14 Labov has produced a tremendous body of work on AAVE, from
multiple angles. He has been deeply involved in attempts to improve
AAVE speakers’ academic achievement and reading scores by means
of individualized reading programs. His concern for the well-being of
the students and their community is genuine and deeply felt, but it is
also rife with SLI potholes.
15 Academics in a dozen different disciplines have taken up the question
of explaining and proposing solutions for solving the reading-related
problems of the African American children. Language and grammar
are rarely mentioned, but poverty plays a central role (Cavanaugh
2007; Hochschild 2003; Hodgkinson 2002; Ludwig et al. 2001; Taylor
et al. 2003).
16 See Baugh (1983: 122); Oprah Winfrey Show (1989: 2); LeClaire
(1994: 123–124); Jordan (1989).
17 This is relevant not just to speakers of stigmatized varieties of English,
but also to those who would generally be said to speak *SAE. Graff
notes that his middle-class, middle-American students’ attempts to
write formally resulted in awkward, turgid prose because they were
forced to abandon the language they knew for one that was foreign to
them (Graff forthcoming).
18 Both academics and educators have written widely on the subject of
affirming the home language of students (Freeman 1975; Kinloch
2005; Parks 2000; Scott and National Council of Teachers of English
2009; Sledd 1983; Smitherman 1995b).
19 There is a third option for individuals who speak stigmatized language
varieties, and that is simple avoidance and isolation. Rather than
subject themselves to mockery or rejection, sometimes speakers of
such languages will simply refuse to engage. This is true in all
language communities.
20 I am thankful to John Baugh for directing my attention to Shelby
Steele’s writings, which he also analyzed in part in his 1994 NWAVE
presentation at Stanford.
Suggested further reading
Alim, H.S. (2006) Roc the Mic Right: The Language of Hip Hop Culture. London and New York:
Routledge.