The Ebonics debate has brought forth many opinions from the nation. A large majority of theses have been negative. Surprisingly, a large portion of the objections have not just come from the Caucasian community but from the African-American community. James Hill, a staff writer for the Chicago Tribune, discusses his feelings in his article "Say What? Watch Your Language". He states, "I must admit, the recent decision by the school board in Oakland left me in quite a quandary at first. I didn't know whether I should be excited as an American of African descent that the language I had heard and used on the streets in Detroit was being held up as legitimate. Or if I should be mad as hell at the fact that a

language I was told was 'improper', was being viewed as 'unique' and 'important'. Now, I'm just insulted." He continues by saying, "And it's not that I don't still occasionally use Ebonics. I can't tell you how many times I have 'axed' the question 'Where he at?' But that doesn't make me bilingual. Ebonics is a dialect, not a language. Webster's defines dialect as 'popularly, any form of speech considered as deviating from a real or imaginary standard speech. The form or variety of a spoken language peculiar to a region, community, social group, occupational group, etc. (in this sense, dialects are regarded as being, to some degree, mutually intelligible while languages are not mutually intelligible).'" (608)

Nick Buford posted this in an opinion article on the California State Senate website, "President John Kennedy once said that 'A child miseducated is a child lost.' Ebonics has fast become a statewide concern because it promises to miseducate an entire generation of children by lowering academic standards, condemning students to under perform." (1). This brings about the second point. Ebonics was intended to help bridge the gap between street slang and Standard English in African-American students, not segregate the two. Twenty-six years ago, Brooklyn College offered a course whi

Some common words found in the essay are:
American African, Board Education, Asian Appalachian, Black English, Education Education, John Kennedy, African American, Cosby Legitimizing, , Watch Language, ebonics debate, vs board, brown vs, board education, standard english, slang standard, vs board education, brown vs board, black english,
Approximate Word count = 872
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)