just. plain. STUPID.

[JimmyCracksCorn]

And while we're at it, lets penalize all Scots and Newfies for talking so funny.

Lets be real here, the big issue with Ebonics is that its spoken by black people. Blacks who speak perfect standard English are still penalized by society plenty as it is.

But it appears that the concensus of the boards is:

Linguistic Genocide = Good!!

[JimmyCracksCorn]

Well done, fellas.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by JimmyCracksCorn


Good plan. Because trying to convert them to standard speech for the past 150+ years hasn't ghettoized or marginalized them either.

I say its time for new thinking and a new plan.

No, wrong. In fact, it hasn't ghettoized them -- as is evident by the millions of African Americans who can, in fact, communicate in standard English.

What's ghettoized these kids is not what they've been taught, but that they haven't been taught at all. What's ghettoized them is that they're poor, and education in the US is financed locally, so people with no money end up going to sh*tty schools. And what's ghettoized them is that they've had no reason to aspire to leaving the 'hood, so why should they bnother with mainstream knowledge?

Your damned right it's time for a new plan. A new plan for financing public education. A new plan for holding schools accountable for their studets' performances. A new plan for renewing the American dream of class mobility. But not this. This is nothing more than a plan to create a permanent underclass.

[DRoseDARs]

Forget it Boris, the ball is rolling. This tripe will be passed off as acceptable and in 10-20 years the world will get to hear another variant of "The MAN is keepin' me down!" excuse when these Ebonics flunkees discover no good-paying company wants to hire someone who can't friggin' speak English inspite of it being their native-tongue.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by JimmyCracksCorn
And while we're at it, lets penalize all Scots and Newfies for talking so funny.

Lets be real here, the big issue with Ebonics is that its spoken by black people. Blacks who speak perfect standard English are still penalized by society plenty as it is.

But it appears that the concensus of the boards is:

Linguistic Genocide = Good!!

I usually like your posts, Jimmy, but you really need to buy a clue. Ebonics has spread (within its limited population) without any help from the public education system. How the hell can keeping it out of public education -- that is, maintaining the status quo in which it already thrives -- result in "linguistic genocide?" That's absurd on its face.

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by JimmyCracksCorn
And while we're at it, lets penalize all Scots and Newfies for talking so funny.

Who's talking about penalizing anyone? Nobody will be fined for speaking "ebonics."

Lets be real here, the big issue with Ebonics is that its spoken by black people. Blacks who speak perfect standard English are still penalized by society plenty as it is.

There are plenty of other dialects that don't get any consideration from public schools or general society. How about Creole?

But it appears that the concensus of the boards is:

Linguistic Genocide = Good!!

Nobody is suppressing dialects. If people want to speak "ebonics" at home, that's their right. The issue is, should schools be teaching it and coddling people who speak only in this dialect and never learn proper English?

[JimmyCracksCorn]

You all are acting as if one cannot speak proper and polite Ebonics. "Fa shizzle my nizzle" is not Ebonics, its Snoop Dogg talk.

And what can possibly result from officially recognizing, and not denouncing, Ebonics in schools other than to give those who speak it a sense of accomplishment and pride in who they are? That can go a long way...

I'm not sure if you guys realize it, but you are indirectly supporting a system which is systematically prejudice towards anyone who is different.

[DRoseDARs]

Pushing Ebonics is nothing more than a socio-economic group engaging in self-oppression through indirect means. It cannot reach the level of an actual language for a great many years and as such anyone speaking it as their only tongue is going to be at a great disadvantage. I think that's the point we're trying to gravitate towards. For the forseeable future, it serves no one except the politically correct touchy-feely, make-ourselves-feel-better people pushing this. And most importantly, it hurts the children being put through this tripe. They are the ones that are going to learn the moment they go to a good-paying employer and discover they can't communicate effectively.

I hate to admit, but I do support the idea of the United States mandating English as its official language. Individual states can and probably should support secondary languages based on demographics, but something needs to be the unifying language in all public schools, government bodies, businesses et al. and imo that is English. Until someone creates an affordable, real-time universal translator, some people in this world are just going to have to face the reality that not effectively speaking the dominant language of the land in which you live only serves to hurt you.

[JimmyCracksCorn]

Nobody is suppressing dialects.

Really?

Sounds to me like this is exactly what you're suggesting.

[JimmyCracksCorn]

They are the ones that are going to learn the moment they go to a good-paying employer and discover they can't communicate effectively.

You're right. I can't understand one word of that Negro talk.

Afterall, its just broken English.

[JimmyCracksCorn]

The argument that Ebonic speakers can't communicate effectively is crap. Speakers of standard English can understand Ebonics speakers just fine, as well as the reverse.

The problem is that people don't respect speakers of Ebonics. Period.

[DRoseDARs]

And what can possibly result from officially recognizing, and not denouncing, Ebonics in schools other than to give those who speak it a sense of accomplishment and pride in who they are? That can go a long way...

You're joking right? What, are they supposed to feel pride in the fact that, in spite of being rejected from a good-job because they speak in jibberish, they can speak in jibberish?

I'm not sure if you guys realize it, but you are indirectly supporting a system which is systematically prejudice towards anyone who is different.

We're supporting the notion that they should be taught in public schools to speak in a way that'll give them the most opportunity to succeed in society at large than speak in a way that'll get them rejected from every good-paying job they apply to.

But at least they can feel pride in the fact that they can speak in jibberish, right?

[JimmyCracksCorn]

Jibberish?

Care to retract that? If not, then I see where your argument is coming from.

[JimmyCracksCorn]

Hate to break it to you Dros, but you just self pwned yourself.

[JimmyCracksCorn]

Guys - Ebonics IS ENGLISH. The argument that teaching ebonics will create some kind of widescale communication breakdown is garbage.