Posted on 06/04/2002 9:16:59 AM PDT by Stand Watch Listen
Remember "ebonics?" In December 1996 a national debate erupted about the Oakland, Calif., school-board decision authorizing teachers to use street slang while teaching children standard English. For the last six years, with the connivance of the mainstream media, most Americans have been able to forget ebonics. Unfortunately, however, this foolishness has continued.
Linguistics professors Walt Wolfram and Erik Thomas defend ebonics as the legitimate dialect of a dynamic minority in their new book, The Development of African-American English. New York state regent Adelaide Sanford recently insisted that her support of ebonics had been "misrepresented" and that ebonics is the language of great black poets of the past, such as James Weldon Johnson. In 2001, the Linguistics Society of America (LSA) reiterated its 1997 statement supporting ebonics. And, in 1998, academics Lisa Delpit and Theresa Perry edited an anthology, The Real Ebonics Debate, in which none of the approximately 30 contributions dared to criticize the newly accepted dialect.
"Experts" tell us that ebonics is three things: 1) an African language that is genetically passed on among blacks; 2) a vocabulary that has grown out of the encounter of African slaves with Irish immigrants; and 3) a wholly new dialect created since the 1960s by young blacks to separate themselves from whites.
You might expect someone to have pointed out that the above definitions are mutually incompatible. But no such luck. Despite having a professional interest in rigorous, scholarly debate, most linguistics professors long ago abandoned any pretenses to objectivity. The most common — and correct — understanding by blacks and whites alike is that ebonics is broken English and/or street slang. However, any educator so defining ebonics is sure to be shouted down, or worse. As a result, those who know better have remained silent — as one well-meaning academic once advised me to do.
Although ebonics supporters such as Keith Gilyard publicly have claimed otherwise, children taught using ebonics readers did worse than their peers who were taught with standard English readers. Consider this from an ebonics reader used by professors John and Angela Rickford:
"This here little Sister name Mae was most definitely untogether. I mean, like she didn't act together. She didn't look together. She was just an untogether Sister.
"Her teacher was always sounding on her 'bout daydreaming in class. I mean, like, just 'bout every day the teacher would be getting on her case. But it didn't seem to bother her none. She just kept on keeping on. Like, I guess daydreaming was her groove. And you know what they say: 'Don't knock your Sister's groove.' But a whole lotta people did knock it. But like I say, she just kept on keeping on.
"One day Mae was taking [sic] to herself in the lunch room. She was having this righteous old conversation with herself. She say, 'I wanna be a princess with long golden hair.' Now can you get ready for that? Long golden hair!
"Well, anyway, Mae say, 'If I can't be a princess I'll settle for some long golden hair. If I could just have me some long golden hair everything would be all right with me. Lord, if I could just have me some long golden hair.'"
Ebonics is a pillar of Afrocentrism. It is a movement which, using intimidation, violence and pseudoscholarship, has dumbed down the education of black children beyond recognition, illegally barred whites from teaching black children and deliberately cut poor, black children off from the mainstream of American life.
Afrocentrists maintain that the pigment melanin makes blacks intellectually, morally and culturally superior to whites. They teach black children that ancient black Egyptians flew gliders, that whites who dispute such fairy tales are racists who seek to deny black greatness and that all black educational failure is due to a racist, white conspiracy.
Afrocentrists such as George Washington University professor Robert Williams, who coined the term "ebonics" in 1973, maintain that it is an act of disrespect for a white teacher to correct a black child. Professor Charles Coleman of the City University of New York's (CUNY's) York College has argued that remedial education is harmful to black students.
Progressive white educators who support Afrocentrists insist that it is wrong to correct students' usage and grammar. Unfortunately, this approach leads teachers to give passing grades on writing-proficiency exams. The CUNY remedial students then are permitted to take college-level classes despite possessing only semiliterate reading abilities.
Many middle-class blacks like to sometimes "go ghetto" and use street slang. But these professionals can speak standard English — in many cases, better than I can — and can always go home. The poor and working-class blacks to whom Afrocentric educators have refused to teach standard English, however, have nowhere to go.
Nicholas Stix writes frequently on education issues and has been an instructor in the City University of New York.
Okay, fine, don't correct them then. But in 30 years, don't start complaining why grown men and women who talk like this aren't CEOs of major companies
Oh, lieve me it bees dere and it bees dere since yo birfday!
He goes to a bank for a loan, and overhears the loan officer telling the black guy in front of him that, unfortunately, his loan application has been refected. When (white) Eddie Murphy sits down at the desk and tells him how much money he is looking to borrow, the guy just opens the drawer and starts piling cash on top of the desk.
"This should be enough for you," the bank officer says, "Just pay it back whenever you can, if you want to."
"Don't I need to fill out an application?" Murphy asks.
"No," said the loan officer (still piling cash on the desk), "What made you think that?"
"I overheard you rejecting someone else . . ."
"Nah, don't worry about that -- we just go through the process for THOSE people. Like we were ever going to lend HIM any money."
The guy bursts out laughing as he finishes counting the money. Murphy looks shocked, but he smiles broadly and utters a loud, forced laugh:
"Heh-heh-heh -- What a silly Negro!"
I don't know if I agree with that. Your dialect is usually formed by what the people around you speak and I don't think that makes a person more or less human. I'm a Southerner and I often use "ain't" or the word "be" in the same way the Blacks do. The problem isn't the dialect. I think teachers should be able to communicate in Ebonics. But I think Ebonics should not be purposely and consciously taught to kids. It only serves to isolate them from opportunities and make them easier prey for those who would exploit them. Now listen to what I be tellin' you! parsy.
On this episode the contestant was a black women. The secret word was "Deer". Her partner gave her the clue of 'Doe'. Her response... KNOB!
Also correct would be “What chromosome dat gene be on?” depending if you’re using the “House” dialect or the “Field” dialect.
Owl_Eagle
”Guns Before Butter.”
The Left has declared war on American blacks. It appears that they have won.
You better be careful though,stands2reason and connectthedots will be along anytime to call all you hataz a bunch of racists.
"Experts" tell us that ebonics is three things: 1) an African language that is genetically passed on among blacks; 2) a vocabulary that has grown out of the encounter of African slaves with Irish immigrants; and 3) a wholly new dialect created since the 1960s by young blacks to separate themselves from whites.
"Ebonics" is not a language from the African continent, nor from anywhere in sub-Saharan Africa, contrary to what the warlords will try to tell you. It has nothing to do with some contrived "encounter" with Irish immigrants. All it is, in the pure and simple form, is black slang. It differs from some other forms of slang, but somewhat closely parallels southern slang. This is because, in many cases, blacks migrated to other parts of the country from the south. All the race warlords and their intellectual footsoldiers are trying to do is to dress up slang and couch it in collegiate psychobabble.
I would strongly suggest that anyone who wants to study the true issues behind this debate take a look at Dr. John McWhorter's "Word on the Street: Debunking the Myth of "Pure" Standard English." McWhorter looks closely at the "ebonics" debate, and the excuses used by the race warlords and black academics who defend this faulty premise. McWhorter also touches on this subject in his more widely read volume, "Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America." In the latter book, McWhorter indicates that reliance upon "ebonics" as a crutch to support the learning of "the Queen's English" is a faulty reliance that does nothing but leave young minds further behind.
Rather than waste time on using slang to teach, all that is needed is for teachers to use standard English, period. Rather than waste time and money on texts written in slang in order to try to "get through" to the kids, how about teaching the kids using standard English. They certainly hear it when they watch television, and go to the movies, and they understand it just fine. The reason that they are having problems in school, is because the educators allow them to - at least in that regard.
My wife and I demand that our children speak to us and to other adults using standard English. We were brought up the same way.
"I don't care what you say around your friends, but when you speak to me or any other adult, you will speak clearly and make yourself understood, do you understand me?" My mother would demand this of me, and many other middle-class black parents did so as well.
This all goes back to the emphasis that is placed (or not placed as the case may be) on education in the black community. It is accepted to perform in a sub-standard fashion, since if you do well, then you are "acting white." The warlords accept this and promote this, albeit in a somewhat covert way. Jesse Jackson promotes this by speaking in rhymes and with slang, and expecting everyone to bend to his whim and will. "If Jesse does it, it must be OK."
By demanding excellence, by demanding acceptable speech, by demanding respect from my children as opposed to "trying to be their friends," my children are succeeding, in spite of the warlords and the sub-standard environments that exist within the schools today.
Ebonics is a pillar of Afrocentrism. It is a movement which, using intimidation, violence and pseudoscholarship, has dumbed down the education of black children beyond recognition, illegally barred whites from teaching black children and deliberately cut poor, black children off from the mainstream of American life.I'll freely admit that I use slang. We all do at varyiing points and to varying degrees. But as a professional, I do not do so within a business setting. I know where I can and cannot do so. It is incumbent upon the educators within our society to teach students where they cannot use that slang. When teachers use "ebonics" as a teaching tool, they are dumbing down the curriculum, and by doing so, they are setting back opportunities for those students across the board.
Afrocentrists such as George Washington University professor Robert Williams, who coined the term "ebonics" in 1973, maintain that it is an act of disrespect for a white teacher to correct a black child. Professor Charles Coleman of the City University of New York's (CUNY's) York College has argued that remedial education is harmful to black students.
Progressive white educators who support Afrocentrists insist that it is wrong to correct students' usage and grammar. Unfortunately, this approach leads teachers to give passing grades on writing-proficiency exams. The CUNY remedial students then are permitted to take college-level classes despite possessing only semiliterate reading abilities.
Many middle-class blacks like to sometimes "go ghetto" and use street slang. But these professionals can speak standard English — in many cases, better than I can — and can always go home. The poor and working-class blacks to whom Afrocentric educators have refused to teach standard English, however, have nowhere to go.
With their continued reliance on this sort of failed teaching method, is there any wonder why the students are not prepared for the standardized examinations that measure whether or not they have learned the necessary skills from grade school? Is there any wonder as to why many black students that do make it to college, spend their freshman year mired in remedial classes, trying to make up the remainder of the skills and knowledge that they should have gotten in high school?
It sounds to me like many of the "educators" need remedial coursework themselves.
A running joke I have with my mother (an English and Social Studies teacher at a high school in Gary, IN) is how to conjugate the verb, "to be," in "ghetto-speak":
I be,What's sad about that, is that there are some that believe that sort of conjugation to be true...
You be,
He be,
She be,
It be,
All o' y'all be...
I am firm.
You are stubborn.
That guy over their is a pigheaded fool who couldn't change his mind with two tons of dynamite.
Bring 'em on...
I know...I get it from my daddy...[g]
When I first heard of ebonics, I asked my wife (an ESL teacher) how wide the window was for teaching someone English so they would speak it without a "foreign" accent. The answer: after about ten years old, a "second language" speaker would have to do a LOT of vocal training (none of it cheap) to get rid of an undesired accent.
"Ebonics" is child abuse. The Klan must be laughing up the sleeves of their robes over this: those taught in ebonics are going to mark themselves as lower-class citizens the instant they open their mouths.
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