// COMPLETE THREAD

Re: Ebonics

9 expanded posts ยท every known parent and child

NODE 47444d48Re: Ebonics
At 11:29 AM 12/20/96 -0800, Timothy C. May wrote:
(snip)
>De honks be chimin.' Code be fly! I's huffa be gots to be sizing, bitch.
>PGP 3 be dope, nuffin but bad!
>
>I be axing you if it be outa honkeyland or outa Afrika? Dat bitch Reno be
>sayin' it be 'legal be usin' dope 'warez. Day be hos.

Jesus Tim.  You're letting your lilly white show.  

-feeling-oppressed-by-every-law-in-existance-white-boy

Matt
NODE 3088f26fRe: Ebonics
At 9:15 PM -0600 12/20/96, Matthew J. Miszewski wrote:

>Jesus Tim.  You're letting your lilly white show.
>
>-feeling-oppressed-by-every-law-in-existance-white-boy

Yeah, Matt, in a free society I wouldn't have to "speak Ebonics."

(Personally, I interviewed several folks while I was at Intel who could not
speak standard English. I recommended against their hiring, and they in
fact did not get invites to be interviewed at the main facilities. So much
for their jive talk habits.)

Understand, I have nothing against the colored people speaking "Ebonics" to
each other, or to anyone who'll listen. But I don't have to deal with this
nonsense, nor do I have to hire them.

(Until the People's Republic of Political Correctness demands that I
"justify" why not speaking standard English is a "valid job requirement,"
and refuses to take my "Because I say it is" as a valid answer. Not
surprisingly, the Clintonistas have decided to enter the Proposition 209
challenge on the side of the pro-discrimination side.)

If I were designing a genocidal program to destroy the colored race, I
would be pushing for Ebonics, for encouraging coloreds to study "Human
Potential" and "African History" instead of math, science, and engineering,
and pushing for hiring quotas.

--Tim May


Just say "No" to "Big Brother Inside"
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^1398269     | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."
NODE bb611d7eRe: Ebonics
Tim May writes:

> Yeah, Matt, in a free society I wouldn't have to "speak Ebonics."

> If I were designing a genocidal program to destroy the colored race, I
> would be pushing for Ebonics, for encouraging coloreds to study "Human
> Potential" and "African History" instead of math, science, and engineering,
> and pushing for hiring quotas.

When I read Tim's original message on "Ebonics", I thought it was one
of those witty parodies he occasionally comes up with.  

Then I turned on the NBC Nightly News, and lo and behold, "Ebonics" 
was one of the featured stories, replete with commentary by former
New York mayor Ed Koch. 

--
     Mike Duvos         $    PGP 2.6 Public Key available     $
     mpd@netcom.com     $    via Finger.                      $
NODE c9920286Re: The Ebonic Plague
Two minor points:

First, Ebonics (Black English) is grammatical, but its grammar differs
from that of standard American English.

Second, from what I heard on the news, Oakland wants to call it a
separate language because they discovered that they got better results
teaching standard English to Black students if they used secondary
language techniques, as opposed to treating Black English constructions
as "wrong" or "inferior."

Martin Minow
minow@apple.com
NODE 17268d47The Ebonic Plague
At 11:10 PM -0800 12/20/96, Mike Duvos wrote:

>When I read Tim's original message on "Ebonics", I thought it was one
>of those witty parodies he occasionally comes up with.

Thanks for the compliment! The "Ebonics" notion is too strange for my
imagination to have come up with, though.


>Then I turned on the NBC Nightly News, and lo and behold, "Ebonics"
>was one of the featured stories, replete with commentary by former
>New York mayor Ed Koch.

Indeed, the Oakland, California school system is teaching children in a
"bilingual" program of "standard English" and "Ebonics." At least Ebonics
is simpler: I be, you be, he be, she be, we be, dey be, it be, etc.

So, how long before a lawsuit is filed ("it be filed") demanding that
election ballots be printed in Ebonics, along with those printed in
Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Korean, Serbo-Croation,
Blatislavan, Talegu, and the other 43 officially recognized languages?

How long before it becomes a crime to "discriminate" (or, in Ebonics,
"discimnate") against a person ("a peeples") who speaks Ebonics as his
primary language?

Democracy has run amok in this country. There is no hope for reforming at
the ballot box, as democracy only makes things worse. Only a crypto reign
of terror can purge this land of the scum.

--Tim May

Just say "No" to "Big Brother Inside"
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^1398269     | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."
NODE 51afdeaeRe: The Ebonic Plague
It was Hayek who wrote: "We have no intention, however, of making a 
fetish of democracy. It may well be true that our generation talks and 
thinks too much of democracy and too little of the values which it 
serves... Democracy is essentially a means, a utilitarian device for 
safeguarding internal peace and individual freedom. As such it is by no 
means infalliable or certain. Nor must we forget that there has often 
been much more cultural and spiritual freedom under an autocratic rule 
than under some democracies -- and it is at least conceivable that under 
the government of a very homogenous and doctrinare majority democractic 
government *might be as oppressive as the worst dictatorship.* [emphasis 
mine -DBM]."

-Declan


On Sat, 21 Dec 1996, Timothy C. May wrote:
> 
> Democracy has run amok in this country. There is no hope for reforming at
> the ballot box, as democracy only makes things worse. Only a crypto reign
> of terror can purge this land of the scum.


// declan@eff.org // I do not represent the EFF // declan@well.com //
NODE d6ed270bRe: Ebonics
Timothy C. May wrote:
> At 9:15 PM -0600 12/20/96, Matthew J. Miszewski wrote:
> >Jesus Tim.  You're letting your lilly white show.
> >-feeling-oppressed-by-every-law-in-existance-white-boy
> Yeah, Matt, in a free society I wouldn't have to "speak Ebonics."

The trouble with these f*&%^*&%^* do-gooder programs is that they
miss the point.  How are you going to teach anything using improvised
dialect?  It's just insane.

When I was working at Olympic Sales in El Segundo in 1981, my manager
was a very intelligent and very politically knowledgeable person. One
day I responded to something he said, where I said "shit, bro'" followed
by some jive talk like I've heard before, but couldn't really communicate
in, since I didn't have the experience.  To my surprise, he responded
with some more jive talk, and we traded jive for a minute or so until
I gave up.

It's something I'll never forget - gives me a good laugh whenever I
think about it.  But seriously, they're gonna codify this?  What bozos.
NODE 36c53f79Re: Ebonics
> The trouble with these f*&%^*&%^* do-gooder programs is that they
> miss the point.  How are you going to teach anything using improvised
> dialect?  It's just insane.

Guys, I think you are missing the point.  Even the people who approved
this know the bilingual education stuff is a crock.  It's just a way
of getting more money for Oakland's impoverished public schools, so
that they can do a better job of actually teaching these students
proper English.  No one is proposing teaching literature classes on
Ebonic texts or anything like that.

Now, you might argue that districts with low property tax revenues
don't deserve public schools, or that those public schools should be
openbly funded without playing strange games with bilingual education.
However, there's no point in arguing they shouldn't teach Ebonic as no
one intends to teach it.
NODE bf77a336Re: Ebonics
Anonymous wrote:
> 
> Now, you might argue that districts with low property tax revenues
> don't deserve public schools, or that those public schools should be
> openbly funded without playing strange games with bilingual education.
> However, there's no point in arguing they shouldn't teach Ebonic as no
> one intends to teach it.

Of course there's a point! It's not based in fact, it's not honest, and 
it's not helpful, but there *is* a point. Call it "satire" or "straw 
man" depending on your general opinion of black people and "their" 
politics.

-rich