[PEN-L:10216] Re: [stormingheaven] ebonics?

[Wojtek Sokolowski]

At 12:02 PM 8/19/99 -0500, Christian wrote:
>Wotjek, you must be out of your mind. This is a good argument if you accept
>a couple of bad premises. First, "Ebonics" isn't a dialect or a substandard
>form of English. It is a pedagogical tool used to *talk about* some
>consistent features of non-standard dialects in a certain place at a certain
>time, etc. No one speaks Ebonics, just like no one speaks phonics. Second,
>language is not just a reflection of material reality. Language is a
>production--and like all forms of production it has places, durations,
>times, etc. In other words, it is not merely a superstructural byproduct of
>some material reality. It's bound up in its production and reproduction.
>Most of the so-called pc-ers that you talk about understand this.
>
>There are all kinds of pragmatic reasons for learning "standard English"
>whatever that happens to mean in a certain place or time. No one ever denied
>that--except most of the media during the whole Ebonics fracas. Most of all,
>using Ebonics doesn't mean jettisoning a minority culture or the sober
>recognition that some languages will get you farther than others, often for
>very stupid reasons. But your representation of the whole thing trivializes
>everything that could be productive about the discussion.
>
>

As I said before, my criticism was directed not at the nature of Ebonics (I
am not a linguist, I have little to contribute to that subject) but at
using cultural artifacts as a form of vicarious compensation for people who
suffer economic injustice.  As I see it, a lot of energy on the left goes
to debating cultural and symbolic issues (like multiculturalism, for
example) which is tantamount to saying "those people may be poor but their
culture is as valuable as the mainstream culture."  This looks to me like
saving roses when the house is on fire.  Moreover, it lends iteslf to the
interpretation that if these folks are "happy" with their culture, then
they should be left alone, without trying to change their economic
situation (in fact, I heard a lot of such talk in my cultural anthro
classes, and I had problems with that).

wojtek