English 2100 x 90: Fall 2020

Author: Will C

Thoughts on Balko, Long Soldier, Morgan, and the Art of Ommission

Radley Balko’s article “The Grammar of Police Shootings” and Morgan Parker’s poem, “The President Has Never Said the Word Black” each dive headfirst into the implications of using language in reference to Black America. Balko’s article depicts the ways in which language is used by state agencies to reframe the narrative of police shootings in order to benefit uniformed officers accused of police brutality, manslaughter and/or murder. Parker however utilizes the creative medium of poetry to highlight former President Obama’s (and his respective administration’s) lack of utilizing language, with the intention of suppressing his identity as a black man.

While both pieces make the argument that language has been utilized to make black voices subservient to white-washed power structures, I ultimately find Morgan’s piece to be the more powerful. Balko’s article is noble in identifying “the linguistic gymnastics” employed by state agencies in smoothing over incidents of police brutality, yet Morgan’s article goes a step deeper, finding irony in the fact that the one of the most esteemed black men in American history is coerced into utilizing neutral language, negotiating the expectations of a large social structure (The United States) that he himself is in charge of.

Morgan’s cynicism towards the Obama Administration’s utilization of language in reference to Black America, parallels with Long Soldier’s satirical utilization of language in depicting the horrific acts committed against The Dakota Nation. In their efforts to fight white-washed language, full of negative intentions and implications, both authors employ their own creativity in language, thus fighting fire with fire. More significantly, Morgan and Long Soldier also share a knack for depicting the power of unspoken language.

Between Morgan’s choice to not use the word “black” in his poem (mirroring the choices of the Obama Administration) and Long Soldier’s decision to convey the usage of language through action as opposed to spoken/written word, both poets synchronize to make a resounding point. Language is just as much the art of omission as it is the art of submission. Language delegates to us the authority to make powerful statements without uttering a single word. This is true not only in the context of identifying and dismantling large power structures, but also equally as true in some of our everyday dialogue.

Everything is in the Language we use

Layli Long Soldier’s Piece “38” Is a tragic yet elegant interaction between the variance of language, in terms of usage and consequence, and the plight of the author’s culture, The Dakota Nation. The poem initiates readers into the setting of dismay, as Long Soldier enumerates the numerous monstrosities committed against the Dakota Nation. At this time Long Soldier is dually reverting back to, and commenting upon, her usage of language in the poem, obsessing over her grammatical accuracy. Long Soldier’s obsession with grammar, plays out as a satire against the English language, which following the same rules, aided in wiping out the Dakota nation via treaties that were worded in trickery and never meant to be followed in the first place.

The second half of Long Soldier’s piece shifts gears from usage of the English language (in regards to Native American culture) and transitions into a place where she can discuss the meaning and implication of language used by the Dakota Nation. For Long Solider, The Dakota Nation’s dialect can be summarized around a central idea that “everything is in the language that we use”. Long Soldier’s first example speaks to the many different meanings of Mnisota, which in English translates to Minnesota, the original territory of The Dakota Nation.

The first example starts out at the surface level, as Long Solider soon delves into the ways in which “action” is also embedded in language. To commemorate the death of 38 Dakota citizens executed during Lincoln’s presidency (depressingly only a few days after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed), modern day citizens of The Dakota Nation ride from South Dakota to the site of the execution in Minnesota where a performance soon follows. Rather than honoring fallen ancestors with words, The Dakota Nation replaces the written word with performance, as a preferred method of language to commemorate an event of unspeakable tragedy.

Long Soldier’s last point is also almost as powerful, as she details a time when a white settler, who believed that starving Native Americans should “eat grass”, was found dead with grass stuffed in his mouth. Shortly afterward, Long Soldier informs readers that “Real poems do not really require real words”. This fits the previous narrative well, as the audience can almost feel the “poetic” justice invoked when visualizing the lifeless trader with grass in his mouth. This is very much language, channeled via the most theatrical of mediums. The substitution of the written word for the sake of action and performance is paramount to the experiences of the Dakota Nation, and to Long Solider, who refuses to conform to a white-washed and “written” representation of language.