I have a sister, who is not inter-racial..that ignorant term that has taken hold in America. And neither am I. We have the same mom. Yes the lady in the picture, and my dad who was a tall handsome jet black Cuban, former professor of music. My sister's dad was a white, "looking" blue eyed Negro gentleman from Charleston, South Carolina. He was born in 1898 or something like that, when Negro was the operative word..
Anyway..guess what my sister looks like? Is she black? all day long. I was born in Cuba she was born here. As a matter of fact I found one of her relatives on this site..imagine that. Can she pass for white? U bet...big time ..no this is not a woman with any type of what you would call black features. None.
But her relatives on her father's side a wonderful accomplished family from Tuskegee, &Dothan Alabama, Charleston, South Carolina are very proud of their heritage. Now I have to tell you,they are all very fair, nice hair, educated, business owners and they have a southern twang. The grammar is correct but it's not the King's English. So it also depends what part of the country are indigenous to. Trying to stereotype black people is folly. I also know a few elegantly speaking bums. If I may add some humor, my ex was the epitome of this "polished" English, hangup. He was also very prejudice d against other Blacks who did not meet "his" standard..Meanwhile much to my chagrin, he could NOT WRITE A COHESIVE SENTENCE. I got tired of this looking down his nose at his brothers and sisters and his mother is the same way.
There are other issues operating under this bashing of our brother and sisters who have not been elevated as yet.Black Americans being the fabulous survivors they are took Ebonics and turned
into an industry in the world of music. In defense of this demographic, for those who say, oh everybody is not going to be a basketball player or a rapper..so what? everybody is not going to be any one of the other professionals either. Last time we had 100 % employment was during slavery.
This is an answer to a commentary meant to incite dialogue instead of sharing dialogue.
my answer:
oh oh problem here. I am glad you studied --Philology--but I don't know who your teacher was and yes it makes a difference if they are black or white and their political position. Linguistics is a sub-field of anthropology..but we are egalitarian and non-ethnocentric. This sub-culture has a right to exist. It is not going away. FYI..newsflash..100,000's of thousands of Black people speak poor English grammatically and still work 30 years to their pension time in the Federal, Municipal, County sectors. They work in the Courts, Hospitals, Post Office, Corrections, etc..and never master the Kings English..so YES you can be successful without speaking English properly.
Only in corporate, is the requirement mandatory. Working in sanitation, which pays very well,construction, and so on, do not require a command of the English language.
You are dangerously uninformed..to make sweeping statements such as There is no counseling in the ghetto is another one of your stretches. King of the Hill? are you insulting Isaac Hayes? Fact check: every ten minutes a teenager in Texas gets pregnant: ethnicity Mexican. That is in response to the presumption that all females in the ghetto who speak ebonics get pregnant orthe male winds up in jail.
Welfare benefits are paid to which highest demographic? white women or women passing for white. Newsflash again..neither Oprah nor Bill speak the Kings English,they use a lot of phraseology relevant to Black Southern Culture.
Hmmm. you are a fake..sister dear..if your patriarchal lineage were learned men..why would you have to hold your head up high? didn't you live in the better part of town with the black bourgeosie?
You are trying to push emotional buttons..well, Black folk speak Ebonics, some..some never have and some never will and it's not up to you to lament whether the word was invented ! It is what it is.
Educate yourself by following the educational directives in Oakland and the raison d'etre. You are a fake. You are passing for Black ..I love it!! No one is stopping any one from speaking standard English it is repeated and heard every single day 24/7.
In another minute I am going to take off my mantle of anthropology and speak personally. Here is the minute..Interracially? what are you tallking about Michelle? what is your point? what sting? You know what? it's not about "acting white" really..it's that the perception is that class wise the standard English speaker in the ghetto is an outsider..like any other language. It's lack of understanding of self in the political morass that we call America.
It's like joining the Blood and the Crips and saying, "Hello there gentlemen, I would very much like to make your acquaintance, can you advise me on your initiation procedures over tea and crumpets?" By now, any intelligent person reading this should be on the floor!! C'mon now stop it!!!even I am laughing..ain't mad at cha!!! I am moving on...
Posted By: Marta Fernandez
Tuesday, September 16th 2008 at 4:35PM
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