Ebonics Archives

In rushing to dismiss the DEA’s call to hire speakers of Ebonics, a lot of people are getting a small but important thing mixed up. Here’s the Black Snob: Ebonics, depending on who you ask, is either a real or a completely imagined thing. Proponents argued that some black people were speaking a whole different Read More

I think rikyrah over at JJP is off-base in her criticism of Reid: W-T-F is NEGRO DIALECT? NEGRO DIALECT? Do you honestly believe that Black people walk around talking Ebonics? That you aren’t talking about a SUBSET of people? That the overwhelming majority of BLACK people with BLACK parents IN AMERICA were raised speaking the Read More

A random query from Alyssa’s spot: One of the reasons I’m as obsessed with pop culture as I am is that I grew up somewhat isolated from it. My didn’t have a television for much of my childhood, so I missed things like Saved by the Bell and The Simpsons almost entirely (It made Turn Read More

The linguist/conservative pundit John McWhorter and playwright/actress/mimic Sarah Jones did a great segment last year on Studio 360 called ‘Sounding Black’ that dealt with Barack Obama’s strategically deployed ‘blaccent’ — and what it suggested about our perceptions of race and class. JONES: Just like Barack Obama, I am a person of mixed-race heritage.  But, I Read More

The Field Negro, on Michelle Obama’s recent comments that she was teased for speaking like a white girl: First, there is no such thing. Either you speak clearly or you don’t. … people have accents, and we all speak in different ways.The important thing is that we speak well, and in a way that can Read More