Introduction
When individuals consume food, they have a sense of taste that is susceptible. The sense of taste is on one’s tongue, and they send a signal to the brain, which accepts it. This activity informs people of what is going on in their body. Looking at Rodriguez and Coates’ message, they reveal the hardships they faced while growing as individuals. The potential to code-switch was a challenge since they came from a diverse discourse community in which the power of syntax had already deemed their identity. The phrase “code-switching” refers to the transitioning of identities among various societies, as well as the use of language to define oneself in daily life. This essay is going to examine good and bad relationships between family, community, and identity, drawing references from Rodriguez and Coates.
Rodriguez
Identity
Rodriguez explains individual identity in the process of seeing himself as an American resident. He writes, “Only when I was able to think of myself as an American, no longer an Alien in gringo society, could I seek the rights and opportunities necessary for full public individuality” (284). By permitting himself to be a follower of American society, Rodriguez expresses individual character. He did not contemplate himself as an American when he was a child, but he soon realized that he could not accomplish individual identity until he embraced himself as a resident of America.
Community
The relationship between societies is evident when he goes a step further to associate himself with the community and tries his best to learn how to speak English. Rodriguez says, “In public, by contrast, full individuality is achieved, paradoxically, by those who are able to consider themselves members of the crowd” (283). Rodriguez clarifies that one has to be part of a group in the community to acquire a complete individual identity. Rodriguez spent the majority of his elementary, middle, and high school years in white-dominated secondary institutions. Living in a mostly white, intermediate, and lower-middle-class community was difficult; it silenced him (Rodriguez 5). Rodriguez recalls being one of two Latino students in his preschool class and then being unable to hold a conversation in English, few English words he had gathered after watching television or interacting with his father.
Going to a new part of Franklin Park gave him the chance to attend a separate school district, where he obtained language assistance, albeit from the institution’s practitioner. Rodriguez grew tired of explaining to his fellow students what he was eating for lunch, why his guardian’s attired him the way they did, and why he chose to speak Spanish at home rather than English. These and other incidents resulted in feelings of humiliation, as well as denial of my ethnic and linguistic identities at school.
Parents
The relationship between Rodriguez and his parents was quite good. “I’d hear voices beyond the screen door talking in Spanish I’d hear my mother call out, saying in Spanish: ‘Is that you, Richard?’ her sounds would assure me: You are home now; come closer” (3). The way Rodriguez’s mother called him symbolized the love the mother had for the son. Having faced rejection from the community, his mother was there to comfort him and let him show that despite everything, his family loved and recognized him.
How the past has shaped Rodriguez’s perspective
The past had shaped Rodriguez’s life in such a way that he even felt embarrassed of the feelings he had when he was a child. He realized that speaking in English was not mandatory as he thought when he was a child. The family had positively influenced his personality in a way that his parents gave him full support despite facing challenges from society. Not being in a position to express himself was a great challenge, but immediately he learned, life became simpler and happier than before.
Coates
Parents
There is a dissimilarity between black and white parents, which is based on lived experiences, willful blindness to the past, and anxiety. Black parents tell their children to be “twice as good” (3) since it is the only option that can assist them to escape the problems that hold them. As an adult in New York, Coates has more chances to venture beyond his immediate surroundings. He realizes the chasm that exists between himself and the American community, as well as the link between finances, racial group, and despair. White individuals occupy the entire pavement with their children, whilst Coates’ mother gripped his hand so securely (Grizzle 110). White parents can provide their children with the chance to advance up with markedly less fear because of their race as well as their wealth. This shows the strong relationship that exists between black parents and their children as parents offer security to their children despite how difficult the situation is.
Identity
Identity makes Coates feel proud and strong about himself despite living in a community where racism is eminent. Coates says that “dislodges brains, blocks airways, rips muscle, extracts organs, cracks bones, and breaks teeth” (5). Careful examination from the quote discloses that, despite constantly appealing the nightmare, trust, and the religion of being white, Coates never identifies darkness as a conceptual intellectual theory. Instead, he concretizes the visceral violence that destroys black bodies. As a result of Coates’ discriminatory dealing of being black and the conviction in being white, there is an evident discrepancy.
Community
The relationship in the community is poor, according to the letter that Coates wrote to his son. By growing up in the US, Coates is exposed to institutional racism. Coates articulates, “I think somehow knew that that third of my brain should have been concerned with more beautiful things” (24). As instructors, it is expected that a school community should provide beautiful things and ideas which are challenging, relevant, and empowering. In contradiction, the rules of the school were vague and discrimination and racism were common there.
How the Past Has Shaped Coates Perspective
The past has shaped the author’s perspective in that Coates’s voice may be especially important for white, middle-class educators grappling with the effects of racism and inequity. His experiences reflect an education department that essentially emphasized blind adherence over education and enthusiasm and favored the faculty’s privileges over the student as a learner and ordinary citizen. As a teacher, one must examine roles in perpetuating this unfairness. The family has influenced the personality of Coates by standing with him and enabling him to reach his goals. His parents agreed to take him to school to be capable of reading and writing and in such a way he became an assimilate of the whites and thus was able to fight for the rights of the blacks.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Coates’ and Rodriguez’s main goals in their publications are to demonstrate how institutionalized racism operates in concealed directions as well as more conspicuous forms, such as police abuse and the judicial system. There is also an interconnection between the relationship of family, identity, and community. Educating students about Civil Rights leaders are not an obvious racial oppression strategy. However, through serious evaluation, Coates can present that the decision to focus on peaceful black activists has a sinister understandable reason. This encourages children to accept violence in their lives while defying the potential of fierce opposition.
Works Cited
Grizzle, Gary. “Book Review: Ta-Nehisi Coates, between the world and me”. Theory in Action, vol 9, no. 2, 2016, pp. 109-116. Theory in Action, doi:10.3798/tia.1937-0237.16013.
Rodriguez, Richard. “Aria”. A Memoir Of A Bilingual Childhood, 2021, pp. 1-3.