Debate over Ebonics masks racism

By Linda Prendez, Daily Forty-Niner

February 26, 1997

An internationally renowned scholar of multicultural education said Friday that the issue of ebonics is plagued by hysterics and that insipid racism hides behind arguments against the use of the language in schools.

"Ebonics is socially undesirable. It's only desirable if the mainstream accepts it," said Dr. Geneva Gay, a professor of education at the University of Washington.

Gay, who was the guest lecturer on a panel presented by the Cal State Long Beach College of Education for Black History month said, "Taking [ebonics] away would destroy African-American culture."

Gay said that the ebonics debate has become a socially acceptable arena for people to act out their racist prejudices.

An expert in curriculum design and classroom instruction, Gay said that good education extends and builds upon what a student already knows. She said that using ebonics as a "communication bridge" would invariably be beneficial to students in African-American communities.

Classroom instruction should be culturally responsive and educators should explain to children that ebonics is unacceptable in certain circumstances, Gay said.

"[Educators] must learn how to teach cultural editing," she said. By using ebonics as a base, she said educators can teach children to translate their normal speech patterns into acceptable forms when necessary.

Gay said that if African-Americans used standard English in particular situations it would be unacceptable.

"I can't talk to my mother as a college professor. She doesn't speak that way," said Gay. "We need ebonics to communicate with crucial people in our lives."

"Cultural impulses naturally carry over into writing," Gay said. "When I speak in my home language I think clearer but when I write in my cultural style it is unacceptable."

Teaching students how to balance and shift between ebonics and standard English would help them become skilled and effective communicators, she said.

Opponents argue that using ebonics in schools would pose an intellectual road block to students. Gay challenged that notion commenting that she became a more proficient learner after she overcame the stigma of speaking ebonics and learned how to shift between personal and professional modes of speech.

Gay also criticized opponents by saying their arguments carry no authority because they are not educators and therefore do