Proposition 227 (was Re: NP Ebonics)

[Malignd]

<<What's peculiar is not that others have tried to
divide your position from Roberts, but that you are
now attempting to argue that only minor differences
exist between your position and his.>>

And why is this peculiar?

<<If Robert has argued that American schools should
all follow a program of prescription (everyone that
has participated in this debate here agrees that all
students can benefit from a program that includes
lessons in SAE)  I've not read that here.>>

I don't follow this.  Are you saying that lessons in
SAE are not prescriptive?

<<It's true that there were ideas in need of
additional study and research, some that needed
revision, others that needed to be eliminated. There
was a process.>>

That Afro-Americans are genetically programmed to
speak Ebonics is an idea in need of study and
research, yes.  One might say that.  One might also
say it's ludicrous and in need of no further study.

<<What happened in Oakland and what is happening here
in the USA, I agree with Robert, is that the ignorant
(not you MalignD) are being persuaded that Ebonics is
a degenerative ghetto slang. They are being misled by
anti-Ebonics racists and by English Only Nationalists.
 Consider the fact that Georgia, South Carolina, and
Oklahoma, moved immediately to pass anti-Ebonics
legislation. One of the most tragic developments of
the reaction to Oakland is that the attempt to break
the very fragile alliance of Blacks, Latinos, and
Asians, is having some success. The divide-and-rule
tactic is working under "Bush the education president"
who speaks Spanish but not Ebonics.>>

This is undoubtedly true, but it is another issue. 
That Ebonics is not ignorant ghetto slang is not the
same thing as saying it's a good idea to teach and
encourage in schools.  Or that teaching a prescriptive
grammar is a bad idea.

<<But let me say that Ebonics is a language. It is not
a foreign language in the United States as Spanish and
French clearly are. Ebonics is not broken english, is
not a degenrative form of SAE, is not a slang or a
ghetto language.>>

The kindest thing that can be said about this
statement is that its very debatable.



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