4. The “Ebonics’ Fraud. If the people who have been promoting
“Ebonics” with a straight face have any sense of humor, they
surely are splitting their sides over the fact that they have
promoted their fraud into a nationwide discussion – and even
a Senate hearing yesterday. Chattanooga Free Press
(Tennessee), January 24, 1997.
5. [letter] No Caribonics, no Ebonics. As a child in my
Caribbean homeland, slang was not permitted in our home.
My parents made sure that we spoke properly (like white
people). So there! It is laughable to read about ebonics. If the
reason for this calamity is those black folks in Oakland are
special, then how do we treat the Caribbean people? Although
we have a distinct accent, it has never prevented us from
learning standard English. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution,
February 6, 1997.
6. EBONICS IS BLACK-ON-BLACK CRIME. So the Oakland
Board of (mis) Education has decided to drop any suggestion
that Ebonics is genetically based and that students should be
taught in both Ebonics and standard English. Well, too late.
The damage has already been done. Not since “Amos’n’
Andy” and Mammy from “Gone With the Wind” has black
America had to withstand such an assault on its collective
image. This is black-on-black crime. Daily News, New York,
1/17/1997.
7. When the Oakland, Calif. Unified School District announced
last year that it would adopt Ebonics – also called “Black-
English” – as a teaching tool, a hue and cry arose throughout
the land. Educators nationwide denounced the district for
“legitimizing” a form of communication believed to be
inferior to standard English, they raged. Tulsa World,
5/28/1997.Criticism accelerates to mockery:
1. [Letter] I enjoyed the politically incorrect editorial cartoon
comparing “Ebonics” with “Bubbonics” on Dec. 22. The
Herald Sun, 12/29/1996.