Jasmyne's Unit 4 Portfolio

“Man, Miss, you so creep!” I said. “Jasmyne, what does creep mean?” my teacher responded. “Man, I ain’t got time to explain that right nih, just know that’s how you ackin.” My teacher could never understand why I talked the way I did. When she aggravated me, I talked the way I would with my friends. It didn’t seem any different until she started pointing it out. I wasn’t a bad student or nothing, but she just felt like I could be something great. I never understood what determined greatness. Was she talkin about my double negatives and the excessive slang that my friends and I spoke during her class? She was my English 3 and 4 Honors teacher. Ms. Hughes knew that I was one of the best writers she had despite the way I spoke around her. She also knew that my dream is to become a teacher. I always told her, “Children are literally our future, so by helping them I’m shaping their lives to become better individuals.” When I spoke like this about becoming a teacher, she knew I would be a great one. She told me that I would just need to work on my grammar and slang. The thing is, this is me. This is how many people around me talk. It's been there from the start. All people of the African American culture do not speak this way and even if they talk in this manner, it might not be used all the time. In my situation, I don’t talk that way all the time. When I write, I write in a manner of proper English. Some grammatical errors might appear, but I get help to fix them.

Martin Luther King Jr. said in his I Have A Dream speech, " I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." Now, people define somebody's character by their color. It's sad, but true. As I have mentioned, many think that you are dumb if you can't speak proper english. Today, I am convinced! I am totally convinced that certain things are just cultural. It started from way before the United States came into being. Slaves weren't being taught. Even if they were being taught, they might not have been corrected on the pronunciation of most words. Language descends, travels, and transforms. My main thing is don't try to change the culture to make it like the majority. Minority is fine. It's different. It's unique. It stands out. For opportunity purposes such as better education or jobs, there needs to be an outreach to students in certain communities.