone speak English in a way you aren't used to hearing. To some of us broken language is just as normal as Proper English. What I happened to get from the passage was that the author hadn't thought that her mom's English wasn't normal English until she got older and realized how limited her mother was.

     The story Mother Tongue by Amy Tan is about an Asian-American daughter who’s mother speaks “broken” or “limited” English. When growing up no one took her mother seriously and was oppressed because of it. Tan also goes on talking about how she never scored as great as she wanted to on tests in the English section as she did in math and science partly because of the way she was brought up talking and listening to her mom. Tan then writes about how teachers in school, “are steering them away from writing and into math and science, which is what happened to me” (Tan 139) but continues on and explains how she wanted to prove them wrong and became an English major her first year in college.  A great example of how this is true and how I’ve witnessed it myself is when I’m at work, which is Truetts, and a family comes through the Drive-Thru and the parents have the kids from the back seat talking and making the order and even handling the money because the parents can’t speak or understand English. Tan ended up writing in a way she knew her mother would understand and others like her mother, and despite her critic, her mother exclaimed, “so easy to read” (Tan 140) and Tan knew she succeeded when it came to her mother.