definition of AAVE, but then falls back on more traditional views of the
excluded and resentful outsider.
This kind of reasoning is seen even from linguists on occasion. The
ongoing convergence–divergence controversy (is AAVE becoming more or
less distinct? closer or farther away from *SAE?) might be understood as
the unease some have with the idea that the African American community
has a healthy, thriving, naturally evolving culture of its own which resists
assimilation despite the near inevitability that disadvantage will follow.
Such discussions and tendencies seem to come to the surface most often
when the subject at hand is African American school performance and
reading scores. The underlying ideological conflict can be seen very
clearly in scholarly work on AAVE in the classroom and school system.^14
William Labov’s extensive work on how to improve the lot of African
American students demonstrates the disconnect between what he knows to
be true (AAVE is a fully functional language) and the common-sense
arguments put forth by those who practice linguistic separatism. Two
examples from his published work illustrate this tendency.
Labov and Harris’s study of language use in Philadelphia produced a lot
of important data on the basis of vocalic and verbal system changes and
went on to conclude that the city is “separating into two distinct speech
communities: white and Black” (Labov and Harris 1986: 20). The data was
laboriously gathered and carefully analyzed, but the conclusions drawn are
less than neutral. Labov’s stance on the convergence–divergence
controversy leans clearly toward assimilation. Consider the suggestions
here:
[I]t should be possible to bring children closer to the systems used by
other dialects without changing their personalities and their
friendship patterns. From everything we have seen so far, this kind of
deep-seated change can happen if white and Black youth are in
contact in the early years. The way will then be open for the group to
shift as a whole, with the convergence that is the result of mutual
influence. If the contact is a friendly one, and we achieve true
integration in the schools, the two groups may actually exchange
socially significant symbols, and Black children will begin to use the
local vernacular of the white community. But even without such a