Preview

Cosby's Ebonics

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1036 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Cosby's Ebonics
Cosby on Ebonics
In 1996, the Oakland School District proposed the inclusion of what is known as "Ebonics" into its curriculum. Ebonics, or Black language, has been referred to in various ways over the years: "African American Vernacular English," "Pan-African Communication Behaviors," "African Language Systems," or "West and Niger-Congo African Language Systems." By any name, Ebonics, when studied over the years, has been proven to be a real language with its own phonology, syntax, morphology, sentence patterns, and double interpretations of words. The pattern that Ebonics speakers in the United States speak is highly similar to the patterns seen in both the Caribbean Creole and the West African languages. No one would have thought that comedian Bill Cosby would have an opinion on this subject, but as I read through essay I realized the logic and validity behind his paper.
In his essay Bill Cosby states that, "Ebonics be a complex issue," and it is, also he feels that it should not be taught in schools without studying the problems that could grow from teaching "an urbanized version of the English language." Cosby has a PhD in education, which increases his credibility. Cosby, being a black man, should not affect how his essay is read but it may be an issue to some. His use of humor makes the subject easier to comprehend and the entire piece more interesting. There is always a serious way and a lighter way to address any problem that affects many people and Cosby's choice to use humor makes more sense considering who he is in the public eye. Ebonics is a difficult issue to deal with, and Cosby makes a valid point that it should not be taught in school.
Cosby's credibility is not weakened because of his PhD in education if nothing else it is heightened. Being that he has this degree, he is more likely to obtain all the facts before forming a strong opinion on the subject. Having to teach Ebonics to anyone and everyone would be a problem and some people may not

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In, “Nobody Mean More to Me than You and the Future Life of Willie Jordan”, June Jordan discusses the language of blacks In America, referred to as “Black English”. Using “Black English” as an example, Jordan is able to highlight the subjugation and disregarding of this minority group within the United States. She believes that blacks in America are considered inferior. Using her time with her college class, Jordan, utilizes a topic of great importance to her students to endorse cognizance to the issue.…

    • 516 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the essay “If Black English Isn't a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?”, James Baldwin argues that languages evolve based on the environments in which they are spoken. Baldwin claims that, “people evolve a language in order to describe and thus control their circumstances [...] [People from different regions] are not saying, and cannot be saying, the same things: They each have very different realities to articulate” (1). Essentially, people's environments play a large role in the way they speak their language. The different areas in which a language is spoken all have different environmental and circumstantial factors that need to be described Inhabitants of each of these areas must be able “articulate” what they see and experience in…

    • 350 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Bill Cosby Court Case

    • 308 Words
    • 2 Pages

    William Henry Cosby Jr. also known as Bill Cosby is a comedian, actor, and an author. He was born on July 12, 1937, in Philadelphia, PA.He was recently accused of sexual assault. He was sent to jail his bail was 1 million dollars. He also was told to surrender his passport.…

    • 308 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Wgu Glt 4 Task 4

    • 2421 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Ebonics is also known as Black English. It is believed that the language was formed in the south during the slave trades. There is also an element of the Caribbean in the language. One of the strongest differences in Ebonics and Standard English is the “th” sound. In Ebonics, these consonant sounds as “d”. Them is dem, they sound like dey. The other main difference is that “I” and “e” maintain similar sounds (Perry, 1996)…

    • 2421 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    English is the standard language of America. In the essay "Nobody Mean More to Me than You and the Future Life of Willie Jordan" by June Jordan, Jordan proves that Black English represents African American's identity, and how the language should be taught in schools.…

    • 276 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    For the purposes of this paper, an emphasis is placed on the cons of the use of such slag. “The term Ebonics (a blend of ebony and phonics) gained recognition in 1996 as a result of the Oakland School Board’s use of the term in its proposal to use African American English in teaching Standard English in the Oakland Schools. The term was coined by Robert Williams in 1973, but it wasn’t until the Ebonics controversy that Ebonics became widely used. Most linguists prefer the term African American English as it aligns the variety with regional, national, and sociocultural varieties of English such as British English, Southern English, Cajun English, and so forth” (http://www.cal.org/topics/dialects/aae.html, November 7,…

    • 1307 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    When bill cosby was at the height of his fame he was considered “america’s dad”. He was known for being a comedian. He was birthed on the date of july 12,1937, his birth name was William Henry Cosby, jr. his father William Henry, Sr was a mess steward in the navy. His father was married to a woman by the name of Camille Hanks cosby, from the date of january 25, 1964 to the present date. They had a total of 6 children. Their children’s names were William, Evin, Ensa, Ennis, Erinn, and Erika.…

    • 675 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Dr. Williams and a group of Black scholars first coined the terms Ebonics in 1973 when referring to the language spoken by African slaves and their descendants. Ebonics, which is derived from the word ebony, which means black, and phonetics, which means sound, was adopted as the new term for Black English and African-American Vernacular English. Mary Rhodes Hoover states, "Many who condemn Ebonics refer to it as "bad grammar," "lazy pronunciation," or "slang." However, linguist Dell Hymes notes that, viewed sociolinguistically, language is much more than characteristics such as grammar or pronunciation (phonology). In fact Ebonics/African-American Language has a number of other characteristics, including semantics, notation, favored genres,…

    • 4689 Words
    • 19 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Many people think driving in the winter is more dangerous than the summer, but whenever you think about driving in the winter and summer they’re both dangerous in many different ways. You always have to be prepared driving no matter what weather it is. Driving in the winter and the summer have many similarities and differences. Also driving in the winter and the summer, many people worry about what kind of car fits for the seasons. You wouldn’t want a sports car for the winter because of the effect of driving through that icy weather, your car might get messed up.…

    • 349 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Rhetorical Analysis

    • 314 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In Bill Cosby’s, Pound Cake Speech, he discusses the African American community’s uncertainty towards parenting. Cosby states that we cannot blame people for the way their children turn out. It can only be the parents fault for letting them develop that way. He strongly believes that parents are the blame for their children’s actions in today’s society. He mentions the Brown vs. Board of education, and how the people fought for their children’s education, only for them to complain about learning. Bill Cosby criticized the African American race in his speech. His reason for this was to make his audience angry. He speaks on the 50% high school dropout rate for blacks and how he believes it is a major problem, also how people call on God for help but they are not doing their parts, the frequency of single mothers, and other social behaviors with today’s youth. However, throughout the whole speech it all lead up to parents not providing good parenting skills. Cosby’s audience was mainly black folks so he knew how to keep their attention by appealing to their emotions. His speech was effective because he combined the pathos and logical appeal, which kept his audience engaged and interested in his…

    • 314 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Dear Bill Cosby

    • 794 Words
    • 4 Pages

    My name is Alejandro Cordero and in my English class we have read your “Pound Cake” speech. I believe that your speech is great but can be a bit too judgmental at times. I believe you gave people the truth and hat is quite great because most people don’t tell the truth or they even sugar coat it. I also feel that you can generalize a group of people; I know that you mean well but some people don’t understand the generalizations you put forward. I do believe that you speech did well but making assumptions about a particular set of people can be very stereotypical. Furthermore the fact that you said the “Pound Cake” speech helps out greatly because many people need to know the truth and since you are a celebrity this can be heard much more than an average person. Over all the “Pound Cake” speech has its pros and cons.…

    • 794 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Is Ebonics a Language?

    • 919 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Before getting into any great detail concerning the complexity of what language is and its relationship with the term Ebonics, Ebonics must first be defined. It is considered to be best described as "black speech" and therefore can be referred to as an "undefined language." Many consider language to be a spoken tongue belonging to a nationality of people, so in general, and for the sake of clarity in this work, language is a general communication concept by which species relate to themselves and others. It is also a set of rules combined to establish a designated communication system.…

    • 919 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Acting White

    • 692 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Bill Cosby puts all African Americans in the category of ignorant and ghetto, living in the lower class. In the text he often attacks single mothers with no father in the household. Also, he attacks innocent children with bad parenting. I believe Cosby makes such statements because most of them are true. Even though I am a part of the minority or lower class I strongly agree and disagree with Cosby’s remarks. That’s because it is a high percentage of black households that are ignorant like Cosby is saying, but all are not financially able.…

    • 692 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Cosby Show

    • 567 Words
    • 3 Pages

    I think that The Cosby Show had a very practical portrayal of how a family should operate. Although it lacked a direct Christian perspective, it was still a clean, positive influence on our society. It was humorous without finding is necessary to be vulgar or obscene like so many shows on television today. In addition to its clean proper humor, I’d say it was a step forward for African Americans in that it was the depiction of college educated upper class African American parents, raising their children to ultimately attend college as well. Unlike many previously aired African American programs that painted a picture of these families being from the ghetto or always struggling to get ahead, this show was an example of how hard work and living by the expectations of society, that anyone could be successful despite their obstacles.…

    • 567 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    While Hip-Hop is a relatively new cultural movement that is largely prevalent all over the world now, it originates in much earlier Black North American history as far back as the era of enslavement. It is still misunderstood as solely a form of music although it is rather an entire culture consisting of dance, "deejaying", and visual art (usually in the form of graffiti) in addition to rap. However, in the larger culture of hip-hop, rap is the linguistic code that is used in an artistic manner to convey messages, often in figurative and poetic forms. It was common to use Ebonics, or African American English, as the primary linguistic code in rap as it is the form of English that was predominantly used in North America when modern rap came into being. At one time, it was the code used to address the Black population in the United States to ignite socio-political protests and marches, but over time has evolved to include other linguistic codes and has become a means to communicate many subjects outside of politics. Though African American vernacular is still a major constituent of modern rap and is seen as the "standard language" for English rap, there is a great deal of code-switching that occurs including not only the switching from language to language, but also switching from vernacular to intellectual vocabulary in rap.…

    • 1525 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays