Sabrina Debrard

Triptych Context 3: Considering the Implications of Standard Language

For the third part of my triptych project I decided to review Keith Gilyards address from
the December 2000 issue of College Composition and Communication. The address, Literacy,
Identity, Imagination, Flight centers on the efforts that those in the field of composition must
take to ensure that the language used in classes, discussions, lectures, conversations, and facets
of speech are inclusionary as opposed to exclusionary; that we be made self-aware of the
implications of the discourse we choose to spread (and note who we refers to when speaking as
field of study, as well as who it doesnt refer to).
The piece touches on many different social elements including classism, racism, and
inclusion, but also brings in some interesting analogies in relation to these such as the talk about
the accomplishments of the Wright brothers in their publishing company and the conversation
between Gilyard and his former student, a Chinese immigrant. Gilyard approaches these stories
and topics with a critical lens, noting how the influences of pop culture (specifically blackness in
pop culture) are lost on the immigrant student and how Paul Dunbar, a black American was able
to publish only through the Wright brothers influence. Gilyard also references Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr. and Malcolm X not only as their studies into civil rights left such a huge impact on
history and culture, but must have taken up the importance of other things in their lives as well
(such as music or art)I believe this is Gilyard explaining privilege.
Even further than this, Gilyard also briefly explains the idea of social constructionism in
relation to these topics. He notes the position of James Brown in his song There Was a Time,
where Brown takes his audience through the socio-historical African American dances only to
land on his own poststructuralist dancereflective of what the black community has been doing
in American history. Gilyard agrees with Quincy Troupe then, when he says that James Brown
was the philosopher of the Black masses.
I have read this piece three times now and am only slightly closer to grasping all of these
concepts and putting them together for myself. Im interested in how some of the topics Gilyard
touches on (i.e. sexism, and the language behind sexism) can also factor into my analysis of
composition in film, as well as composition as a whole. Im also interested on how his
explanation of language use can be potentially noticed and shifted in real everyday life as
opposed to just in the field of composition studies.