Do only African Americans speak Ebonics?

Question

Just wondering why people think its a black thing, and why black people who speak it think I look down on them. I think it't the other way around; Black people who speak ebonics look down on me because I don't speak it and feel there is no excuse for anyone who does. Most people who speak ebonics choose to do so because they're afraid that the other black people will think they're a sell out. Well you know what? Call me a sell out, because I will not degrade myself to speaking ebonics to get others to accept me. Sorry if I hurt anyone's feelings.

Answer 1

I would hope that only the one group speaks that horrendous deviation from decent language. The very fact they speke that fills me with racist thoughts, full of loathing and contempt.

Ebonics and ghettospeak should be abandoned and forgotten, isn't English rich enough that less perverted forms of talk can't be adopted? Of course, they may be practiced deliberately to keep outsiders out, but then don't rail about ghettos being left where they are.

Answer 2

You know, there is such thing as local dialects and slang terms which aren't restricted to a certain race. Once again, do not generalize all black people when making bogus statements such as this, there are many blacks who do not use 'ebonics.' It is not a different language, is is simply a form of slang, or vernacular, such as all states have different slang terms, they are not always specific to certain races. Just because you adopt some slang into your vocabulary does not make you an uneducated person. Plus, there is a time and a place to speak in certain ways, for example, with your friends people of ALL races tend to speak in slang term, whereas when they are addressing people of authority, such as teachers or employers, they speak standard english. And perhaps you shouldn't be so quick to judge someones intellect because of how they talk, they may speak in slang, but they could have an IQ the size of Albert Einsteins. People should THINK about that before they prejudge.

Answer 3

Thanks. It is very refreshing to find the truth in something like that.
Ebonics is just an excuse to not get enough education to talk plainly. many whites as well as blacks *and cockneys of england) speak with a hard to understand accent or they mis use words, and have been for centuries. Blacks leaders attempted ot use ebonics as an alternative language just to be different, and it has only hurt black students who use it.
It's a lot like soem of the young guys at work (black and white) who are not hired because they refuse to put on a pair of pants that will stay up. Instead they can not do their job because they need one hand to hold their pants up all day.
UIt looks silly, nasty and stupid but they do it because they think it is expected of them by their peers. or the ones sititng on the sidewalk all day they run with.

Answer 4

Yes, I think only African Americans speak ebonics, because only in America's politically correct culture would special interest group pressure make the incorrect use of english it's own language.

Answer 5

No, actually, they don't. Other's speak it too, particularly those non-African Americans who live within or adjecent to regions where Ebonics is the primary vernacular.

Ebonics, more properly called African American Vernacular English, sometimes called Black English Vernacular, is not an "inferior" vernacular, it's just considered that way because of the social class of the groups of people who gave birth to it. Even worse, there are myths that represent AAVE as the result of physical inferiorities, rather than a distinct vernacular.

AAVE's detractors don't understand it very well. They think it's slang or street trash, even a sign of lack of intelligence or education; but AAVE has a rich history that has more to do with the circumstances of the generations of people who were a part of its development, rather than a real indicator of education, intellect, or prestige. AAVE came about from people who were denied access to educational and financial resources that for example, the people in Martha's Vineyard had when they developed their Massachusettes vernacular (commony associated with the Kennedys). It didn't help when the Oakland Board of Education decided Ebonics was inferior and wanted to legislate its eradication.

It's like everything else. If you buy a watch a dollar store, you have less prestige than if you buy it at Sak's Fifth Avenue. Because AAVE is a part of a social class that has a long history of being considered inferior, unintelligent, and uneducated, AAVE has the distinction of being considered inferior, unintelligent, and uneducated.

Because language is one of the very first indicators of social standing and AAVE is one of the primary targets in racial tensions, it often gets relegated to the role of defining "Us" and "Them", no matter where you are, racially or socially.

Are you selling out if you don't speak AAVE? As a person who loves language and understands that everyone has a vernacular and that vernacular's association with social class ranks its prestige, I don't think you are. You're doing what you do because you're you and that's how you choose to be. There is nothing wrong with that. The fact is that, like southern redneck Vernacular, AAVE is currently considered something uneducated, inferior people use---not consciously, but subconciously. A law firm will not hire an interviewing lawyer if he or she speaks AAVE because AAVE will have negative impacts on their clientele. They want someone that sounds like a Kennedy. If AAVE had a positive impact on clients, they'd hire people who spoke it.

I don't think speaking AAVE is degrading, nor does choosing to speak it degrade those who do so. Vernaculars do not have inherent inferiority or superiority. They do, however, have a communal history. It took generations upon generations for AAVE to grow into what it is today. I believe that considering AAVE an inferior way to speak, or degrading it, degrades the long history of people who developed it. Like all groups, some of those people deserve contempt, but most of them were doing the best they could with the resources they had. I think that we'd all go a long way to getting along with each other if we could understand and appreciate differences, like how AAVE brings rhythm, smoothness, and musical depth to the English language.

Of course, that doesn't dismiss reality. Reality is that we judge others as inferior or superior based on a number of things, and language is first among them. AAVE's place in social class standings is a low one. It shouldn't be, but perfect equality is not what we've got to work with.

Answer 6

Everybody wants to feel as though they have contributed to our culture, there is nothing wrong with that! But why do black people want to start a new trend, word, craze, every two months? Like, they say they Americans don't let them fit in, but insist on having their own way of dress, mannerisms and dialect, WAY different than ALL assimilated, second-generation ethnicities in the U.S., and when someone like Eminem comes along they dislike him (And no, that's not just the way rap is). And the funniest thing by far is, their "white women we rule" thing...lol Even though it is funny, date who you want, but realize two things...firstly, compared to other second-generation ethnicities in America, by percentage of said ethnicities IN America, dating and marrying white women, they're WAY at the bottom of the RULE list...secondly, realize everyone dates. Why so much emphasis on being the "coolest" or "tightest" or whatever word you will make up next week for what you want to people in America to think you are the most at? World-wide, socially, that pubescent stage of the psychological "need" to feel the "coolest", should leave at around age 16 according to psychological manuals. It makes some, take some, less seriously......and sorta laugh a little. How long HAVE you been here? You're AMERICANS! Relax, smile a little, be yourself, and of course, you can still be the "coolest" if you want to. Sorry if I have hurt anybody's feelings also.

Answer 7

Uh... I'm very white and when I was in high school I was told that I speak in Ebonics. I don't think that it's so much your race but where you were raised and how everyone else around you spoke.

Answer 8

you know what ..Ive dealt with this issue all throughout school mostly high school
I wasn't apart of Ebony club most people in their had this mentality that if you were black you had to be in the club or hang around blacks like them (who spoke slang) (Ebonics) etc
I was very different I grew up around people who did not speak like them and my mother spoke very clear and proper
I would sell myself out to try to fit in with me
the "black girls" of the school didn't like me
I feel that other cultures have the same thing Ebonics is like slang and EVERY RACE has it
whites:things like "dude"
Mexicans:"Que pa so"

so to answer your question all cultures have it but "Ebonics" is a term to describe the dialect we picked up English w/African since slavery

Answer 9

I'm not african-american. I don't speak it but do understand it. It is not african-americans who speak the language but poor people. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. never spoke it. I don't speak it and never will. You need to speak standard english to be understood. not ebonics

Answer 10

i know more white people that speak ebonics than black people.