Also, Joseph states, “Of course they knew what a black person was supposed to sound like. I should have looked lazy by throwing syllables around. (702) This shows that Joseph's acquaintances found it strange that they thought she didn't look black and the author makes us wonder if we really know an entire race to assume that everyone within that race has the same language skills. Therefore, stereotypes are also used to assume that everyone in a particular race does something inappropriate just because a few people in that race that we hear have done it, when in reality that's not how it works, we don't all think the same way or we do the same but we are still criticized as a group and the person who makes assumptions about us does not take into consideration our individual characteristics and does not know us but makes comments that put a label on the targeted complex. “I realize that there is nothing more personal than speech, that I don't have to defend the way I speak, the way every person, black, white, chooses to speak. Let's talk. We speak with the sounds of our mothers and fathers still ringing in our minds, wherever our mother or fathers