************* CreoLIST posting **************
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1998 11:16:17 -0500
From: GOURY Laurence - Linguistique
Subject: Ebonics
Dear CreoLISTERs,
This message might be of any interest for people working on AAVE, and more
generally, on creole languages.
What do you think about this probleme?
Laurence
November 16, 1998
Dear Colleague:
A small group of us (including Carolyn Adger, Walt Wolfram,
and John Baugh) has been trying to figure out a way to
respond to the anti-"Ebonics" ad that appeared in The New
York Times. We feel that you will be concerned enough about
the ad to add your signature to the letter we have drawn up
to send to the Times. Some background information on the ad
is attached.
To sign the letter, print the letter out, sign it, and fax
it to Geneva at the fax number in the letter. Also, we need
your institutional affiliation and all your contact
information: e-mail, fax, etc. Please pass this packet on
to any of your colleagues who share our concerns.
We would like to have all the signatures in by Nov. 23,
1998.
Yours sincerely,
Arthur Spears & Geneva Smitherman
------------------------------------------------------------
CONCERNED LINGUISTS AND EDUCATORS
C/O Professor Geneva Smitherman
English Department
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824
Tel 517/353-9252; Fax 517/432-2854
November 16, 1998
Mr. Arthur Sulzberger, Publisher
The New York Times
229 W. 43rd Street
New York, NY 10036
Dear Mr. Sulzberger:
We are writing to express our dismay and concern about the
ad "I Has a Dream," which was printed in The New York Times
on October 9, 1998 (copy enclosed).
We are appalled that the ad appeals to readers to "speak out
against Ebonics" and flies in the face of the body of
research and scholarship produced by linguists on Ebonics,
also known as African-American Vernacular English (AAVE).
Some of this work dates back over fifty years.
The ad strikes us as an attack on the many African Americans
of all ages who sometimes use AAVE, especially African
American youth. As linguists and educators deeply committed
to the education and development of Black youth, we think it
imperative that readers of the Times be informed of the
scientific truth about AAVE.
To that end, we request that the January 1997 "Resolution on
the Oakland `Ebonics' issue," passed by our professional
organization, the Linguistic Society of America, with a
membership some 7,000 strong, be published in the Times as a
public service ad. (A copy of the resolution is enclosed.)
Sincerely yours,
Concerned Linguists and Educators
------------------------------------------------------------
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE ANTI-EBONICS ADVERTISEMENT
(Thanks to Rosina Lippi-Green for detective work)
An association called Atlanta's Black Professionals
contacted three advertisement agencies: Austin Kelley
Advertising, Ketchum, and Folio Z, to create the
advertisement.
The creative director, Lee St. James discussed the
issue with African American colleagues in Atlanta's Black
Professionals, and the consensus among them was that the
thought of not fostering "proper" English in the black
community is frightening. St. James decided to run the
headline in what he felt to be Ebonics, and to use Martin
Luther King's landmark speech and the image of Martin Luther
King turning his back on Ebonics in the advertisement.
The advertisement was run in Atlanta, both in
newspapers and as posters. The advertisement (the poster
version?) was popular and was requested by schools from
Miami to Richmond.
The advertisement won the Grand Prize of the annual
Athena Award offered by the Newspaper Association of America
(cf. http://www.naa.org/display/athena/grandprize.html).
The winner(s) of the Grand Prize donated half of the
money to the Head Start Association.
Someone from Ketchum informed the Head Start
Association that the NYT was willing to print the
advertisement free of charge as a public service
announcement. The Deputy Director of the Hard Start
Association responded that it was "a good idea" given the
fact that the advertisement had won the Athena Award.
However, the Deputy Director claims that neither Ketchum nor
anyone else ever asked for the endorsement by the Head Start
Association.
The advertisement was run by the NYT. (One suspects
that it was because 1) the advertisement won the prize, and
2) the NYT wanted to make AAVE look bad.)
The Head Start Association received a flood of calls.
The Deputy Director said that he expected a retraction to be
run by the NYT.
A DESCRIPTION OF THE ADVERTISEMENT
The advertisement features an image of a black man in a
overcoat with his back turned to the reader, with a headline
"I HAS A DREAM" written over the image of the man. Below
the image is the text, which reads:
"Does this bother you? It should. We've
spent over 400 years fighting for the right to
have a voice. Is this how we'll use it? More
importantly, is this how we'll teach our children
to use it? If we expect more of them, we must not
throw our hands in the air and agree with those
who say our children cannot be taught. By now,
you've probably heard about Ebonics (aka, black
English). And if you think it's become a
controversy because white America doesn't want us
messing with their precious language, don't.
White America couldn't care less what we do to
segregate ourselves.
The fact is language is power. And we can't
take that power away from our children with
Ebonics. Would Dr. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X,
and all the others who paid the price of obtaining
our voice with the currency of their lives embrace
this? If you haven't used your voice lately,
consider this an invitation." ("SPEAK OUT AGAINST
EBONICS", The National Head Start Association,
1651 Prince Street, Alexandria, VA 22314, The New
York Times, October 9, 1998, A19 [National Edition])
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Laurence GOURY
Centre ORSTOM-Cayenne
BP 165
97323 Cayenne cedex
tel: 05.94.25.32.44
05.94.25.34.06
fax:05.94.25.33.98
mailto:goury@cayenne.orstom.fr