Re: CHAT: Ebonic Xmass

On Wed, 12 Jan 2000, The Gray Wizard wrote:

> I may be in a minority here (I usually am), but I found this post extremely
> objectionable.  While the study of African-American dialect is a valid one
> and discussion of such is of peripheral interest to the readers of this
> forum, this kind of blatant deprecation and racist stereotyping was
> unexpected by this African-American conlanger.
>
> I don't want to start a long thread on this, but felt compelled to register
> a complaint.
I think it's a very valid complaint.

Speaking of Ebonics, for my freshman comp class, I had my students read an
essay about "black English."  I was amazed at the reaction I got from
students: "It's just bad English -- it's not a dialect."  So we discussed
what made English "right" and what made it "wrong."  I pointed out that I
would never say, "Hey, Prof, what's up?  Dude, this test was a b----!" nor
would I ever say to one of my friends, "Pardon me, but could you please
bring me another beverage?"  Then I wrote a sentence in Old English on the
board, and asked "Is this good English?"  I felt like I was pulling teeth
-- I could not convey the idea that language is *constructed* by social
agreement, not innate.  Finally, I gave up, and I had a student (who had
never said a word to me in class or out) come up to me and say, "Mr. Dunn,
I just wanted to say thanks for assigning that.  It's nice to see that the
way my family talks isn't just wrong."

Okay, that had no real point, I guess.  Just a fuzzy moment in teaching.
I love my job, what can I say?  :)

--Patrick