What is an outsider you may ask?
"An outsider is someone outside of a certain community or culture who does not fully understand them yet still decides to study and criticize the community or culture. Most of the time the critiques that are made by the outsider are not meant to be helpful but instead are made to tarnish the reputation of the culture. Linda C. Tillman explains these actions by the outsiders as a lack of understanding of and empathy for the culture or community that is being studied, the external-outsider often misunderstands and misinterprets the behaviors within the community, distorts when comparing them with outside behaviors and values, and describes the studied community as pathological or deviant" (Tillman 2006). On this page we explored multiple outsider views on the testimony of Rachel Jeantel.
"An outsider is someone outside of a certain community or culture who does not fully understand them yet still decides to study and criticize the community or culture. Most of the time the critiques that are made by the outsider are not meant to be helpful but instead are made to tarnish the reputation of the culture. Linda C. Tillman explains these actions by the outsiders as a lack of understanding of and empathy for the culture or community that is being studied, the external-outsider often misunderstands and misinterprets the behaviors within the community, distorts when comparing them with outside behaviors and values, and describes the studied community as pathological or deviant" (Tillman 2006). On this page we explored multiple outsider views on the testimony of Rachel Jeantel.
How do outsiders perceive Rachel Jeantel's performance?
There are many ways to examine her testimony, some would involve linguistics and body language. The outsiders assessed Rachel Jeantels performance in court as lousy and considered her to be an unreliable witness to the case due to her linguistic and nonlinguistic practices. Many outsiders view, Rachel Jeantels use of Ebonics as not being well educated. A good example of this would be in the tweets, attached above, that show some of the outside views on Rachel's intelligence based on her linguistic practices such as when a twitter user named @snipershady says "Can someone explain to me how I'm a bigot if I make the objective observation that Rachel Jeantel is not intelligent? #Zimmerman". Rachel’s perceived lack of enthusiasm for being a witness also gives the outsiders reason to think that she did not want to be there or that she was not telling the truth. Many outsiders believed that Rachel’s behavior came off as impolite due to her linguistic and nonlinguistic actions. Attached above are videos that show some outsiders such as Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh who talk about Rachel's performance.
There are many ways to examine her testimony, some would involve linguistics and body language. The outsiders assessed Rachel Jeantels performance in court as lousy and considered her to be an unreliable witness to the case due to her linguistic and nonlinguistic practices. Many outsiders view, Rachel Jeantels use of Ebonics as not being well educated. A good example of this would be in the tweets, attached above, that show some of the outside views on Rachel's intelligence based on her linguistic practices such as when a twitter user named @snipershady says "Can someone explain to me how I'm a bigot if I make the objective observation that Rachel Jeantel is not intelligent? #Zimmerman". Rachel’s perceived lack of enthusiasm for being a witness also gives the outsiders reason to think that she did not want to be there or that she was not telling the truth. Many outsiders believed that Rachel’s behavior came off as impolite due to her linguistic and nonlinguistic actions. Attached above are videos that show some outsiders such as Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh who talk about Rachel's performance.
Conclusion!
In conclusion, being an outsider can portray someone such as Rachel Jeantel, an insider in the African American speech community, as different and uneducated. However, this is just the opinion of one group who perceive the African American speech community in that way. Being (Im)polite can be portrayed in many different ways, through communications, actions, and even body language. Just because you think something is polite to you it may be impolite to another person. The saying "is face really all that?", is a question that some people have never thought about. In today's society most people judge you based on the way they see you and the way you present yourself, but really they need to sit back and ask themselves, Where is this person from? Are they going through something? These are questions that you can ask yourself because your public image does not perceive you as who you actually are. Someone is not impolite because they say something different than you, they could be apart of a different community. As human beings we are all a little different in someway but we are all equal.
References
Tillman, L. (2006). Researching And Writing From An African‐American Perspective: Reflective Notes On Three Research Studies. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 19(3), 265-287.
Tillman, L. (2006). Researching And Writing From An African‐American Perspective: Reflective Notes On Three Research Studies. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 19(3), 265-287.