For some, it's a backward reference to the days of slavery.
For others, it's a successful way of teaching children how to speak English.
For now, it's a controversy over "Ebonics," "African American Vernacular English" or "Vernacular Black English."
A wave of controversy followed the Oakland, Calif., school board decision on Dec. 18 to use Ebonics, a dialect primarily used by African Americans across the country, as a method of teaching standard English. The debate continued at the University.
Ebonics is recognized as a social dialect by the American Speech, Language and Hearing Association. Its earmarks include the unconjugated use of verb "to be" - "He be hollering at us" - and dropping consonants at the end of words. Ebonics is also marked by double negatives, as in, "Didn't nobody see nothing."
LSA sophomore Angela Moore said she does not want to diminish the resolution, but said there are better options.
"I believe Ebonics stems from slavery, when my ancestors secretly learned English because they were not allowed to read or write. Such oppression impaired them from standard English," Moore said. "But today, we see the great-great-grandchildren of those enslaved, who not only eloquently speak standard English, but are prominent citizens of our country.
"One such person was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr."
Following a storm of protest and debate, the Oakland school board passed a series of revisions Wednesday, clarifying that students would not be taught in Ebonics and dropping any suggestion that Ebonics may be genetically based.
The dialect had been sharply criticized across the country. However, the resolution does not back down from the board's contention that Ebonics is a separate language.
Linguistics
For one University linguistics professor, the issue is nothing new. Since 1987, Prof. Rosina Lippi-Green has been teaching introductory linguistics courses and a class on language and discrimination.
She also has been on panels discussing Ebonics.
"I think that Dr. Martin Luther King would have informed himself about the issue and I think that he would have applauded it," Lippi-Green said.
Moore said she thinks King would have supported the move in an effort to reach equality.
"When I think of Dr. King, I envision a man with not only an open mind, but an open heart - one who wanted the best for the world at whole," she said. "I believe Dr. King would agree to trying anything in hopes of reaching equality."
Lippi-Green is writing a book about language and discrimination that may come with it, "English with an Accent: Language, Ideology, and Discrimination in the United States."
The Linguistic Society of America issued a resolution Jan. 3, agreeing and supporting the school board's decision.
It does not matter whether Ebonics is regarded as language or dialect, but it should be recognized no matter what it is, the statement said.
"For those living in the United States, there are also benefits in acquiring standard English and resources should be made available to all who aspire to mastery of standard English," the statement said. "The Oakland School Board's commitment to helping students master standard English is commendable."
Contributing to the debate are a series of misunderstandings, mostly due to incomplete media coverage, Lippi-Green said. She wrote a letter to the editor of The New York Times criticizing an editorial against the use of Ebonics in schools.
"The body of research on the history of the variety of American English or African American Vernacular English is anything but 'dubious,'" she said in the letter. "A more-thorough examination of the topic would have provided you with input from linguists who could make the facts available to you."
Oakland and Ann Arbor
In Oakland, where African American students make up 53 percent of the student body, the Los Angeles Times reported that only 37 percent of the students in the gifted-and-talented programs are African American, while 71 percent of the students in special education are African American.
The Times reported that the mean GPA of African Americans in the district was 1.8, while the district average was 2.4. African Americans make up 64 percent of the students who repeat the same grade and 80 percent of students who are suspended.
The board has denied any intention to seek additional bilingual-program funding from the program, and Lippi-Green said the board's intentions were good.
"Oakland formalized a situation that had been around awhile," Lippi-Green said. "They needed school funds and this was a viable thing to do."
Ebonics has also created a furor in Ann Arbor. In 1979, a case was filed in the federal courts against the Ann Arbor School District. Parents of some African American students said their children lacked the same educational opportunity as the rest of the students because the teachers were not sensitive to their dialect.
The court ruled the district should have programs helping teachers to recognize the dialect and develop methods to teach students standard English.
LSA sophomore Monica Austin said using Ebonics is detrimental to the development of students.
"As an African American, I am quite disturbed over the recent Ebonics issue. I feel that incorporating Ebonics into the classroom environment will further deteriorate an already battered English language," Austin said. "More importantly, using 'Ebonics' in schools promotes and perpetuates the widening gap between Caucasians, African Americans and other minority groups."
Austin said she believes that if Ebonics is used in the classroom, children will think the dialect is passable in spoken conversation.
"I believe that having the teachers in Oakland speaking Ebonics will give school-age children the notion that reverting from standard English is acceptable," Austin said.
Engineering sophomore Sarah Burnham said the issue depends on age.
"If the resolution is instituted in high schools, it might be needed, but the younger students would think that this was correct when it is actually slang," she said.
Nuances of terminology
The phrase "Ebonics" was developed in 1973 and is known to have roots in West Africa.
The word is a combination of "ebony" and "phonics," and refers to the dialect spoken primarily by some African Americans.
Lippi-Green said the use of this term created unforeseen problems for the board, because people focused on the term itself instead of the issue. She said she believes this is an old term.
Austin also said that at one time this was the only dialect spoken in the African American community, but it is no longer necessary.
"Our slave ancestors had no choice but to speak a broken, tattered form of English, as they were not given the education to speak properly," Austin said. "If we as a people continue to speak as if we lack education we are both disgracing the memory of our ancestors' struggles to make the world better for us, and we are disgracing ourselves."
The original language of the board's resolution said Ebonics was "genetically based," angering many across the country and creating more problems for the board.
"Whereas, these studies have also demonstrated that African Language systems are genetically based and not a dialect of English," the resolution read.
"African Language Systems have origins in west (African) and Niger-Congo languages and are not merely dialects of English," the revised resolution reads.
Lippi-Green said she strongly disagrees because no substantial argument supports this contention, and this would significantly weaken the board's objective.
Lippi-Green said she prefers to call it African American Vernacular English.
"AAVE is a functioning, productional form of English. The misfortune is that people refuse to listen," she said. "People need to be more open-minded."
Reaction
University NAACP President Loren McGhee said Ebonics is a step in the wrong direction.
"Insinuating that black students do not have the intellectual capacity to learn 'Standard English' is not only politically incorrect, but racist in itself," she said.
McGhee offered her own solution.
"Perhaps a better solution, and a better utilization of public money, to the problems of inner-city teachers not understanding students would be a series of workshops that could incorporate linguistics as well as a sociopolitical awareness of black urban youth," she said.
Many notable authors, talk-show hosts and public speakers have spoken candidly about their position on the issue.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson was one of the first to speak to the public, criticizing the board's decision. He has since retracted some of his statements.
Lippi-Green said Jackson's comments show he does not understand the difference between Ebonics speakers and non-Ebonics speakers. Lippi-Green said Jackson himself speaks AAVE and should not criticize the dialect.
"There is a large gap between AAVE speakers and non-AAVE speakers and there is a difference in the way that blacks and whites define it," she said.
"Jesse Jackson doesn't realize the size of the gap."
Jackson is not the only black person who has voiced his opinion. Poet Maya Angelou and talk-show host Oprah Winfrey both disagree with the idea of Ebonics. However, it does have supporters, including Pulitzer Prize-winning author and Princeton University Prof. Toni Morrison.
Lippi-Green said the media has focused more on the opposition to the resolution than the supporters of it.
Austin also said blacks have constantly struggled and this only adds to the problem.
"African Americans as a group have been systematically excluded in this society for generation. It has been a constant struggle for all of us to succeed in this country, to improve our lives in comparison to the lives of our ancestors," Austin said. "I feel as if promoting Ebonics - a gross and degrading deviation of standard English - will only push our progress as a people back a few hundred years."
Lippi-Green said Ebonics causes such a hot debate because it raises an important question, which needs to be addressed.
"Why are people threatened of an idea that AAVE speakers refuse to be in the mainstream?" she said.
She said white people know they are not supposed to discriminate, but cannot understand why a community still wants to remain different.
"Whites are threatened because they think that they made the door opened and it makes them crazy when a community continues to separate itself," Lippi-Green said.
Moore said she recognizes the the approach her ancestors used to learn standard English. Her grandmother, who was from Trinidad, used standard English in reading and writing and observed those who spoke standard English.
"I feel this approach is possible if one has pride and love for this country. Instead of worrying about standard English at the present moment, our society must reflect on our blessing," Moore said. "For as my grandmother once said, 'I am here, this melting pot, the land of opportunity, America the Beautiful.'"
- Daily wire services contributed to this report.