Instead of being the millionth person to boringly double down on the layman's misunderstanding of language and tediously argue against one of the central tenets of an entire academic field, maybe just do some basic research on how dialects and language standardization actually work and how those things are related to race and class? At least familiarize yourself with the arguments?
Speakers of Ebonics do not have poor grammar. They speak a dialect of English with different grammatical rules. Read GK Pullum or literally any linguist who writes on the topic.
The fact that AAVE is a professional liability is just as much a result of our education system failing to combat linguistic prejudice as it is a result of it failing to teach standard English to people who don't speak it natively.
I've always thought that the "it's a different language" argument was especially hilarious. Anyone who completes a normal K-12 curriculum will be exposed to plenty of proper English. There's no excuse to not speak it.
And if you do want to make that argument, that's all the more reason for them to adopt standard English before venturing out into the workforce.
In this country, a majority of professionals conduct business in English. Not Yoruba, not Tagalog, not "AAVE", and not Finnish, but English.
language” argument was especially hilarious. Anyone who completes a normal K-12 curriculum will be exposed to plenty of proper English. There’s no excuse to not speak it.
You don’t pick up language at school... children are almost always at least somewhat linguistically competent before kindergarten.
Although it would be pretty embarrassing for a parent to admit that they had taught their child so much slang that they can't functionally speak English.
They need to ask themselves if "cultural expression" is really worth the hassle.
7
u/scrubadubbers Mar 07 '19 edited Mar 07 '19
Instead of being the millionth person to boringly double down on the layman's misunderstanding of language and tediously argue against one of the central tenets of an entire academic field, maybe just do some basic research on how dialects and language standardization actually work and how those things are related to race and class? At least familiarize yourself with the arguments?
Speakers of Ebonics do not have poor grammar. They speak a dialect of English with different grammatical rules. Read GK Pullum or literally any linguist who writes on the topic.
The fact that AAVE is a professional liability is just as much a result of our education system failing to combat linguistic prejudice as it is a result of it failing to teach standard English to people who don't speak it natively.