While reading Citizen, a line that stood out to me was, "You both experience this cut, which she keeps insisting is a joke, a joke stuck in her throat, and like any other injury, you watch it rupture along its suddenly exposed suture," (42). In the passage leading up to this line, the speaker, presumably a black female, has been addressed by a white female who is using "black language" to relate to the speaker. The white woman deems this accommodation necessary due to the stereotypes of the black community which is presented through the media.
The language in this passage is particularly rich. Through the language and use of words like "cut", "rupture", "injury", and "exposed", the passage gives the words that the white woman said a violent power. These words have now ended up hurting both of them instead of appealing to the speaker and creating a sense of familiarity. The joke being "stuck in her throat" stood out to me, it points out the fact that once something is said, it cannot be taken back. I think that it is stuck in her throat because she is still ruminating over the statement and the motives behind it, generally it would be stuck past her throat.
The words that humans exchange can take on different meanings when addressing different groups even if it is all the same language. If this language is the same for both parties of a conversation, why is this so?
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