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Police officer suspended for handing "Ebonics" dictionary in May


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An HISD police officer created this "Ebonics" dictionary seen here: http://blogs.houstonpress.com/houstoned/20...sd_police_o.php

He found trouble with the district: http://www.chron.com/disp/commnts.mpl/head...ro/5097092.html

As of August 31 he has been suspended: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/5097883.html

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HISD is 8% White.

The White people in HISD are concentrated in the Lamar, Bellaire, and Westside feeder patterns and the feeder schools.

Hmmmm........interesting. "Last year of the 202,000 students in HISD, 30 percent were black and 60 percent Hispanic. " That leaves 10% OTHERS ? Where are all the white kids ? My guess, suburbs and private schools.
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I don't understand what the officer did wrong? He made a guide of common slang words used by kids today.

Quannell 10 was on the news tonight yelling that this officer needed to be "fired AND terminated". Well, which one do you want, Stupid? Maybe he needs a REGULAR dictionary to understand that these two words, in that context, have the same meaning.

I ____ing hate this bull____ PC society I live in.

Edited by Jeebus
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I don't understand what the officer did wrong? He made a guide of common slang words used by kids today.

Quannell 10 was on the news tonight yelling that this officer needed to be "fired AND terminated". Well, which one do you want, Stupid? Maybe he needs a REGULAR dictionary to understand that these two words, in that context, have the same meaning.

I ____ing hate this bull____ PC society I live in.

it is ironic that the officer's wife is black and their children are interracial.

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it is ironic that the officer's wife is black and their children are interracial.

I've not been following the news lately, busy with school and sports, but does the news cover this fact in the news stories? My guess is that its rarely touched upon because its not sensational enough and totally blows the racist angle of the story.

What in the heck did Houston do to deserve Quannell? Its perhaps on of the most racially tolerate cities in the South, yet this man is blasting his mouth constantly.

Edited by KatieDidIt
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I've not been following the news lately, busy with school and sports, but does the news cover this fact in the news stories? My guess is that its rarely touched upon because its not sensational enough and totally blows the racist angle of the story.

i did see it on 13 but most are now focusing on Q's statement.

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If anything I was disappointed when I read it. The officer barely scratched the surface for modern slang and ebonics. I bet I could make a single spaced, double column dictionary 20 pages long of actually used terms here in Houston.

For what its worth, if they do "fire and terminate" this guy. Then I hope he sues the ____ out of HISD, like Imus did CBS.

Edited by Jeebus
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Quanell 10 (Classic, Jeebus!), is just trying to get a few minutes of fame in this whole thing.

The only crime this officer should be accused of is not passing it through the chain as a CYA measure. If anything such booklets are necessary as it's far too often that it happens that slang is created and changing almost constantly.

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The only crime this officer should be accused of is not passing it through the chain as a CYA measure. If anything such booklets are necessary as it's far too often that it happens that slang is created and changing almost constantly.

No kidding. Race very clearly not being a factor, the implicit message to HISD staff seems to be to pretend not to comprehend or acknowledge the existence of slang. Does this mean that the next time a teacher turns in a student for saying to a buddy that "he wants to buy some grass," the student can just say that he needed a few pallets of St. Augustine and get away with it?

mka0047l.jpg

Edited by TheNiche
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In one of my business classes, my teacher said in Oakland, they were going to offer Ebonics as a foreign language credit.

Your business teacher is misinformed. Oakland did not and never had any intention of offering "Ebonics" for foreign languge credit. I live in a community very close to Oakland, am aware of and have first knowledge of the "Ebonics" controversy that occured there in 1996-97 and know that is simply not true.

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  • 1 month later...

California was all over Ebonics and tried to get it taught in the public schools. The state university system ran with it. You can still see remanants in the Urban Studies and women studies classes.. This site has the actual text:

The Notorious Ebonics Resolution of Oakland, California

On December 18, 1996, the Board of Education of Oakland, California, passed a resolution concerning "Ebonics" or what used to be called Black English.

The Resolution of December 18, 1996

WHEREAS, numerous validated scholarly studies demonstrate that African-American students as a part of their culture and history as African people possess and utilize a language described in various scholarly approaches as "Ebonics" (literally "Black sounds") or "Pan-African Communication Behavior" or "African Language Systems"; and WHEREAS, these studies have also demonstrated that African Language Systems are genetically based and not a dialect of English; and WHEREAS, these studies demonstrate that such West and Niger-Congo African languages have been officially recognized and addressed in the mainstream public educational community as worth of study, understanding or application of its principles, laws and structures for the benefit of African-American students both in terms of positive appreciation of the language and these students' acquisition and mastery of English language skills; and

WHEREAS, such recognition by scholars has given rise over the past fifteen years to legislation passed by the State of California recognizing the unique language stature of descendants of slaves, with such legislation being prejudicially and unconstitutionally vetoed repeatedly by various California state governors; and

WHEREAS, judicial cases in states other than California have recognized the unique language stature of African-American pupils, and such recognition by courts has resulted in court-mandated educational programs which have substantially benefited African American children in the interest of vindicating their equal protection of the law rights under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution; and

WHEREAS, the Federal Bilingual Education Act (20 U.S.C. 1402 et seq) mandates that local educational agencies "build their capacities to establish, implement and sustain programs of instruction for children and youth of limited English proficiency; and .....

http://www.dandrake.com/ebonics.html

Anyone hypocritical enough to think the HISD police officer was racist is a racist. Only blacks can speak certain words? Since when? Enough with the color thing--it's so over. Get with the program Quanell X types- it's not what color you are, it's the content of your character, and whether or not you can speak English.

Edited by Toggle3
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California was all over Ebonics and tried to get it taught in the public schools. The state university system ran with it. You can still see remanants in the Urban Studies and women studies classes..

Wait, which districts? When? What sources document ebonics movements other than in Oakland?

Also, for an "Urban Studies" class, knowing community lingo would help studying impoverished communities. For instance, Skip Hollandsworth, the author of the 2006 Texas Monthly article "Southwest Houston after Dark," mentions that many Hispanic gangsters use the n-word to address each other. Leaders of "cliques" (independent units) of gangs are called "OGs" or "original gangsters." In an "urban studies" class one has to learn lingo in order to familiarize themselves with social problems such as the gangs described in the article.

See: http://www.texasmonthly.com/2006-12-01/feature4-4.php

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Based on the comments I've seen about African American English (aka Ebonics) on this thread, it's clear that some people on this board only want to criticize, condemn, and ridicule African American English and its speakers. For those who would like to read about and understand more about African American English, however, there are many authoritative texts. The titles of two books follow below. The first book, written specifically for a lay audience, is by a Stanford University linguistics professor. The second, a more technical book, is by a linguistics professor formerly on the faculty at University of Texas- Austin, currently at the University of Masssachusetts- Amherst.

Spoken Soul: The Story of Black English

John Russell Rickford & Russell John Rickford

Wiley: 2000

African American English: A Linguistic Introduction

Lisa J. Green

Cambridge University Press: 2000

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Wait, which districts? When? What sources document ebonics movements other than in Oakland?

The controversy over and discussions about African American English are nothing new. In 1979, there was a federal district court case --Martin Luther King Junior Elementary School Children vs. Ann Arbor School District (1979)-- that involved African American English at that time commonly referred to as Black English. Like the situation in Oakland, there was quite a bit written about the MLK vs AASD court case at the time, some reasoned and authoritative. African American English was also widely discussed and debated in the 1960s. In the 18th century, people were commenting on African American English. This is discussed in the book and the companion video, The Story of English, which included a chapter/segment--Black on White-- that is devoted entirely to the topic of African American English.

Edited by millennica
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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...

To be honest, I think an "Ebonics" dictionary would be helpful. Do any of these people have any idea how many slang terms young people use to hide stuff from older figures of authority? IMO we should just somehow get rid of all these fools that bawk about stuff being racist. They really do make for an unprogressive America as a whole.

And I don't understand why the African American community endorses such people as Quanell X.. It just blows my mind.

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