Re: Grammar

ivy_mike wrote:

> If you're trying to equate native-born black children with new
> arrivals from areas where English is not the native language, I
> don't buy it.  I'll admit that many of them come into a pretty
> wretched family environment, but they are not confined to the
> bottom of a mine shaft where they don't hear English (even correct
> English) being spoken.  The language they are being raised on IS
> English, albeit likely altered and mangled somewhat by their
> older relatives.  But this is not confined to blacks only.  Many
> whites have been born into families who lacked education and proper
> communication skills, yet they have the intelligence to see that
> the way their own family is speaking is incorrect (and embarrassing),
> so they learn to speak more correctly early on. 

I'm not defending it, but there is a cultural attitude among some blacks
that says if you keep speaking the way people spoke around your old
neighborhood, you're being true to your roots. I had this discussion with
some black coworkers before who were talking about one star who was "still
down with the 'hood". I explained that if I were still "down with the
'hood" where I grew up that I would be ignorant and prejudiced. But this
idea that people have "turned white" because they can speak and write
business-class English still persists. Once a black friend of mine said she
thought it was sad that she could get downgraded at a job interview for
"talking black". I then asked what she thought would happen to me if I went
into a job interview talking like a hick. She didn't have to think long to
get the answer.

All of this gets at the resistance to learn everyday English. Language is
one of the main battlegrounds in the black/white culture wars.