An Ebonics Class- Why?
I recently spoke with a young lady who had just finished her freshman year at the University of Illinois. I love talking to young minds because it gives me an idea of what’s going on in the world’s of our young people (that sounded real old, but true).
After talking about living away from home, majors, frats and sororities, (you know the regular stuff) I asked her what was her most interesting class. She said it was “Ebonics.” Although she is Nigerian and still has an accent, I thought I didn’t hear her correctly, so I asked her to repeat herself. She said it slow and clear as a bell. I just couldn’t believe that she was serious. So I asked her to tell me about the class and who was in it.
She expressed to me that the class was about different Black slang dialects like Chicago, Atlanta, New York, New Orleans, L.A. They learned how to understand the slang of Black people from different regions. It makes sense, but it’s not a college class that you should get credit for or have your parents pay their hard earned money for. She said that it is under the Linguistics category entitled African American Vernacular English and was very popular.
Now if that class was offered when I was in school, I would have taken it in a heartbeat because I needed as many easy A’s as I could get to help my struggling G.P.A. So of course I asked her who was in her class? Now this is what really floored me because I was thinking that if there was a class that was going to give me credit for learning about stuff I already knew, I would have been all over it. My first thought is that young brothers and sisters are getting over in this class. But back to the point. When I asked her who was in her class she said it was predominately white boys and asian students (please click on this link and take a look at the ebonics reference book with japanese translation…hilarious.)
I must have really looked like I didn’t understand her because I asked her to repeat herself again. It seemed as if the music was getting louder at the graduation party we were attending, so I asked her one last question. “Why do you think there so many white boys in your class?”
She said, “I don’t know. Maybe it’s because they want to learn how to talk and understand Black people.” I was sick. Can you really learn how to communicate with Black people from a class? Maybe, next semester, they will be introduced to Black people who speak standard english.
She said that the class wasn’t easy because she got a “B”. I guess it isn’t easy being Black or learning how to speak Black, either.
