IT TAKES A NATION OF MILLIONS TO HOLD OURSELVES DOWN : :

Ebonics and the Betrayal of Black Children (Nicholas Stix, June 17, 2002, A Different Drummer)

Consider an ebonics reader used by Profs. 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 day dreaming 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.'"

Note that the foregoing lesson, which would be inappropriate for children of any age, was designed for seventh-graders!

The Brothers having grown up in the 'hood, speak a smattering of Ebonics as a second language and the Mother Judd, who was a school teacher, is truly fluent. But you can be darn sure that she made us learn the King's (or at least Noah Webster's) English first. Just as on the playground you need to be prepared to threaten to "Flapjack Rambo" somebody "upside they nappy head", in the classroom and the workplace you're better off not sounding like a character out of Uncle Remus. Posted by Orrin Judd at June 16, 2002 11:30 AM