Blacks can't speak English - Bill Cosby

by closer2fine 129 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Corvin

  In the context of "education", the person, race or culture using such language or slang that deviates from properly used English is showing outwardly that they have little or no education. I am turned off as it is by what my gramma use to call "educated fools" posturing and blustering on the 6 oclock news and find it hard to swallow some of their bs . . . but when someone comes at me with ebonics and street slang, I am even more leary. To me, it's what the language itself represents, the culture, the anger, the lack of whatever . . .

  I am the first one from my family to be born and raised in California. All my other family members are from the south, Alabama, where you were darn smart for having completed the 6th grade. When I hear some of my relatives talk, I cringe and associate their verbage with ignorance and an aversion to knowledge.

  I think the Cos has made a valid point, but all races and cultures should take to heart what he said.

  Corvin
• 

  Leolaia

  So when we think of the "culture" associated with Black Vernacular, no one thinks anymore of Langston Hughes, Alice Walker, stylin' at the pulpit, signifyin', and blues music? :(
• 

  Room 215

  However or whatever we speak at home or within our particular culture, the jarring reality is that Standard English is the Lingua Franca of our society, and however much we prize our individuality and sense of identity with the peculiar idioms of our ethnicity or culture, sheer pragmatism compels us to acknowlede that simple reality.

  We can ignore that reality, it's our prerogative; but if we choose to, we should harbor no illusion that our choice will deter our assimilation into society at large and in the attainment of any one of many career goals we might have set for ourselves.

  It's as much a fact for a third-generation Italian-American raised in Brookyn or Applachian as it is for an African-American, or any other hyphenated American.
• 

  flower

  but I end up forcing myself to talk ghetto since I'm the only person talking like a "white guy". I

  this sums up the whole problem in one sentence. people who care more about what their 'homeys' think of them than they care about themselves, their future, their family ect.

  all that matters is being "cool". if being stupid is 'cool' then even smart people will act stupid as your statement implies. all that matters is what other people think.

  what i dont understand is why and how these black people in these areas have convinced themselves that learning and educating themselves linguistically, academically, culturally is 'acting white'. this kind of thinking makes me sick.

  racist people over the decades have tried to convince them that black people are second class humans who are incapable of anything involving intelligence. all blacks can do is play sports. and when people say that speaking proper english is 'sounding white' to me that just means that you have bought into there way of thinking. which is sad.

  i can only hope that i am successful in raising my kid to realize that being highly educated is not optional and if people make fun of him for acting and speaking intelligently, rather than stooping to their level, he will walk right by them with his head held high.....all the way to the bank. They will probably not be intelligent enough to see the irony when he is operating on them in the hospital after they get shot in some gang bang drug deal gone bad.
• 

  talesin

  No outside hope, it's only the people's decisions, and the people that are in those situations ONLY live with other people that think their lives are crap. People think they are just animals most of the time but they can reason, but they just can't do it it's their surroundings. I have no idea how they can stop it because human's naturally help out the people that they will get some kind of gain out of, so they leave the little people that live crap lives behind.

  Very insightful comment, Obviously Secret. It's called 'capitalism'. The people who are in control do not care about the poor, they just want to keep them in the inner cities, and then go on and on about how 'anybody can make it' if they really want to!

  I am sorry that you feel, however, that it is human nature. It is the nature of the powerful who have become successful, and remain so, on the backs of the poor. There are many people in the world who do help others for none other than altruistic reasons. Unfortunately, the caring, altruistic people do not control the purse strings of our society.
• 

  frenchbabyface

  Well I agree with Leoloia !

  and as Talisen said :

  The people who are in control do not care about the poor, they just want to keep them in the inner cities, and then go on and on about how 'anybody can make it' if they really want to!

  Good or bad English : (oustide of the bases) finally only a personnal statement
• 

  apple829

  but I end up forcing myself to talk ghetto since I'm the only person talking like a "white guy". I

  this sums up the whole problem in one sentence. people who care more about what their 'homeys' think of them than they care about themselves, their future, their family ect.

  all that matters is being "cool". if being stupid is 'cool' then even smart people will act stupid as your statement implies. all that matters is what other people think.

  Flower:

  I don't think people, and this kid in particular, necessarily care more about what their 'homeys' think than themselves. Sometimes, at best, it is a matter of acceptance and at worst, a matter of survival that he "fit in."

  I, too, have been accused of "talkin' like a white girl." And if I had to choose between adding "who dat" and "what it is" to my speech and being accepted or getting my a** kicked and being ostracized for "ackin' white," .......guess what I'd pick!

  Sherryl
• 

  Narkissos

  There's nothing as "democratic" as language. In language nobody rules (academies only record and analyze) and everybody (i.e., "usage") rules.

  Language is power? Yes, power to rule and power to subvert/overthrow the rulers...
• 

  flower

  Sherry,

  If your theory is correct then kids should also do drugs, have sex, cheat on tests, drink alcohol ect ect since there is peer pressure to do these things also. If they shouldnt cave in and do these things just to 'fit in', why should they lower themselves to poor language just to 'fit in'?

  Understandably, for kids in school fitting in is very important but there comes a point where they should know that its not THAT important. In these neighborhoods it starts with acting 'dumb' to fit in by talking like an idiot and it ends with robbing someone for the latest $200 shoes to fit in and ending up with a criminal record.

  I've been teased for 'talkin all proper' too but I joke about it and go on being who I am. I was raised in a normal mixed middle class area by black parents but it just so happened that I wasnt around the type of people who spoke in ghetto slang so I didnt pick it up. Its not part of who I am and I wouldnt add it to my speech just to fit the black american profile of who I should be.
• 

  Leolaia

  The situation in the US is quite comparable to what has happened historically in Hawaii. These quotes might sound a little familiar:

  "Pidgin English will hinder us, also, since it is the fashion to speak this short-cut jargon, and any attempt to speak the language of the educated people on the street, in the home or on the playground, will bring down upon our pupils the ridicule of their playfellows, and often of parents as well." (Education Report from 1921)

  "When I was in Central Grammar I know we were taught to speak correct English both in and outside of school but when I returned to Maui, my old friends made fun of my English which embarrassed me. They said I was 'stuck up' and 'you think you Haole (white)' so I had to use the pigeon English and I am having the hardest time breaking that habit." (high school girl, writing in the 1920s)

  "People may say that if we use good english we can have good jobs, but I think it is a 'hash' saying. The only persons that can have good jobs are the rich fellows. By rich fellows I most likely mean the 'haoles' (whites). When we students use good english we are sure that we will be called 'haoles.' And of course we hate to be called 'haoles' because of many reasons." (high school boy, writing in 1934)

  Boys were often teased as being "sissy" if they spoke Standard English too.