This week, we had the opportunity to read the “The President Has Never Said the Word ‘Black’” by Morgan Parker and “The Curious Grammar of Police Shootings” by Radley Balko. Based on these readings, Long Soldier could have meant that everything is in the language we do NOT use. People carefully choose the words that they speak. In doing so, they may intentionally omit certain language. When a speaker does this, a listener needs to consider what language was used and what was not use. Both of these have a deeper meaning. In Parker’s article, the rhetorical choices that are being commented on are how the president does not say the word “Black”. According to the author, “He says brothers and sisters.” The significance here is that the president is trying to identify with the people. He is not using the word “Black” so it does not sound like his comments are targeting race. Parker wants us to know that there is a reason the President does not say the word “Black”.
On the other hand, Balko comments on other rhetorical choices. He mentions that writers will purposely use the English language to not place blame on a police office or a responsible agency when there is a police shooting. They will utilize an active voice that features a clear subject, verb, and direct object. Balko wants us to consider this when we read future news articles. He wants us, as readers, to consider the phrasing that an author uses. Balko wants us to know what actually happened, rather than relying on the sugar-coated message a writer may be trying to portray.
Author: EMANUEL HAKIMI
38
When reading the poem, I felt a great deal of sympathy and pity for the Dakota men who were hanged. I noticed about the language of the poem that it is trying to make the reader feel something towards the Indeginous people. This poem is different from others because it invoked a certain emotion that other poems can’t compare to. I’ve found that poems usually have a problem where they can’t emotionally connect with the reader through the text that well. One poem that I have read that actually compares to this one is Howl by Allen Ginsberg. The sentence “everything is in the language that we use” means that the language that we use to present a story is an important factor in getting a message across. In this case, the language used in the poem is precisely made in order to appeal to my empathy. The particular words that the author decides to use shape the poem into a work of art and makes it more than just words. The Long Soldier wants us to understand the oppression and mistreatment that was swept under the rug and does a good job of this through his use of diction. This poem helped me understand how misshaped history was and what we all learned in school left out many major details. The impact that this poem had on me will stay with me for the rest of my life and I will never forget what happened to those 38 Dakota men that day.