1) The speaker: an African American male named Ta-Nehisi Coates. He has a father named William Paul Coates, six siblings and is married. In the first paragraph, he states “MY father’s name is William Paul Coates, I, like my six brothers and sisters..” and on the ninth paragraph he said, “My wife and her friends…”
2) The occasion: Coates is bringing up this matter due to the numerous incidents that occurred at that time such as the Miami Dolphins Richie Incognito, Matt Barnes LA Clippers, Philadelphia Eagles Riley Cooper and when commissioners decided to ban their players from publicly using the word as well as N.A.A.C.P holding a “funeral” for the word
3) Audience: I think the targeted audience are African-Americans regardless if they use the word or not because he used the term “we” often such as “but we were born in violence, we did not die here.”
4) Purpose: I believe that Coates purpose was to emphasize how any word can be used as long as they are used within appropriate context and relationships. He gave examples of how his wife and her friends would call each other “bitch” when they were having a good time and how “gay men sometimes laughingly refer to one another as “faggots.”
5) Tone: The writer seems to sound frustrated and passionate at the same time as conveying his point of view. examples are, “But as in all cases of respectability politics, what we are really saying to black people is, “Be less human.” This is not a fight over civil rights; it’s an attempt to raise a double standard.” , “But though we were born in violence, we did not die there. That such a seemingly hateful word should return as a marker of nationhood and community confounds our very notions of power.” , “It tells white people that, for all their guns and all their gold, there will always be places they can never go.”
6) I agree that sometimes we joke around by using certain words within our close circle because it’s like saying the word “bitch” to your best friend and when a complete stranger comes up to you and call you by that word it gives off a totally different context than when you’re joking around with your friends. The way we perceive words really do depend on the relationships and context.
