Fam-
Read slowly. Report your opinions.
It is a lot of reading, but information in regards to our black youth is, in my opinion, of great importance to the young and old.
Enjoy!
-------
The fact that many Black Americans, especially inner-city children, speak in a language of slang' is an easily observable fact. The name given to this speech has ranged from "the language of soul" to "the shuffling speech of slavery." Concern has been raised in recent times over the role and implications of this language in trying to educate inner-city African American children who speak in the language of slang. The performance of these children continues to lag behind that of whites. To examine the role that this lingo plays in the continuing disparity between the performance of Black and White children it is necessary and helpful to examine the history of this language of slang', or Black English, as linguists have come to call it.
Academic & Social Interest in Black English
Interest in the existence of Black English began in the early twentieth century. In 1924, linguist George Philip Krapp published the article "The English of the Negro." A year later, he followed up his article with the book English Language in America. Krapp attributed the existence of Black English to the "baby-talk" that he felt slave masters must have employed when speaking to their slaves. He hypothesized that slave masters addressed their servants in a simplified English, "the kind of English some people employ when they talk to babies," (Smitherman, 172). The view that blacks who spoke in Black English were deprived of a real, dynamic, and multi-faceted language continued through the 1960s. In 1968, British sociologist Basil Bernstein wrote that "much of lower-class language consists of a kind of incidental emotional' accompaniment to action here and now," (Stoller, 93). In 1966, Karl Bereiter, in his work with four-year-old Black children, concluded that "... the children had no language." He continued saying that "The language of culturally deprived children ... is not merely an underdeveloped version of standard English, but it is a basically non-logical mode of expressive behavior," (Stoller, 93).
It was also in the 1960s that an audible defense of the logic and legitimacy of Black English was launched. The Black Arts Movement of the 1960s featured a long needed appreciation and celebration of Blackness.' The language of Black Americans was included in that celebration. Black poet Haki Madhubuti said simply, "black poets [will] deal in ... black language or Afro-American language in contrast to standard English ... will talk of kingdoms of Africa, will speak in Swahili and Zulu, will talk in muthafuckas and can you dig it,' " (Smitherman, 180). Around the same time, William Labov, a linguist at the University of Pennsylvania, followed by J.L. Dillard, Geneva Smitherman, and other linguists, mounted an impressive defense of the legitimacy of Black English. Labov published a number of essays and three books in the late 60s that refuted the language deprivation theories of previous times. Labov described Carl Bereiter as "... handicapped by his ignorance of the most basic facts about human language and those who speak it," (Stoller, 127). In his essay "The Logic of Non-Standard English," Labov concludes that "All linguists agree that nonstandard dialects are highly structured systems; they do not see these dialects as accumulations of errors caused by the failure of their speakers to master standard English," (Stoller, 125). With the assistance of linguists and the Black Arts Movement, Black English gained a large amount of legitimacy. The demise of legal segregation brought Blacks and Whites together in the classroom. At first, White children performed better than Black children. This was easily explained by the recently outlawed separate and unequal facilities. Black children, it was thought, would soon fully integrate and perform at parity with white children. Continuing disparity in the performance and test scores, has resulted in a dilemma for Black children and the school systems that are charged with the duty of their education.
History & Development of Black English
Many linguists trace the development of Black English back to the time of slavery and the slave trade. Thus, the history of Black English must date back to about 1619 when a Dutch vessel landed in Jamestown with a cargo of twenty Africans.(Smitherman, 5) During the slave trade, ships collected slaves from several different nations rather than just trading with one nation. The rationale that justified this action was simple. Africans from different nations spoke different languages and could not communicate with each other, and thus were incapable of uniting to overthrow the ships crew. In 1744 slave ship Captain William Smith wrote: "...the safest way to trade is to trade with the different Nations, on either Side the River, and having some of every sort on board, there will be no more Likelihood of their succeding in a Plot, than of finishing the Tower of Babel," (Stoller, 19). Upon arriving in America, all the slaves had to be able to communicate with their masters in some way. Thus, all the slaves had to learn at least some degree of English vocabulary. This established English as a common language among slaves. The one language that all the slaves had in common was English. Linguists propose that Africans developed a pidgin language with the English language providing the vocabulary.
When the African slaves bore children, they must have taught them this African-English pidgin. It was necessary that they be able to communicate with the slave master, as well as other slaves. This by no means suggests that Africans immediately relinquished their mother tongues. It is probable that the children of slaves were taught original African languages, but they were probably of little use amongst their diverse peer group. The African-English pidgin now had native speakers and would be forced to fill the needs of a normal speech community. Any vocabulary needs would be filled by borrowing from other languages. The pidgin graduated from its role as, as a language of transaction, and became a creolized language.(Stoller, 21) Geneva Smitherman proposed that "this lingo [early Black English] involved the substitution of English for West African words, but within the same basic structure and idiom as that characterized West African language patterns," (Smitherman, 5). In a very real sense, this new language was a mixture of West African languages (such as Ibo, Yoruba, and Hausa) and English. Listed below are some of the West African language rules that were embedded in early Black English that Smitherman notes in her book Talkin and Testifyin.
Very little evidence of the speech of slaves exists from the 17th century, the earliest time in the languages history. However in 1692, Justice Hathorne recorded Tituba, an African slave from the island of Barbados in the British West Indies, speaking in the pidgin of the slaves. Tituba was quoted as saying "He tell me he God," (Smitherman, 5). The words of the phrase are English, but the structure and grammar of the phrase are congruous with that of the West African Languages that Smitherman identifies. In the 18th century, more records of the speech of slaves and the representations of their speech were produced. In fact, J.L. Dillard claims that "By 1715 there clearly was an African Pidgin English known on a worldwide scale," (Stoller, 23). Dillard justifies this claim by citing the pidgin's utilization in Defoe's The Family Instructor (1715) and in The Life of Colonel Jaque (1722), as well as in Robinson Crusoe (1719). "Yes, yes ... me know, me know but me want speak, me tell something. O! me no let him makee de great master angry," a Virginia slave was depicted as saying in The Life of Colonel Jaque.(Stoller, 23) Black characters made their way into show business in 1777 with the comical Trial of Atticus Before Justice Beau, for Rape. In this farcical production, "one of our neighbor's Negroes," says "Yesa, Maser, he tell me that Atticus he went to bus 'em one day, and a shilde cry, and so he let 'em alone," (Smitherman, 8). Much like Tituba's statement, the statements above use English vocabulary, yet the structure and grammar of the statements well in keeping with that of the West African Languages.
Other informative evidence in tracing the development of Black English lies in newspaper ads reporting runaway slaves. In locating and identifying a runaway slaves, the slaves' speech played an instrumental role. It is important to remember that the slave trade was not outlawed until 1808, and even then it was not strictly adhered to. Smitherman reports that "As late as 1858, ..., over 400 slaves were brought direct from Africa to Georgia" (Smitherman, 12). Consequently, there was a constant influx of Africans who spoke no English at all. This produced a community of people with a broad array of mastery of Black English and even standard English. This is made clear when we look at the newspaper ads that reported runaway slaves. In 1744, an ad in The New York Evening Post read: "Ran away ... a new Negro Fellow named Prince, he can't scarce speak a Word of English." In 1760, an ad in the North Carolina Gazette read: "Ran away from the Subscriber, ..., African Born ..., speaks bad English." In 1734, the Philadelphia American Weekly Mercury read: "Run away ...; he's Pennsylvanian born and speaks good English," (Smitherman, 13). This stratification of language is vital in the development and the development of the perception of Black English, if it is remembered that not all Blacks were slaves in Early America. Successful runaways were likely to be those who attained a relative mastery of standard English. The mastery of standard English would prove invaluable to a slave who had to travel a long distance across American soil to win his freedom. Furthermore, early Black writers, such as Frederick Douglass, wrote in the standard English of his time. A mastery of standard English was also beneficial in passing as a free Black. In a very real and disturbing way, Black English became the language of slavery and servitude.
During the civil war period, abolitionists made the speech of slaves know to all serious readers of that era. Writers such as Harriet Beecher Stowe and Thomas Halliburton produced many works that indicated their knowledge of the existence of Black English.(Stoller, 31) While the Civil War and the emancipation of slaves were significant historical events, their impact was mitigated severely by the Jim Crow era. Although everyone labeled "Negro" by the Jim Crow laws did not speak Black English, it is safe to assume that those Blacks who did speak Black English far outnumbered those who spoke standard English. It is certain that under these conditions, Black English continued to flourish. The Shadow of the Plantation (1934) and B.A. Botkin's Lay My Burden Down reveal that Black English was still alive and well.(Stoller, 36)
Perhaps the most significant event in the history in the development of Black English, aside from the inception of the European enslavement of Africans, is Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas and the desegregation at "all deliberate speed" that ensued. Black children speaking Black English in the classroom has placed the language before the feet of educators. That brings us to the present pressing issue concerning the role of Black English in the inability of Black children to perform at parity with White children in our nation's school system. The following tables list the performance of Black and White children on Reading and Writing proficiency and the Scholastic Aptitude Test.
Scores in reading and writing proficiency and the Scholastic Aptitude Test all show the continuing disparity between the performance of Black children and White children. The statistics do show that the disparity is decreasing at a very small rate. However, the Spring 1994 issue of The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education reported that "The racial gap in standardized test Scores is so wide and the rate at which the gap is closing is so small that absent some extraordinary and unforeseen even, Blacks will not catch up to Whites until well into the middle or latter part of the next century," (Cross, 49). The role that Black English plays in this disparity is a dynamic one. A language barrier can create hurdles in the communication between student and teacher, as well as, creating barriers for students in comprehending the subject matter to be learned. Educators differ over the way to overcome the existing problem that Black English creates in the schools. The traditional method used in dealing with Black English is simply to correct it as incorrect grammar. The New York Times reported a Bronx elementary teacher as saying that the problem may lie more with insufficient instruction than Black English. She was quoted as saying, "We need to stop making excuses for not teaching. When my students use bad English, I tell them it is bad English and that it has nothing to do with the color of their skin," (Lee, D22). It was in the same spirit that Ramon Cortines, New York City's Schools Chancelor, said "The problem with American education is we get caught up in fads and don't teach the basics," (Lee, D22). These views are consistent with the New York City Board of Education's decision to set no policy on teaching students who speak Black English.(Lee, D22) However, individual teachers and school districts are beginning to lose faith in the traditional method, and are now trying their own innovative techniques to teach students who speak Black English. The New York Times reported that Mark Halperin, a Manhattan teacher, has his students create a dictionary of Black English, which he has them translate into standard English.(Lee, D22) Some school districts in cities with large Black populations are now developing and using programs to teach students who speak in Black English. The programs are very much like the technique that Mark Halperin uses. The programs attempt to show the children the differences between Black English and standard English.
Regardless of what the schools decide to do in the future concerning teaching students who speak Black English, the fact remains that at present a crisis exists. Those students who do speak Black English are falling by the wayside in America's educational system. Of course, Black English is not the sole reason for this crisis. Blacks who speak the vernacular tend to be those who live in impoverished, inner city neighborhoods filled with violence. Because all of these issues cannot be tackled is no reason to tackle none of them. The charts that were listed on the previous page suggest that the traditional method is failing speakers of Black English. The reasons for this could be numerous, however, its adherence to the language deprivation theory of Bereiter and others is particularly alarming. If indeed Black English is a legitimate, structured system of communication, which linguists contend that it is, then it is not logical to call that language "incorrect" or "bad." Massey and Denton claim that because of such teaching methods "their [students] confidence and self-esteem are threatened, thereby undermining the entire learning process," (Massey, 164). However the new and innovative methods that some teachers and school districts are beginning to use, adhere to the theory of the linguists, that Black English is a legitimate and intelligent form of communication. By treating Black English as a separate language, it allows teachers to demand standard English in the classroom without damaging the self-esteem of their students.
With the research of the linguists, it appears obvious that Black English is indeed a language with an enriched and developmental history like Spanish or any other language. It is no doubt that Black English has not been adequately addressed in our nation's school system. This plays a significant role in the disparity between the performances of Black and White Children. Recognition and appreciation of the language, especially in education circles, would only serve to enrich the education of all Americans.
Source
Read slowly. Report your opinions.
It is a lot of reading, but information in regards to our black youth is, in my opinion, of great importance to the young and old.
Enjoy!
-------
The fact that many Black Americans, especially inner-city children, speak in a language of slang' is an easily observable fact. The name given to this speech has ranged from "the language of soul" to "the shuffling speech of slavery." Concern has been raised in recent times over the role and implications of this language in trying to educate inner-city African American children who speak in the language of slang. The performance of these children continues to lag behind that of whites. To examine the role that this lingo plays in the continuing disparity between the performance of Black and White children it is necessary and helpful to examine the history of this language of slang', or Black English, as linguists have come to call it.
Academic & Social Interest in Black English
Interest in the existence of Black English began in the early twentieth century. In 1924, linguist George Philip Krapp published the article "The English of the Negro." A year later, he followed up his article with the book English Language in America. Krapp attributed the existence of Black English to the "baby-talk" that he felt slave masters must have employed when speaking to their slaves. He hypothesized that slave masters addressed their servants in a simplified English, "the kind of English some people employ when they talk to babies," (Smitherman, 172). The view that blacks who spoke in Black English were deprived of a real, dynamic, and multi-faceted language continued through the 1960s. In 1968, British sociologist Basil Bernstein wrote that "much of lower-class language consists of a kind of incidental emotional' accompaniment to action here and now," (Stoller, 93). In 1966, Karl Bereiter, in his work with four-year-old Black children, concluded that "... the children had no language." He continued saying that "The language of culturally deprived children ... is not merely an underdeveloped version of standard English, but it is a basically non-logical mode of expressive behavior," (Stoller, 93).
It was also in the 1960s that an audible defense of the logic and legitimacy of Black English was launched. The Black Arts Movement of the 1960s featured a long needed appreciation and celebration of Blackness.' The language of Black Americans was included in that celebration. Black poet Haki Madhubuti said simply, "black poets [will] deal in ... black language or Afro-American language in contrast to standard English ... will talk of kingdoms of Africa, will speak in Swahili and Zulu, will talk in muthafuckas and can you dig it,' " (Smitherman, 180). Around the same time, William Labov, a linguist at the University of Pennsylvania, followed by J.L. Dillard, Geneva Smitherman, and other linguists, mounted an impressive defense of the legitimacy of Black English. Labov published a number of essays and three books in the late 60s that refuted the language deprivation theories of previous times. Labov described Carl Bereiter as "... handicapped by his ignorance of the most basic facts about human language and those who speak it," (Stoller, 127). In his essay "The Logic of Non-Standard English," Labov concludes that "All linguists agree that nonstandard dialects are highly structured systems; they do not see these dialects as accumulations of errors caused by the failure of their speakers to master standard English," (Stoller, 125). With the assistance of linguists and the Black Arts Movement, Black English gained a large amount of legitimacy. The demise of legal segregation brought Blacks and Whites together in the classroom. At first, White children performed better than Black children. This was easily explained by the recently outlawed separate and unequal facilities. Black children, it was thought, would soon fully integrate and perform at parity with white children. Continuing disparity in the performance and test scores, has resulted in a dilemma for Black children and the school systems that are charged with the duty of their education.
History & Development of Black English
Many linguists trace the development of Black English back to the time of slavery and the slave trade. Thus, the history of Black English must date back to about 1619 when a Dutch vessel landed in Jamestown with a cargo of twenty Africans.(Smitherman, 5) During the slave trade, ships collected slaves from several different nations rather than just trading with one nation. The rationale that justified this action was simple. Africans from different nations spoke different languages and could not communicate with each other, and thus were incapable of uniting to overthrow the ships crew. In 1744 slave ship Captain William Smith wrote: "...the safest way to trade is to trade with the different Nations, on either Side the River, and having some of every sort on board, there will be no more Likelihood of their succeding in a Plot, than of finishing the Tower of Babel," (Stoller, 19). Upon arriving in America, all the slaves had to be able to communicate with their masters in some way. Thus, all the slaves had to learn at least some degree of English vocabulary. This established English as a common language among slaves. The one language that all the slaves had in common was English. Linguists propose that Africans developed a pidgin language with the English language providing the vocabulary.
When the African slaves bore children, they must have taught them this African-English pidgin. It was necessary that they be able to communicate with the slave master, as well as other slaves. This by no means suggests that Africans immediately relinquished their mother tongues. It is probable that the children of slaves were taught original African languages, but they were probably of little use amongst their diverse peer group. The African-English pidgin now had native speakers and would be forced to fill the needs of a normal speech community. Any vocabulary needs would be filled by borrowing from other languages. The pidgin graduated from its role as, as a language of transaction, and became a creolized language.(Stoller, 21) Geneva Smitherman proposed that "this lingo [early Black English] involved the substitution of English for West African words, but within the same basic structure and idiom as that characterized West African language patterns," (Smitherman, 5). In a very real sense, this new language was a mixture of West African languages (such as Ibo, Yoruba, and Hausa) and English. Listed below are some of the West African language rules that were embedded in early Black English that Smitherman notes in her book Talkin and Testifyin.
Very little evidence of the speech of slaves exists from the 17th century, the earliest time in the languages history. However in 1692, Justice Hathorne recorded Tituba, an African slave from the island of Barbados in the British West Indies, speaking in the pidgin of the slaves. Tituba was quoted as saying "He tell me he God," (Smitherman, 5). The words of the phrase are English, but the structure and grammar of the phrase are congruous with that of the West African Languages that Smitherman identifies. In the 18th century, more records of the speech of slaves and the representations of their speech were produced. In fact, J.L. Dillard claims that "By 1715 there clearly was an African Pidgin English known on a worldwide scale," (Stoller, 23). Dillard justifies this claim by citing the pidgin's utilization in Defoe's The Family Instructor (1715) and in The Life of Colonel Jaque (1722), as well as in Robinson Crusoe (1719). "Yes, yes ... me know, me know but me want speak, me tell something. O! me no let him makee de great master angry," a Virginia slave was depicted as saying in The Life of Colonel Jaque.(Stoller, 23) Black characters made their way into show business in 1777 with the comical Trial of Atticus Before Justice Beau, for Rape. In this farcical production, "one of our neighbor's Negroes," says "Yesa, Maser, he tell me that Atticus he went to bus 'em one day, and a shilde cry, and so he let 'em alone," (Smitherman, 8). Much like Tituba's statement, the statements above use English vocabulary, yet the structure and grammar of the statements well in keeping with that of the West African Languages.
Other informative evidence in tracing the development of Black English lies in newspaper ads reporting runaway slaves. In locating and identifying a runaway slaves, the slaves' speech played an instrumental role. It is important to remember that the slave trade was not outlawed until 1808, and even then it was not strictly adhered to. Smitherman reports that "As late as 1858, ..., over 400 slaves were brought direct from Africa to Georgia" (Smitherman, 12). Consequently, there was a constant influx of Africans who spoke no English at all. This produced a community of people with a broad array of mastery of Black English and even standard English. This is made clear when we look at the newspaper ads that reported runaway slaves. In 1744, an ad in The New York Evening Post read: "Ran away ... a new Negro Fellow named Prince, he can't scarce speak a Word of English." In 1760, an ad in the North Carolina Gazette read: "Ran away from the Subscriber, ..., African Born ..., speaks bad English." In 1734, the Philadelphia American Weekly Mercury read: "Run away ...; he's Pennsylvanian born and speaks good English," (Smitherman, 13). This stratification of language is vital in the development and the development of the perception of Black English, if it is remembered that not all Blacks were slaves in Early America. Successful runaways were likely to be those who attained a relative mastery of standard English. The mastery of standard English would prove invaluable to a slave who had to travel a long distance across American soil to win his freedom. Furthermore, early Black writers, such as Frederick Douglass, wrote in the standard English of his time. A mastery of standard English was also beneficial in passing as a free Black. In a very real and disturbing way, Black English became the language of slavery and servitude.
During the civil war period, abolitionists made the speech of slaves know to all serious readers of that era. Writers such as Harriet Beecher Stowe and Thomas Halliburton produced many works that indicated their knowledge of the existence of Black English.(Stoller, 31) While the Civil War and the emancipation of slaves were significant historical events, their impact was mitigated severely by the Jim Crow era. Although everyone labeled "Negro" by the Jim Crow laws did not speak Black English, it is safe to assume that those Blacks who did speak Black English far outnumbered those who spoke standard English. It is certain that under these conditions, Black English continued to flourish. The Shadow of the Plantation (1934) and B.A. Botkin's Lay My Burden Down reveal that Black English was still alive and well.(Stoller, 36)
Perhaps the most significant event in the history in the development of Black English, aside from the inception of the European enslavement of Africans, is Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas and the desegregation at "all deliberate speed" that ensued. Black children speaking Black English in the classroom has placed the language before the feet of educators. That brings us to the present pressing issue concerning the role of Black English in the inability of Black children to perform at parity with White children in our nation's school system. The following tables list the performance of Black and White children on Reading and Writing proficiency and the Scholastic Aptitude Test.
Scores in reading and writing proficiency and the Scholastic Aptitude Test all show the continuing disparity between the performance of Black children and White children. The statistics do show that the disparity is decreasing at a very small rate. However, the Spring 1994 issue of The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education reported that "The racial gap in standardized test Scores is so wide and the rate at which the gap is closing is so small that absent some extraordinary and unforeseen even, Blacks will not catch up to Whites until well into the middle or latter part of the next century," (Cross, 49). The role that Black English plays in this disparity is a dynamic one. A language barrier can create hurdles in the communication between student and teacher, as well as, creating barriers for students in comprehending the subject matter to be learned. Educators differ over the way to overcome the existing problem that Black English creates in the schools. The traditional method used in dealing with Black English is simply to correct it as incorrect grammar. The New York Times reported a Bronx elementary teacher as saying that the problem may lie more with insufficient instruction than Black English. She was quoted as saying, "We need to stop making excuses for not teaching. When my students use bad English, I tell them it is bad English and that it has nothing to do with the color of their skin," (Lee, D22). It was in the same spirit that Ramon Cortines, New York City's Schools Chancelor, said "The problem with American education is we get caught up in fads and don't teach the basics," (Lee, D22). These views are consistent with the New York City Board of Education's decision to set no policy on teaching students who speak Black English.(Lee, D22) However, individual teachers and school districts are beginning to lose faith in the traditional method, and are now trying their own innovative techniques to teach students who speak Black English. The New York Times reported that Mark Halperin, a Manhattan teacher, has his students create a dictionary of Black English, which he has them translate into standard English.(Lee, D22) Some school districts in cities with large Black populations are now developing and using programs to teach students who speak in Black English. The programs are very much like the technique that Mark Halperin uses. The programs attempt to show the children the differences between Black English and standard English.
Regardless of what the schools decide to do in the future concerning teaching students who speak Black English, the fact remains that at present a crisis exists. Those students who do speak Black English are falling by the wayside in America's educational system. Of course, Black English is not the sole reason for this crisis. Blacks who speak the vernacular tend to be those who live in impoverished, inner city neighborhoods filled with violence. Because all of these issues cannot be tackled is no reason to tackle none of them. The charts that were listed on the previous page suggest that the traditional method is failing speakers of Black English. The reasons for this could be numerous, however, its adherence to the language deprivation theory of Bereiter and others is particularly alarming. If indeed Black English is a legitimate, structured system of communication, which linguists contend that it is, then it is not logical to call that language "incorrect" or "bad." Massey and Denton claim that because of such teaching methods "their [students] confidence and self-esteem are threatened, thereby undermining the entire learning process," (Massey, 164). However the new and innovative methods that some teachers and school districts are beginning to use, adhere to the theory of the linguists, that Black English is a legitimate and intelligent form of communication. By treating Black English as a separate language, it allows teachers to demand standard English in the classroom without damaging the self-esteem of their students.
With the research of the linguists, it appears obvious that Black English is indeed a language with an enriched and developmental history like Spanish or any other language. It is no doubt that Black English has not been adequately addressed in our nation's school system. This plays a significant role in the disparity between the performances of Black and White Children. Recognition and appreciation of the language, especially in education circles, would only serve to enrich the education of all Americans.
Source
