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A War of Words

 


             narrow-minded. However, Alvear does do a good job of using genuine examples of Southern life to help build a bit of relatability between himself and the reader (provided that he or she is Southern), rather than using abstract and general examples. "Social grace is as much a part of the Southern landscape as fig tress, June bugs, and egg-custard pie."" Even so, all of these attributes together can only be considered average when compared to the excellence of Wiley's essay.
             "Nothing Could Be Finah Than to Leave South Carolinah With Your Mon-$-ey."" Wiley's title is as stunning and magnetic as the rest of his essay. The writer takes a scholarly, but very sarcastic and humorous approach towards proving his point. The essay was particularly striking because of the flagrant use of the phrase "colored people,"" and expertly placed sections of broken English. In a paragraph discussing the developments of the flag debate in South Carolina, Wiley uses broken English to demonstrate how the political process can become strikingly similar to what it was in the late 50's : [millionaire politicians] can still pull a lever in a votin' booth, and [ black people] if they ain't too drunk to get there on lection day, are still proven to be mostly suckers for a Susan Smith sob story about how all their trouble in the world is caused by you know."" The language Wiley uses is blunt and real, and relatable. He uses words and phrases masterfully to transport the reader from the cotton fields, to the House of Representatives and back again. One paragraph in particular stood out as an example of his ability. .
             To people of color, the Confederacy was an evil Empire. No retrofitting makes it anything less "not to those whose bodies were bled, burned, yoked, abused; who were bought and sold, worked from cain't-see in the morning to cain't-see at night, snatched from their families, for centuries on end undergoing what James Baldwin called "the unspeakable blasphemy, in order to make [the slaveholding class] money.


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