In other words, such people advocate a double standard, which is just another way of saying that they advocate a form of racial discrimination. Ironically, when they insist on speaking “da’ way dey do in da’ hood” (as if the “th” sound is just too hard to make for black folks) and when they suffer the predictable consequences because speaking that way makes them sound stupid and uneducated to many potential employers, they then claim that they have suffered from racial discrimination, when the reality is that it is racially discriminatory to hold black folks to a different behavioral standard on account of their skin pigmentation. A similar phenomenon can be seen with regard to the constant use of certain types of profanity, such as the socially offensive word which refers to a person who commits maternal incest, and also to the “n word”, which one is apparently allowed to say if one is black, judging by the behavior of a lot of inner city black folks.

Thanks to the “one drop rule,” mixed race people such as Lena Horne and Halle Berry have often identified themselves as “black,” even though they sometimes have such light skin that they can easily pass as white. How are such people supposed to decide whether or not they’re allowed to use “ebonics”? What’s the rule of thumb? If you take an opinion poll and the majority says that one subjectively looks black or at least “black enough,” then ebonics is O.K. or even expected? Talk about arbitrary!

I grew up in the Ozarks. Some of the people there spoke in a grammatically proper manner (as did I, thanks in part to the good influence of my maternal grandmother, who was an English teacher). Others (some of whom might have been described as “hillbillies”) did not. But we didn’t call it “hillbonics” or anything of the sort. We called it improper grammar, because that’s what it was. It is a disservice to children to teach them that ebonics is acceptable, because whether one likes it or not, the decision makers in this country do judge by first impressions. Speaking ebonics suggests that a person never paid close attention in the classroom, if he or she even went to class at all.

I guarantee you that Barack Obama never would have been elected President if he’d spoken the way that a lot of the blacks in Chicago speak. Perhaps if he’d just wanted to be elected alderman in a predominantly black ward, folks there wouldn’t have cared (unless he’d been a Republican, in which case he could just about kiss his chances of election goodbye, since there’s only one Republican alderman in the entire city of Chicago, according to a recent article in the Reader). But why kill one’s chances of further political advancement in the larger world? How exactly is that a form of empowerment?

Some of these German kids were still speaking with an Accent in the ’60’s in High School. With One Very Important difference. Their Parents understood that it was imperitive that their children learn and speak Proper English to succeed. Most still spoke German but also came to speak impeccable English. I stay in touch with many of these children of WWII. Almost ALL are very successful and speak Proper English. Oddly enough, we went to school with many other Eastern European kids (Serbian, Croation, Hungarian, etc.) that also experienced the same.

There isn’t a Good Excuse for Black Children to speak Ebonics. Failure is laziness. And speaking Ebonics at Home would be an easier transition to Standard English that German, Spanish, Japanese, etc. Time to STOP making excuses.