EBONICS SHOULD BE ACCEPTED???????? Please Original Ape, say it ain't so!!!
I have no problem with colloquialisms (sp), in fact I enjoy being around friends and family and not having to worry about butchering certain words, but come on.
In my professional life, I do not want double negatives dropping from my lips while I'm asking for a well deserved raise.
It is one thing to use ebonics occasionally, while "chillin' with one's dogs, or your girls", but know standard english, and use it when the situation (job interview, speaking to a newscaster on national tv) requires that subject/verb agreement be present. It is quite another to accept ebonics as the "black language".
I'm black, and I say HEll NO, ebonics is not the black language. As long as I'm black, I won't claim that mess. Being black and ebonics are NOT mutual exclusive.
Why are people who enjoy speaking standard english, and people who literally cringe (I DO) when they hear the doo-rag wearing, one tooth having bum of a brother explain the hit-and-run on the 10:00 news, being accused of trying to deny their identity.
I don't claim to be a historical scholar, but it would seem to me that broken english was the attempt of slaves to master a new language in an unfamiliar country.
After hundreds of years in this country, we should all know the language. It is not cute to put a name on broken english and give it to black people as the thing we've been missing.
Finally, I'm part puerto rican, and I can tell you from experience, that all spanish is not the same. If a rican goes to cuba and speaks spanish, most cubans are going to know that person is not Cuban. Intonations, and words are different. Think of the olympics, Australians speak english, but sometimes I didn't know what the heck those people were saying.
This is just my opinion. Miss. Mocha
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