The language of human rights

For my first semester in college I chose a cluster of classes called The Language of Human Rights. The common theme across the classes I have seen is how language can be used to deny or affirm people's right.Language is a powerful tool that we all have no matter which language or dialect we speak we have the power and the right to express ourselves. In my human rights class we discuss an learn about our rights by using the Bill of Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In English 101 I've already read 2 books about African American History which pertain to the theme of the cluster. The first, When I Was a Slave edited by Norman Yetman, which describes how every human right was taken from African American and the were enslaved. The next Southern Horrors and other Writings Edited by Jacqueline Royster, which shows how language was used to create a misrepresentation of African Americans that allowed vicious mobs to take over 3,000 live. My linguistics class hasn't gotten into the human right part but I'm hoping in the future it will, but I am earning to think deeper into how language is formed then ever before.

Since this class is a cluster I get to have the same group of people in each class which makes me feel comfortable sharing my ideas. Especially since my integrated course is allowing me to use all the knowledge aqiured in my other classes to create my own representation on human rights which should be interesting.