Justice Department Seeks Ebonics Experts

In addition to helping decipher their Lil Wayne albums, the Justice Department is seeking Ebonics experts to help monitor, translate and transcribe wire tapped conversations. The DEA wants to fill nine full time positions. From the article: "A maximum of nine Ebonics experts will work with the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Atlanta field division, where the linguists, after obtaining a 'DEA Sensitive' security clearance, will help investigators decipher the results of 'telephonic monitoring of court ordered nonconsensual intercepts, consensual listening devices, and other media.'”

Comments

Re:That's not the professional term

[snowgirl]

Fair enough. I'd also go so far as to assert the inverse as well - we should categorically reject any depictions of SAE being ethically or aesthetically inferior.

With you on this one. Sure it tends to appear "bland" to those who have been exposed to it their whole lives, but then vanilla is an actually really cool new flavor to those who have never tasted it before.

Now, that's a stretch. It might be the same as demanding that every subculture of America learn about Christianity, Bible history, and the various sects and factions, but learning a language is not nearly the same thing as practicing a religion. Conflating the two doesn't help make your point.

Conflating "believing" with "practicing" is also not a good idea. See: Crypto-Judaism.

I think the real ethical problem is when subcultures denigrate the attempts of their peers to rise above their current socioeconomic status with education, thereby denying social advancement where it is arguably the most needed.

You are certainly allowed to have your opinions on what is ethically better.

I'm also certainly allowed to take the position that the more ethical choice is to stop expecting SAE to be spoken by everyone, and adapt to fit AAVE in without their change. After all, the only thing making SAE more useful is that AAVE is rejected.

Re:That's not the professional term

[snowgirl]

Now that's an interesting assertion. I'd posit further that if the roles were reversed, and it was AAVE that was "standard" and SAE that was lower socioeconomic class slang, you'd probably see the same issues with peer pressure and the denigration of education coming from the lower socioeconomic class.

Exactly, and that's what the find all over the world when there is a language/dialect of power. Whatever qualities make the "inferior" language/dialect different are regarded as indicative of substandard intelligence. Even if it means that they are enunciating more clearly.

Although it might be fun to think about what the world would be like if we didn't judge people by their speaking or writing ability, the simple fact of the matter is that someone who isn't proficient in the standard language cannot perform in society the way someone who is, can.

I openly recognize that my ethical standard cannot be met in this world right now. However, despite your assertions of a benefit to a standard language, there are numerous nations in the world that demonstrate that multiple languages can be accommodated just fine.

Upheaval of the status quo in America to make it accept minority languages/dialects though, is entirely unlikely to succeed. I am still free to hold the assertion that doing so would be the best ethical choice.