A Come to Jesus Meeting...

Lately, I have been noticing a lot of talk about the black community. I know, I know. How very Un-PC of me. Ebonics, slavery reparations, Bill Cosby...it is time to have a "Come to Jesus Meeting" with the black community--or not.

I was stunned to see on Michelle Malkin's site that Ebonics is back. Ebonics, for those of you who don't know, is the name given to the slang/dialect that some members of the black community uses. At some point in the '80's, there was a movement to teach Ebonics and to look at it as almost another language. The movement, if I remember, started in California and the rest of the country laughed and so it went away. Well, it's back. Yup, some place in California has incorporated it into their curriculum.

Listen, whites use slang too. It is informal language used when among close peers. It is not an alternative or an equal to speaking proper English. Let's call recognizing Ebonics as a valid way of speaking what it is--validating ignorance, catering to laziness, stupidity.

I have actually heard some people argue that some blacks say "Axe" instead of "Ask" because blacks are descendant from Africans and the African language doesn't have two consonant sounds next to each other. Well, I am descendant from Irish (and Italian) immigrants and I don't speak with a brogue--so sorry. I am not buying it.

People of all colors and walks of life don't speak properly for one of two reasons--because they are ignorant or because they are lazy. Let's not make it any more complicated than that.

Slavery reparations? Are you kidding me? Just as soon as I get a check from every business that had an "Irish Need Not Apply" sign we can have a discussion about slavery reparations.

Listen up. There was a point to forced integration. There was a point to affirmative action programs. That point was to level the playing field. The time for those things is coming to an end. Those people who wanted to take advantage of the opportunities that were out there did so and they will continue to do so.

It is time we stop catering to minorities because we suffer from white guilt.

I didn't own slaves. No one in my family owned slaves. I didn't take an opportunity away from a black person. I don't have time to keep black people down, I am to busy trying to stay afloat myself. I don't feel guilty anymore. I am older and wiser and have problems of my own.

It is time that the black community look within for solutions to some of their problems. It is time they started listening to people like Bill Cosby and Barrak Obama. If the black community had gotten it's act together and become a community they could have gotten a lot farther than they are now. They could have been a mighty voting block. There would probably have been a black president by now. But time is flying by and while they are busy blaming others for their issues other groups are surpassing them. Any one notice how many Hispanics are making it these days?

The Hispanic Community is getting their act together. They want a seat at the table and they have the political power to force the issue.

Chris

Comments

[Lisa]

Take a number babe....I'm still waiting for reparations for all of the land you Europeans took from my people.

[Steve]

Chris, sometimes you just WOW me. I love the post and there is a lot of good common sense information in there. I agree with what you said. Well done!

[Steve]

Chris, sometimes you just WOW me. I love the post and there is a lot of good common sense information in there. I agree with what you said. Well done!

[Steve]

Chris, sometimes you just WOW me. I love the post and there is a lot of good common sense information in there. I agree with what you said. Well done!

[Phoenix]

Those who want to 'incorporate', 'validate' ebonics must be white supremacists. They must have their white hoods hidden in closets. The perfect way to keep blacks from making it in this world, in this country, is to keep them from speaking proper English. What business is going to hire someone who communicates in ebonics?

Give me a break. We make instantaneous first-impression judgments on people. As an owner of a business, I might be impressed by an attractive black man's demeanor and countenance, but the second he opened he mouth and used ebonics, I'd smile and show him the door. My mind would have instantly labeled him as ignorant. Period.

[Lisa]

They are not white supremacists, Phx. They are educators who are lazy and who don't want to continue to make an effort to teach. Ebonics is an easy way out for them. They will want ebonics included in any standards of learning tests so their schools have a chance to pass accreditation.

[Lisa]

...to continue. It's all about money. If the schools are accreditated, they get money. They don't care that these kids won't get a proper education. They don't care that these kids won't be able to get into college or get a decent job. They only care about the money. And in most cases, the administrators of these schools are African American.

[lplimac]

FYI: The first California City was Oakland (across from San Francisco) and the current city is San Bernardino (60 Miles east of Los Angeles). Just proves idiocy abounds in the California public education system.

[Nurse Judy]

Chris:
Good post. You are right. Not speaking properly is simply ignorance.

I remember when one of my communication professors pointed this out in class and how insulted the black students were. He didn't back down from their arguments though. He listed communication study after study that shows that not speaking properly is linked solely to ignorance.

Cultural slang (aka, Ebonics) is simply trying to make an excuse for ignorance. There is no excuse. Learn to speak properly or lose out.

Another example of a group who has proven you can rise above all obstacles are the Vietnamese who came to this country with nothing. They made no excuses. They learned to speak English. They went to work. And they have made a great contribution to our society.

[Phoenix]

Lisa,

Oh, I know who is driving this Idiot Machine. I was in the public school system for 28 years. I sat in teacher-ed classes that debated Ebonics when it first became an issue a while back. I remember distinctly the most attractive black woman there - dressed in a red suit with all the accoutrements regular teachers can't be bothered with - listening carefully to the discussion. After a while, she raised her hand to speak. The professor called on her and she let loose with a five-minute soliloquy in Ebonics that had the rest of us screaming laughing. Then, with a flick of a synapse, she translated what she'd just said into proper English and blew us all away. Amazing performance. She was in absolute agreement that Ebonics had NO place in the 'real' world.

The thing about this being all about money may be true on a very superficial level. If test-makers have to write tests in 'English' and a matching test in Ebonics, it will double the cost of testing. No small fee, I can tell you. If Ebonics is incorporated into the test itself, ..... um... hello?? I think a few white folks just might have to dance.

Then you've got the NAACP screaming that the education system is profiling black students or targeting them for failure. Rightly so. Who determines who takes the Ebonics test? Do you ask a classroom of kids: "How many of you want to be life-long losers?"

I can't believe I wasted this much time on this. We already went through this and realized the complexity of the issue. Someone finally got real and said 'Stop!' back when it first came up. What ass brought it up again? It will get hammered down again as well it should be. It is a lose-lose proposition. The biggest losers the kids who know no other way of speaking. They need the help, and it is the schools' obligation to get on it and teach proper English. Incorporate speech classes into the English curriculum for those schools that have the problem. It's the only way.

[Tannenberg]

I'll believe they are "coming to Jesus" when they get Jackson, Sharpton, Farrakhan et seq ad nauseum out of the way.

I won't hold my breath, incidentally.

[Chris Sears]

Yes, isn't it sad and just horrible that the "leaders" of the Black Community have their own selfish motives above the best interest of those who look up to them. I am so believing in the black people of this country, that they will not be guided by the "Jackson's" but know their OWN potential. Slowly new leaders, like Cosby, will come forward - it seems to be taking so long.

[don]

Ebonics is a fancy name for slave talk. Slave talk was the form of English that slaves used to communicate between themselves so the whi' massas wouldn't understand them. I have no doubt that it continued as a way of communicating so whi' people couldn't understand what bla' fokk was talking about. A kind of broader version of pig latin.

But, the time has come to step up and stop acting like a slave. If one continnues with the trappings of a slave, like the language, then one thinks like a slave. If one talks and thinks like a slave, then one IS a slave.

But, NOT a slave to whi' fokks. A slave to their own stereotype about themselves. About what they can accomplish. About what they can and can't do.

The decision is not before anyone else but the users of Ebonics. Either cut the slave talk, or learn how to enjoy living life thinking you're still in slavery. Certainly, it willmake for a clear and easy transition to Moslem dhimmitude.

[j. blair]

Listen to Barrack Obama? You be jivin me!

[MagicalPat]

Thanks from a fellow Irishman! In fact, my ancestors didn't arrive here until after slavery had been abolished, so not only do I now want any of my tax dollars going to reparations for slaves no one in my family owned, I am willing to forgive the debt owed to me and my fellow Irish immigrants for the wrongs done to us.
As for Ebonics, I am very excited about the cassette that goes with the program, "I Be Hooked On Ebonics"

[Chris Sears]

"God love ya" MagicalPat (which,I assume stands for Patrick)
I will also forgive those who posted the signs "Irish need not apply".
As my grandmother always told me - As long as "God saves us", we will "brace-up" and go on with the "tradition of people from God's country".

UP MAYO!

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