The “Ebonics” Controversy

Mike tells Sarah how a simple idea in a single school district became a nationwide racial panic. Digressions include slasher movies, Space Invaders and homeschooling. The taglines are becoming more esoteric.

Thanks to our special guests Dionna Latimer-Hearn and Daniel Russell!

• Mike’s video!
• The abstract of Dionna’s Ph.D. dissertation, which won the the AERA Minority Dissertation Fellowship Award!
• The full text of the “Ebonics” resolution
• Transcript of the Congressional hearing
• James Baldwin’s 1979 op-ed, “If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?”
• William Labov’s 1972 Atlantic article, “Academic Ignorance and Black Intelligence”
• A history of “cultural deficit theory”