The regulars over on the Men’s Rights Subreddit are currently getting amused and/or outraged by the existence of a book titled “Girl, Get That Child Support,” a guide to help single mothers track down deadbeat dads and get the child support they are owed. A few of them were apparently so overstimulated by the book’s title, and a reference to “Baby Mamas” in the subtitle, that this little conversation ensued:
Note the upvotes and the (scarcity of) downvotes. And the complete lack of anyone saying “hey, you’re being racist assholes.”
The Men’s Rights Movement, the “most significant civil rights movement of the 3rd millennium.”
“ebonics”? What on earth is this? I don’t speak racist.
I’m gonna drop some uncomfortable ling student knowledge on your racist asses:
AAE.
It’s a dialect of English, just like whatever dialect you happen to speak.
The only difference between your dialect (presuming you speak the prestige dialect in your area) and AAE is that our society has decided that White, middle-class people are inherently better than Black people, and that therefore the native language of White, middle-class people is the “proper” way of speaking. The marginalization of AAE could not exist without racism. Congrats on being a part of the problem.
Also, WTF, “Ebonics”?? It’s 2012.
IIRC, it started out as a well-intentioned term to try to describe black American vernacular, but quickly got picked up by racist morons as a way to claim that black people were so dumb they didn’t even speak English, har har.
It was related to things Viscaria said, and to think Polliwog said. Because sounding white, and midwestern, is the privileged dialect in the US, and lots of kids in Oakland didn’t speak that way, the school system tried to get extra money to teach them, “proper” English.
Which led to a lot (A LOT) of racist shit.
Yeah, sorry, “Ebonics” was the first term used to describe the dialect that is now called either “African American English” or “African American Vernacular English”, the dialect that that many Black speakers control across the Unted States. I prefer AAE to AAVE, since “vernacular” implies it’s not a fully-functioning, independent language. Anyway, Polliwog’s right, the term was quickly taken over by racists.
Pecunium is a sneaky ninja!
AAVE is the term I learned; too bad it’s not that widely known.
Pecunium is an old fart, who remembers when this was all new; since he was living in Calif. at the time. It was while I was still planning to be a journalist.
It also relates to language, which I happen to rather like.
Learn something new every day. I didn’t even know there was a proper term for it, but I guess it makes sense. So…do white people speak in “ivorics” then?
MRAs: Looking out for the rights o fmen, so long as those men have the common decency to be white, straight, cis, and middle class
I’d prefer to speak ebonics than jerkonics.
MRAs: Once you’ve denied one privilege, the rest come easy!
The whole Ebonics thing was big when I was about 13 to 15.
Somehow I got the impression that part of it was an attempt to teach black students in AAE rather than “proper” English because black students would do better with teachers speaking AAE? But I fear I have got a badly mangled impression.
The history of AAE is fascinating but something I haven’t pursued deeply. As you might expect, it grew out of mixing African dialects with the English of the slavemasters in the States. Jamaican Patois and Haitian Creole have similar roots in mixing African dialects with English and French, respectively.
Language is fun, but often it is used to suggest that speakers of certain dialects are stupid or uneducated. I have got no beef with “ain’t,” and have been known to use it myself, but sadly it’ll hurt your chances of getting a job here in the States if you use it in an interview.
Nope, looks like I had a somewhat accurate impression after all.
>>MRAs: Looking out for the rights o fmen, so long as those men have the common decency to be white, straight, cis, and middle class
I think they’re okay with upper class as well. So “at least middle class”?
Nitpicky nitpicky.
I recommend Lisa J. Green’s rather good “African American English: a linguistic introduction”, and for the history of it John Russell Rickford’s “Spoken Soul: The Story of Black English”. Those are the two I have.
Also, wtf? That’s easily some of the more racist shit I’ve seen. Fuckin hell.
Yet more proof that the MRA movement is all about providing a space for crotchety straight white dudes to complain about how bad their lives are.
Let me go get a thimble to hold my shock.
I have to go tune the world’s tiniest violin. Where’s my loupe?
M Dubz: you can use it to store a tiny violin, too.
DAMMIT
It seems like he’s been tagging everything lately with “I’m Totally Being Sarcastic.”
Does anyone else agree that we realize when he’s being sarcastic, and no one who follows this blog would really be sensitive enough to think otherwise?
Yep, don’t speak red neck during an interview either. You will not be perceived as intelligent.
But there shouldn’t be anything wrong with speaking redneck, ebonics, or anything else in a casual situation.
@katz: I am the night.
Thx for the job tips, Ruby. Prolly depends on who you’re interviewing with, though, huh?
@Ruby
That’s the first thing I thought of too. What about heavy southern accents? how is that any different? although I think the whole “ha ha dumb redneck” is classicist.
I don’t know much about AAE topic but I always though it was sort of like an accent? it’s just another way of talking, what is the big deal? oh yeah…racism *sighs*