File spoon-archives/marxism-international.archive/marxism-international_1997/97-01-08.181, message 19


Date: Tue, 7 Jan 1997 08:29:22 -0400
From: abz-AT-inch.com (Daniel Carter)
Subject: Re: M-I: Hooked on Ebonics


On Tue, 7 Jan 1997, Chegitz Guevara wrote:

>Interestingly enough, the two best "speakers" of Ebonics are both white.
>One is from a Black neighborhood, the other from an all white
>neighborhood.  Neither speaks standard English, thought they both
>understand it perfectly, or so it seems.
>
>No Black people that I know speak Ebonics (at least in front of me).  I
>have however, noticed that Black people use different speach patterns,
>intonations, pitch, volume, etc., with each other than they use with white
>folks. Time and again I have had the amusement of watching my finacee's
>speach change as we walk into her grandmother's house, or around her Black
>friends.
>
>Question, at what point to Black speach patterns change from being an
>accent and become Ebonics?
>

speech patterns, pitch, tone, volume, the waves, the ways, that the spirit
moves a person through her/his soul, mind, heart, culture, emotions, body;
these go to make up foundationally what a language is. grammar and
vocabulary and so-called structure are not sufficient in determining
language; which language is being spoken, written. there are more subtle
concerns and it seems almost that there is a virtual conspiracy against
considering the obvious in terms of these subtle therefore fundamental
distinctions. the fact that they may be subtle doesn't therefore mean that
they are not obvious. one has to be programmed and brain-washed in order to
believe that the language that many U.S. Black people speak is not indeed a
language at all but merely a dialect or an accent. remember (and check this
out) a language is a dialect that has an army to back it up and a dialect
is a language without any army to back it up. this keeps being forgotten,
or it never is thought of in the first place. if you didn't even consider
any non-white folks at all and thus considered only white folks in the U.S.
you'd still have a bunch o' folks, white folks, that speak all kinds of
different and varying languages. the reason we don't look at it this way is
because one strain of language is politically, economically, in terms of
the media, militarily, corporately, dominant. check it out. might makes
right. in this country the mighty and their agency (and of course they
conspire to make us all their agents) determine what language shall rule
and dominate, which language shall dominate in the work place and in the
university and grade school etc. etc.. language is rich and wonderful in
all its variety multiplicity differences. in some sense Spanish,
Portuguese, Italian, French, and Rumanian are all dialects of the same one
Latin language. the same goes for the Scandinavian countries and more
broadly the so-called Germanic language group which of course includes
English Flemmish and Dutch as well as Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish; in a
sense all dialects of the one Germanic language. so you see that in this
sense one language can be thought of as many languages and even officially
function as many languages. but official power does not a language make
except in so far as officialdom can and does impose and coerce and force
people into one language direction or another. and when I say official, it
could be corporate, military, the state, the so-called government, the
work-place in aggregate, the media, educational, and legal institutions,
etc. all forming together a virtual officialdom which tends to manipulate
and terrorize rampantly. imagine like John Lennon all this kind of pressure
turned off and then look and see what language would/could be. the people
would determine without fear what directions they want to take. there would
be free-er association, a greater richer cultural, therefore, language
exchange, interaction, blend, of flavors, each and all thriving in the
open, proud and joyous, and tolerant, and appreciative of each others
differences, instead of up-tight wondering where your next buck is going to
come from, and therefore bending your speech as if bowing down, kneeling,
before power, in order to be allowed to even to exist, subsist, survive.
that's a set of extremely low-level criteria for human beings and for
language. whatever happened to joy, freedom, glory, and even bliss? what
happened to our dreams and aspirations? what happened to our song(s)? what
happened to our desire to be free? our desire to sing and dance? run jump
and play? academics, work, and adulthood and community type responsibility
need not be a frightful drag, intimidating, inhibiting, terrorizing,
over-stressful, boring, etc.. no justice no peace. let the people talk.
they know how to. but you got t' listen to them in good faith. learn from
them how to talk with them through listening carefully attentively and
joyfully to them for they without fail will give you great joy if you just
open up your heart and mind to them. if you can't talk with each other how
can you share ideas, knowledge, and technique with each other except
through force. leave those kids and folks alone as you would like to be
left to be free to be yourselves with each other and thrive as yourself,
not someone else that you are forced to be through terror that passes for
everyday life under global neo-libralism. leave each other be. leave each
other alone unless you plan to treat each other justly which means
respecting one anothers' language and the general and great richness of
each others' cultures and spirit.


Daniel




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