From: Omegaman <omega@bigeasy.com>
Date: Sat, 21 Dec 1996 20:57:39 -0800 (PST)
To: Mark Rosen <mrosen@peganet.com>
Subject: Re: Ebonics
In-Reply-To: <199612212122.QAA11642@mercury.peganet.com>
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.3.95.961221235414.1265C-100000@jolietjake.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


On Sat, 21 Dec 1996, Mark Rosen wrote:

> 	No. Speaking in Ebonics is the same as speaking with an accent. You can't
> control their expression; you learned to speak with a Southern accent as a
> child, while other people learned to speak with an Ebonic accent (?). By
> condoning speaking in a Southern accent, you condone speaking in Ebonics.

Whatever rational basis your arguments may have had were eradicated by the
ludicrous logical conclusion drawn above. 

> 	I can't understand thick Southern accents. No matter how smart you are,
> I'm not going to hire you because I can't understand you. How do you feel?

Oh so sad.  Let me make this clear, an accent is far different from
grammatically incorrect speech.  I can speak with grammatic perfection and a
drawl so heavy it'll make your eyeballs hurt.

(Of course, being from New Orleans, my normal accent is more like brooklyn
than Nashville -- four years in Mississippi changed all that)

> 	Replace the word Ebonics with "Southern accent" and "black English" with
> "Southern twang" and you'll see how hypocritical you are. Also, why do you
> make an exception for foriegn accents? They're just as difficult to
> understand.

And can still be spoken with proper grammar.   I make an exception for
foreign accents because we are dealing a completely separate language.
Speakers of ebonics are certainly not bilingual in this sense (and neither
am I).  I don't see hypocrisy at all.  I do see an apologist, pampering,
paternal point of view, however.  And we southern folk jes' don't abide that
sorta thang.

> 	Language is completely different from intellect. You can't control whether
> you were taught, Ebonics, a Southern accent, or "normal" English.

I wasn't "taught" a Southern accent.  I absorbed it in daily conversation.
I certainly wasn't taught a Southern dialect. I was taught the English
language.

I'll say it again...the notion that Ebonics exists as a separate language
-- not derived as slang from standard English -- is absurd.

me
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