Steven Holland
Engl 1101
Dr. Hughes

Topic: The Ebonics Controversy

Oubré, Alondra. “Black English Vernacular (Ebonics) and Educability A Cross-Cultural Perspective on Language, Cognition, and Schooling” 1997

http://www.aawc.com/ebonicsarticle.html

Dr. Oubré states that one of the main causes of scholastic shortcomings of African American youth was the Oakland Public Unified School Board's attention to Ebonics. Dr. Oubré states that Ebonics brings down those who use it by saying, “The sad reality is that Blacks' poor performance in school only further reinforces for many Americans stereotypes of the intellectual inferiority of Black Africans” and “African American students who speak traditional Black dialects of the English language are less apt to do well in school because they generally cannot comprehend standard English.” Dr. Oubré obviously thinks that Ebonics is the cause of the academic downfall of many African Americans. Dr. Oubré also states that ”Black Americans earn IQ scores averaging 85 points compared to scores of about 100 for Euro-Americans and about 106 for Asian Americans of East Asian descent. IQ scores may not be an absolute or totally accurate measure of innate intelligence. But certainly they do say something about a person's cognitive ability to successfully function in American society,” which would suggest that the use of Ebonics could potentially bring down Black Americans’ intelligence. I plan to use this article to introduce the topic and to back it up with statistics. The article shows how Ebonics has caused controversy over African American education.


Rickford, John R. "The Ebonics controversy in my backyard:A sociolinguist's experiences and reflections" 1999.

http://www.stanford.edu/~rickford/papers/EbonicsInMyBackyard.html

This article basically explains the topic of the Oakland School Board Ebonics controversy. John Rickford explains what happened during the 1996 Ebonics controversy and provides background information about the controversy. I plan to use this article to provide information that is directly linked to the Oakland School Board Ebonics Controversy.