Date: Sat, 1 Mar 1997 10:08:06 -0400
From: ostrow-AT-is2.nyu.edu (Ostrow/Kaneda)
Subject: Re: low vs high


>G*rd*n wrote:
>>
>> Wess B Youngblood:
>> > I see the Ebonics debate as a symbol of lobrow art battling highbrow.
>> > Robert Williams, Crumb, and other underground artists may finally get
>>the respect they deserve in the established art world.
>>
>> The lowbrow position in this one (that Black English
>> Vernacular was not a language, and should not be
>> recognized in schools, etc.) was authoritarian and
>> therefore uninteresting.  Cracker-barrel authoritari-
>> anism is not very much fun; authority is exciting
>> only when it dresses up in nice uniforms, and then
>> only in the movies.  The highbrow position (as
>> earnestly recited by ignored linguists) was not
>> much more interesting, although it had the virtue
>> of a possessing a little science.
>>   Not quite what I meant. I see schoolhouse english synonamous
>w/highbrow art. Thier both highly respected, and considered
>cultured(imagine using  black slang in a job interview). On the other
>side of the spectrum, you have black english, which I feel is related to
>the lowbrow. You see highbrow art in galleries, lowbrow on album covers.
>You hear grammer in schools, black slang on the street.
>their(lowbrow/black english) just as valid as highbrow art/correct
>english. I predict the ebonics debate will stir up the art world as
>well.
>wess


If you guys weren't a such a distance from what you are talking about you
would realease that Ebonics ( which is not street slang--nor black slang)
but closer to a dialect  is comparable to what the avant garde once was --
we are not dealing with hi and lo art/ culture/ or language but revision
and change.  The debate is a conscious one concerning multi-cultural issues
of values and standards -- this values and standards,  use to be the
terrain of the AV.  Our culture --US/ Western is trying to determine for
itself to what degree it will become diversified and by what terms and to
hose benefit.  Language effects every aspect of everyday life --
multilingual socities are more complex and difficult to navigate--this is
the reasoning behind wanting to put an end to bilingual education.  Rather
than seeing this as a hi/lo issue it is a class issue-- as rightly pointed
out if someone was educated into Ebonics they would have a hard time with a
job interview --but the idea was to use Ebonics to teach them standard
English-- The art world as you call it has regularly had its own form of
teaching people new not standard languages --  people  would love it if the
term Hi art denoted a fixed and standardized form.It does not, unlike Lo
art which tends  to be a product of the culture  industry--by the way Crumb
is no outsider -- he is quite an industry-- can't trust capital its
interriority is its exterriority.




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