Black America, Education, & the Great Ebonics Debate

I like Oliver Willis. He was the very first weblog that I have ever visited and his work made me addicted to the world of the "Blogosphere." But there are times that I wonder about his ability to reason. In one of his recent posts, Willis derides a UNC study that argues that the concept of blacks berating other smart blacks as "acting white" is a myth. To begin, Willis cites an article in the New York Times that says:

When Bill Cosby spoke out publicly in May against dysfunction and irresponsibility in black families, he identified one pervasive symptom: ''boys attacking other boys because the boys are studying and they say, 'You're acting white.''' This idea isn't new; it was first proposed formally in the mid-80's by John Ogbu, a Nigerian professor of anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley, and it has since become almost a truism: when smart black kids try hard and do well, they are picked on by their less successful peers for ''acting white.''

The only problem with this theory, according to a research paper released in October, is that for the most part, it isn't true. Karolyn Tyson, a sociologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and William Darity Jr., an economist at Duke and U.N.C., coordinated an 18-month ethnographic study at 11 schools in North Carolina. What they found was that black students basically have the same attitudes about achievement as their white counterparts do: they want to succeed, understand that doing well in school has important consequences in later life and feel better about themselves the better they do.

Since Willis and other pundits seem to want to throw out their anecdotes on the manner, I feel that I should put mine out there as well. I will not lie, my high school isn't the greatest example of an intellectual culture; the average SAT score at my high school was 820. I should also note that according to this, my high school was 97% black. Despite similar backgrounds, my grade school experiences seem to be contrary to those of Willis, who also went to a predominantly black high school. The smartest kids were the leaders at my school; they were the ones who were the most popular and had the most friends. They even excelled at athletics. Yes, I have had people back home tell me that I had gained "white" attributes, mostly because of the way I talked and acted. But was this indicative of an anti-intellectual culture? I don't think so. The context in which I received this treatment was in jest, and I never even got it until after returned from my first year at a predominately white private college. In high school, I did see this happen to other students, but again, it was because of the way they talked and carried themselves, not because of their emphasis on their studies. I remember once, when I was in 9th grade, I would refer to everything that was cool or that I liked with the word "neat." To my peers, this sounded white, and I quickly corrected it with "tight" or "hot." Once again, it wasn't because I was smart, it was how I carried myself. Even my cousin, Ryan, would tell me this all the time, yet, his education was of much higher quality than mine; he spent a year at the Naval Academy Prepatory School (NAPS) in Providence, Rhode Island where he graduated in the top-50 of his class, and now he is full-time student at the Naval Academy in Annapolis.

I'll go even further. Since the 1950s, America's public schools have been engaged in a system called "tracking," in which high achievers and underachievers rarely end up in classes together because the smart kids are continuously placed in advanced classes while their underachieving peers are placed in remedial classes. I was in both; in English and Social Studies, I spent most of my grade school career in advanced and gifted classes; in Math and Science, I was in remedial classes, although these classes were such a joke that would always pull straight A's. My point is, I've been at the bottom of the bottom and I didn't see this kind of behavior. In the remedial classes, I was always the smart kid in class and I was celebrated for it. Other students wouldn't say "oh, he's white," they would say "oh, he's smart." Yes, I was the black sheep of the classroom, but I was never put down for it.

Back to Willis. He says:

Attending a mostly black (89% according to the latest survey, which may be up some slightly, though I doubt it has moved dramatically in the past 10 years) high school, I can safely say I've never experienced the kind of prejudice and ignorance from any one racial group as I have from black Americans.

Willis' post is ironic. He accuses black culture of being anti-intellectual, yet, he is presented with careful academic analysis on a particular subject and doesn't give it the time of day because his experiences weren't shared with what the research found. I'm not sure if he even read the research, considering he links to the New York Times article which only lightly touches upon it.

It is a culture that seems to value flash over substance, where speaking without vulgar "ebonics" (read: crap English) is seen as "acting white". And heaven forbid you think your studies are of more importance than the new Jay-Z album.

If this statement were true, then why does black America continue to celebrate black nationalist leaders such as Malcolm X, Huey Newton, and Bobby Seale. What about Malauna Karenga, the founder of modern Black Studies and Kwanzaa, and who also holds two PhDs, or the radical Angela Davis, who also holds a PhD. Even Huey Newton received a PhD. These are all celebrated figures in the black community. None of these men or women spoke in Ebonics, and all were formally educated, except Malcolm (ironic, since he was arguably the most eloquent of this group of leaders). And that's not even including more conciliatory leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Julian Bond, and John Lewis who are also celebrated.

I also take issue with his statement that Ebonics is "crap english." According to the Linguistic Society of America, Ebonics is a language:

Whereas there has been a great deal of discussion in the media and among the American public about the l8 December l996 decision of the Oakland School Board to recognize the language variety spoken by many African American students and to take it into account in teaching Standard English, the Linguistic Society of America, as a society of scholars engaged in the scientific study of language, hereby resolves to make it known that:

a. The variety known as "Ebonics," "African American Vernacular English" (AAVE), and "Vernacular Black English" and by other names is systematic and rule-governed like all natural speech varieties. In fact, all human linguistic systems--spoken, signed, and written -- are fundamentally regular. The systematic and expressive nature of the grammar and pronunciation patterns of the African American vernacular has been established by numerous scientific studies over the past thirty years. Characterizations of Ebonics as "slang," "mutant," " lazy," "defective," "ungrammatical," or "broken English" are incorrect and demeaning.

b. The distinction between "languages" and "dialects" is usually made more on social and political grounds than on purely linguistic ones. For example, different varieties of Chinese are popularly regarded as "dialects," though their speakers cannot understand each other, but speakers of Swedish and Norwegian, which are regarded as separate "languages," generally understand each other. What is important from a linguistic and educational point of view is not whether AAVE is called a "language" or a "dialect" but rather that its systematicity be recognized.

c. As affirmed in the LSA Statement of Language Rights (June l996), there are individual and group benefits to maintaining vernacular speech varieties and there are scientific and human advantages to linguistic diversity. For those living in the United States there are also benefits in acquiring Standard English and resources should be made available to all who aspire to mastery of Standard English. The Oakland School Board's commitment to helping students master Standard English is commendable.

d. There is evidence from Sweden, the US, and other countries that speakers of other varieties can be aided in their learning of the standard variety by pedagogical approaches which recognize the legitimacy of the other varieties of a language. From this perspective, the Oakland School Board's decision to recognize the vernacular of African American students in teaching them Standard English is linguistically and pedagogically sound.

Chicago, Illinois January 1997

Nobody seems to be addressing why, as the cliche goes, whiteness is viewed so negatively by blacks. The answer is simple to me; embracing whiteness is to renounce one's own culture. This is an issue that plagues every culture on the planet, particularly when it comes to dating or marrying outside of one's own race. Even white people do this. Kids are made fun of for acting black, called wiggers, and in some cases, attacked. Whether you agree with cultural pride or not, it is something that affects all races, ethnicities, and cultures. Intellectualism by itself isn't a renunciation of one's culture. It is how that intellectualism is used that turns off many African-Americans. When figures such as Clarence Thomas, Tony Brown, Thomas Sowell, and La Shawn Barber become diametrically opposed to the programs that have helped improve the quality of life for many blacks, whether it be poverty assistance programs or Affirmative Action, then they are looked down upon. I find it funny that when conservatives talk about black anti-intellectualism, the first thing they mention is black opposition to Clarence Thomas. Again, the vast majority of black America certainly does not believe that Thomas' beliefs are in there best interests.

Willis is right when he says that many blacks care about materialistic matters more than they do their studies, but so do many whites. I've tutored working-class middle school kids that had the same priorities. I'm at a predominately white, working-class high school twice a week and it's the same type of atmosphere. Thus is the problem I have with people like Bill Cosby. This issue is not restricted to race; poor white people have the same problems. I'm tired of black America getting blamed for the problems of America proper.

Is the UNC study an end-all answer to an issue that has been alluded to by people ranging to Bill Cosby and Barack Obama? No, but I certainly give it more credit than Willis and even myself.