23 Search results for "standard english"

“Why don’t you hand in papers in Ebonics since that is how you talk?” I remember someone asking me this in my early days of grad school. I then explained that, as a student, it was my job to perform particular scholastic duties – including showing a mastery of the traditional APA, MLA, and Chicago […]

For the second year in a row, Fix—Grist’s solutions lab—put out a call for short stories for their climate- fiction contest: Imagine 2200: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors. Writers from across the globe activated their creativity and imaginations to offer visions of sustainability, justice, and hope. Dive into this story, The Metamorphosis of Marie Martin, […]

By Jae Nichelle There has been a language division among Black Americans for decades: African American Vernacular English (AAVE) vs. Standard American English (SAE). AAVE is a dialect used by Black people in social settings that pervades hip-hop culture, while SAE is the dialect generally taught in schools. Most people across racial lines do not […]

Harlem-based writer, Brooke Obie, has some ideas about freedom that you need to hear. In her debut novel, Book of Addis: Cradled Embers, the first book in a three part series, she tells the story of 17-year-old enslaved Igbo girl, Addis, who kills her enslaver, the president of the new country Amerika. In this story, […]

The following post was written by Frank Simpkins, author of “The Unfinished Business of the Civil Rights Movement: Failure of America’s Public Schools to Properly Educate its African American Student Populations. Simpkins is co-author of “Between Rhetoric and Reality.” By: Frank Simpkins An overriding theoretical, philosophical and political consideration of the cross-cultural approach to education […]

I was shocked to recently learn about the Oakland, California school board’s 1996 decision to classify Ebonics as the official language of its African American students. At the mere age of four, I was ignorant to the political and social controversy this decision stirred up nationwide. Now, at 19, I can understand the problematic implications […]

For the past couple days the internet has been all keyed up over the DEA’s search for translators to help them decode the intricate and complex language of the drug game. In short, the DEA is looking for, as they call it, Ebonics experts. Wait what? Are we acknowledging the fact that Ebonics is a […]

by Daniel Johnson Regarding the abject brutality of the way the criminal justice system discards Black bodies and lives, writer Kirsten West Savali describes the practice in this way, reframing the common narrative that the criminal justice system is merely broken: “The system is not broken, it is functioning exactly as intended.” There is little […]

This past Saturday, the U.S. Open final between Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka concluded with Osaka’s win, marking it the first grand slam win for 20-year-old Haitian-Japanese player. However, the U.S. Open final ended with the umpire, Carlos Ramos, penalizing Serena Williams for calling him a “thief.” The incident re-ignited conversations on the intersection of […]

by Daniel Johnson The topic of masculinity, what it is and how it is expressed in both immediate and popular culture, is one that always seems to be spurred on or perhaps made more visible by conversations which happen on social media, usually centering around how men showing each other affection seems to be taboo. […]

By Maximillian Matthews “Don’t hit me up if you are fem… no soft shit.” “No offense to you but NO FEM, soft, questionable dudes etc. MASC dudes only!!!” “Please be masc. I’m not into feminine dudes at all. Carry your purse to the next dude’s house.” If you’re reading this, it’s too late. We have […]

Harvard University will have a new class available this fall, and it is a class centered around the Gullah people and their language. Gullah is a language that was birthed in what is called the “lowcountry” region of South Carolina, and is generally described as a mixture of English, Central and West African languages. Teaching […]