The Real Ebonics Debate

When the Oakland school board issued a resolution calling for schools to acknowledge the reality of black English in the classroom, a huge national outcry and media frenzy arose. The debate about "Ebonics" made national headlines, quickly became politicized and divisive, opened wounds about ra ce, then faded from public consciousness.

But in the classrooms of America, the question of how to engage the distinctive language of many African-American children remains urgent. In The Real Ebonics Debate, some of our most important progressive educators, linguists, and writers, as well as teachers and students reporting from the field, examine the lessons of the Ebonics controversy and unravel the complexities of the issue, covering realities never acknowledged by the media. They discuss the meaning of th e political debate; they think through the detailed dynamics of teacher-student interaction; and they give wonderfully precise linguistic insight into the structure and uses of African-American English—from colloquial speech to the literary voice of Toni Morrison.

The Real Ebonics Debate cuts to the heart of how America educates African-American children. It will have immediate and enduring value for anyone thinking about race and schools.

The term "Ebonics" exploded onto the mainstream media in 1996 due to a controversial resolution by the Oakland school board recognizing Vernacular Black English in their efforts to teach their inner-city youth. This book offers some well-needed definitions and defenses of Ebonics as a legitimate language and grammar system of West African origin that should be understood by teachers. As Lisa Delpit writes, "The teacher's job is to provide access to the national 'standard' as well as to understand the language the children speak sufficiently to celebrate its beauty."

The Real Ebonics Debate details the history of Ebonics (a name combining the words "ebony" and "phonics") since 1973, including the Eurocentric bias in determining what language is and the American racism and coded media phrases that mark the debate. The book will be crucial to the understanding of this controversial issue for years to come. Along with famous essays and poetry by Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, and Paul Laurence Dunbar, the most important documents in this collection are copies of the actual Oakland Ebonics Resolution and the Ebonics Resolution Revision, which stated, "The superintendent ... shall immediately devise and implement the best possible academic program for the combining purposes of facilitating the acquisition and mastery of English language while respecting and embracing the legitimacy and the richness of the language patterns." --Eugene Holley Jr.