Beyond Ebonics: Why `Black English' Matters
The Oakland, Calif., school board's decision to view "ebonics," or "black English," as a distinct language has precipitated a rhetorical game of political tetherball that has the unfortunate feel of being played most vociferously on the schoolyard rather than in the schoolhouse. Some appalled writers have characterized the Oakland decision as a form of surrender or self-hatred or inverted racism. Others have applauded the Oakland decision but have perhaps gone too far in trying to chisel a high place in the classroom for playground slang. ( "'Ebonics' Vote Puts Oakland in Maelstrom," Jan. 15, and "Oakland Board Revises 'Ebonics' Resolution," Jan. 22, 1997.)
In an effort to move the issue from the schoolyard to the schoolhouse, we should begin to explore the connection between "black English" and the education of African-American children in school systems that have enshrined the following premises in their mission statements:
To help deflate the hype surrounding the Oakland debate, it should be noted that Oakland is not the first urban district to view black English as a second language. In 1989, for example, the Los Angeles Unified School District published a major report, "The Children Can No Longer Wait," which concluded in part that many African-American children and their families speak a language that differs structurally from mainstream American English. This report--the culmination of deliberations involving a broad spectrum of district administrators, educators, parents, and community members--asserted that this African-American language has its own system of rules, sounds, and meaning. It recommended that the language be recognized and valued, just as any other foreign language would be. In response to the report, the Los Angeles school system implemented something called the Language Development Program for African-American Students, known as LDPAAS. Its primary goal is to improve instructional strategies for teaching African-American students mainstream English by taking into account the language and culture many of them bring to school. What is different about the Los Angeles program is that it validates the home language of African-American students, a perspective that challenges many educators to change how they view language, how they view culture, and, in fact, how they view individuals...
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