Eric Kilates

ENG 105

Ebonics Introduction

"The Oakland school board never intended to replace the teaching of

Standard or mainstream English with the teaching of Ebonics, or Spoken Soul.

Ebonics can be a useful tool to increase mastery of Standard English among

Ebonics speakers. It teaches students what they already know while bridging it

with the unknown. Linguists agree that Ebonics is more of a dialect of English

than a separate language because it shares many words and other features with

other informal varieties of American English. John Rickford says, “Ebonics is one

of the most distinctive varieties of American English, differing from Standard

English- the educated standard – in several ways.” Although many consider

Ebonics as “lazy English,” “bastardized English,” “poor grammar,” and “fractured

slang.”

It is true that hundreds of Americans emotionally against Oakland’s

decision to recognize Ebonics and use it to facilitate mastery of Standard

English, which generates negativity such as: “ridiculous, ludicrous,” “VERY,

VERY STUPID,” “a terrible mistake.” Linguists argue that Ebonics was a

“systematic and rule-governed like all natural speech varieties.” As we know it,

society revolves around linguistic skills. Communication is the imparting or

interchange of thoughts, opinions, or information by speech, writing, or signs.

Nowhere in the definition of communication does it say you have to be white. The
only medium needed in communication is that the people around us who we

speak to, to understand what we are saying. Who is to say Ebonics is not a

dialect of English, when most of here have used expressions like “givin five”, and

“Whassup?” are so widespread in American culture that we forget that they

originated in an African American community. The way in which Ebonics differs

from Standard English is highly ordered, and with there being so many views on

how Ebonics came along, it’s hard to argue that it is not in some way or form a

language or at least a dialect in its own since it carries its own linguistic identity in

its distinctive patterns or pronunciation and grammar.

Ebonics can be used as a pathway to learn Standard English, because

both are systematic and rule governed. There are many differences that are not

known to all but the basis of learning a language is there; both Ebonics and

Standard English have rules that must be followed in order for it to make sense.

Even though Ebonics can be thought of as a dialect of English, it consists of

many distinct varieties of American English. With in Standard English there is a

difference between habitual and nonhabitual events that are usually expressed

with adverbs like “usually.” Ebonics cannot be looked down upon especially when

the way it differs from Standard English is highly ordered.

Ebonics can be traced back to three different views, the Afrocentric,

Eocentric, and Creolist view. Afrocentric view is the most distinctive features of

Ebonics represent imports from Africa. They simplify consonant clusters at the

ends of words and doesn’t use linking verb like “is” and “are” because these

features are generally absent from Niger-Congo languages. The Eurocentric view
states that African slaves learned English from white settlers, and that they did so

relatively quickly and successfully retaining little trace of their African linguistic

heritage. The Creolist view says that many African slaves, in learning English

developed a pidgin language – a simplified fusion of English and African

languages. The ancestors’ of many African Americans came to this country as

slaves and spoke other languages other than English.

In the end, Ebonics should be a choice in which we are for to help those

who are at a disadvantage, learn and understand English. It is a lot easier to help

others learn when associating with something they already know. Bree Picower

has the right idea when she says, “Being successful in an environment such as

Prescott is not something that a "methods" course could ever teach in a

semester. It requires a commitment to the cause of social justice and a true

desire to change the inequities that exist within the current structure of education.

It requires expanding the idea of a classroom from being a room with four walls

to the community it is situated in, where you are both the teacher and the learner

at the same time. It requires building real relationships with the people you are

working with or for and seeing your students and their families as your employer

rather than your administrators and superintendents. It requires explicitly

addressing your own racial identity and taking responsibility for how it informs

your interactions and power dynamics with others. Finally, it requires a continual

quest for both learning more and doing more to address the root causes of

racism and white supremacy in order to really teach the children you are hoping

to educate.”