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<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">I have, thankfully, been getting a series of posts from Gabe Kaimowitz referring to a</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">not-yet-aired PBS program in the "Do You Speak American?" series, which will air in January.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">I don't know if it is being heavily discussed elsewhere - if so, please forgive this redundant</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">posting to linganth (and a number of individuals, incl. those named by GK), and let me know where.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Below I introduce the topic, give a few quotes from Kaimowitz's messages to (I hope) clarify</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">his claims, and present a few of my own beliefs. I would be happy if people respond to this,</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">as much as anything to (a) point out where I may be in error, and (b) update me on aspects</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">of the debate that I may be missing over here in England.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">First, let me say that I would be very grateful if one of my friends in the US could arrange to</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">record it for me, esp onto a DVD format, for my own educational uses only. </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">(I will of course pay costs.) Any volunteers will be welcomed!</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Second, I am not sure whose list I am on that is sending them, but as I say I am grateful. I missed</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">the NWAV meeting in Ann Arbor at which a rough clip was aired, and discussion took place. I am sure</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">it was well-aired there - sorry to come in late. Are people on the list interested in this topic? I don't </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">have a lot of time to contribute, but would like to be in on any discussion. </FONT>
</P>
<P> <FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Kaimowitz, who was lead litigator in the 1979 MLK school case about teaching English </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">to Black English speakers in Ann Arbor, seems to take issue - not very clearly, at any rate I am </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">not very clear on how, but very vociferously - with nearly everything that has happened since to </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">legitimise AAVE as a dialect. He claims to have the broad support of Bill Labov for this, which </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">I am pretty certain cannot be the case, and blames Geneva Smitherman (and James Baldwin, </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">oddly enough) for it. He also suggests that there is a split along black/white lines, which is </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">certainly not true among linguists, and along class lines within the black community, such that </FONT>
</P>
<P> <FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">"</FONT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Black English dialect is spoken by poor blacks, reviled by middle class blacks</FONT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">"</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">and "</FONT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">For most dialects, but especially Black English</FONT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">...</FONT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">, their development occurred as </FONT>
<BR> <FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">a means of poor people to trade, to communicate with others with whom they had </FONT>
<BR> <FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">business, not as a language in the schools. As you will see, even Geneva feared </FONT>
<BR> <FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">"Ebonics" which intended to legitimize Black English as a language.</FONT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">"</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">and</FONT>
<BR> <FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">"</FONT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Judge Joiner's opinion</FONT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">...</FONT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">recognizes specifically the applicability of the dialect in </FONT>
<BR> <FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">the main to poor blacks</FONT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">...O</FONT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">nce the Ann Arbor plaintiffs prevailed, Dr. Smitherman</FONT>
<BR> <FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">took off on her own into and with her middle class black community, e.g. The Black </FONT>
<BR> <FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Scholar, into academia and away from the street where Black English has real meaning</FONT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">"</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">He claims </FONT>
<BR> <FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">"[PBS gives the]</FONT> <FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">misleading impression that</FONT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial"></FONT> <FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">the litigation focused on establishing the</FONT>
<BR> <FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">legitimacy of Black English dialect, and</FONT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial"></FONT> <FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">succeeded in that effort, through its black</FONT>
<BR> <FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">attorney(s) and linguist(s), and their white</FONT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial"></FONT> <FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">supporters</FONT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">", but that "</FONT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">the plaintiffs received </FONT>
<BR> <FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">little or no benefit</FONT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">"</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">He recognizes that</FONT>
<BR> <FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">"</FONT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">what we succeeded in doing was to legitimize Black English dialect, as a language </FONT>
<BR> <FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">under a statute previously believed to have referred only to foreign languages. We </FONT>
<BR> <FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">capitalized on the omission of the word "foreign"</FONT> <FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">..."</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">An old NY Times report, which GK endorses, notes that Kaimowitz's original</FONT>
<BR> <FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">"</FONT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">constitutional argument,</FONT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial"></FONT> <FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">rejected at the outset by Judge Joiner,</FONT> <FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">[was]</FONT> <FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">that</FONT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial"></FONT> <FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">the fundamental</FONT>
<BR> <FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">problem underlying</FONT> <FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">[the]</FONT> <FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">children's</FONT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial"></FONT> <FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">linguistic handicaps is not racial but social</FONT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial"></FONT> <FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">and economic.</FONT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">"</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Finally,</FONT>
<BR> <FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">"now... [much] later,</FONT> <FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">along comes PBS, to "wish away"</FONT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial"></FONT> <FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">the debate which continues to this day, </FONT>
<BR> <FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">and to envision a "melting pot" where each of us multiculturally speaks his or her tongue and it's all good.</FONT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">..</FONT>
<BR> <FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Class, intra-racial conflict, controversy are deleted from the current PBS vernacular. So I objected.</FONT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">"</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">I am less concerned to get Kaimowitz's objections exactly right - that may not be possible given what I see as his</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">somewhat confused expression of them, which I have tried to order a bit above - than to understand, from afar, </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">what if anything is being debated now and why. I am also not inclined to go into his demonization of particular</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">linguists who are widely respected, both personally and professionally, in the field - though I regret it.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Here are some of the things I believe to be true, which both go against and agree with some of GK's points:</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">* There is a class dimension to the production of AAVE, as GK says.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">* However, many middle class black people also speak AAVE, which he seems to deny.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">* There is a class dimension to the evaluation of AAVE, as GK says.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">* However, many middle class speakers also positively evaluate it, while many working-class speakers are also conflicted.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">* This is due not to any simple class-based division, but rather to a powerful linguistic ideology which affects both class groups.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">* Kaimowitz's statement that AAVE only has "real meaning" on "the street" is a typical classist/racist stereotypical interpretation of AAVE,</FONT></P>
<P> <FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">the sort of thing argued against by many linguists, black and (then?) white, etc., in recent years.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">* GK's argument also sounds to me like a classic leftist one, ignoring (the value of) ethnic distinctions in favor of (potentially unifying) class issues.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">* This position may be being stretched here to include the rejection of dialect or language maintenance as an expression of ethnic identity,</FONT></P>
<P> <FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">at any rate where such maintenance is the causal factor behind poor educational performance (as GK apparently believes).</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">* Such a view presupposes that achieving monolingualism in a dominant standard is the best thing for discriminated groups and speakers.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">* However, there is certainly no consensus among linguists supporting the idea that maintenance of a discriminated non-standard language </FONT></P>
<P> <FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">is a causal factor behind poor educational performance - broadly, the opposite is generally believed (maintenance is good, also education </FONT></P>
<P> <FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">into standard speech which takes account of language/dialect background), with plenty of room for discussion and more research.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">* Most sociolinguists would probably agree that any sea change in attitudes towards AAVE, and resulting educational changes, is too recent and</FONT></P>
<P> <FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">incompletely achieved to have borne fruit yet in a general way. </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">* Any legitimisation in law achieved by the case, or since, cannot be restricted in effect to one economic stratum, and should not be.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">* Such legitimisation in law was in fact achieved by the case, as GK admits, but which he seems to wish had never happened.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">* He as litigant appears to have knowingly and successfully taken advantage of the analogy to foreign languages to achieve this.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">* This same strategy was one of the goals of the first 1996 Oakland Ebonics resolution, but it was not achieved, as witness the second one.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">* GK seems angry at PBS specifically for claiming that there is a consensus on the positive valuing of AAVE, and the institutionalization</FONT></P>
<P> <FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">(as halting and incomplete as it is) of that positive evaluation in the education system and society more broadly. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">* This anger seems to be motivated by a genuine belief that bad things for black people will follow.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">* But nevertheless there is such a consensus among linguists, at least.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">* GK seems to claim that there is much more controversy over it in the African American community, which is probably true,</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">* But this is at least partly due to the hegemonic acceptance of the prevailing linguistic ideology. (This can be supported by language</FONT></P>
<P> <FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">attitudes literature - see my webpage on such lit. regarding AAVE, at </FONT><A HREF="http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~patrickp/aavesem/attitudes.htm"><U><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~patrickp/aavesem/attitudes.htm</FONT></U></A><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">)</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">* That would suggest there is also more controversy over it in other ethnic communities, which is probably true - partly for the same reason -</FONT></P>
<P> <FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">though I don't think this rests on any firm foundation of research, it's just my own impression.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Well, I could go on, but I won't - please send me your responses, and feel free to repost this message in full. If you do it in part, of course I can't</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">be responsible for how it might be misinterpreted.</FONT>
</P>
<P> <FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">-peter patrick-</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT FACE="Copperplate Gothic Light">Prof Peter L Patrick</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Copperplate Gothic Light">Dept of Language and Linguistics</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Copperplate Gothic Light">University of Essex</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Copperplate Gothic Light">Wivenhoe Park</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Copperplate Gothic Light">Colchester CO4 3SQ, UK</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT FACE="Copperplate Gothic Light">E: patrickp@essex.ac.uk</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Copperplate Gothic Light">Ph: +44 (0) 1206 87.2088</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Copperplate Gothic Light">Web: privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~patrickp</FONT>
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