DEA Hiring 'Ebonics' Translators

[the last donut of the night]

Here is the source (http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/08/24/dea.ebonics/index.html?eref=mrss_igoogle_cnn).



It might sound like a punch line, as "Ebonics" -- the common name for what linguists call African-American English -- has long been the butt of jokes, as well as the subject of controversy.
But the agency is serious about needing nine people to translate conversations picked up on wiretaps during investigations, Special Agent Michael Sanders said Tuesday. A solicitation was sent to contractors as part of a request to companies to provide hundreds of translators in 114 languages.

Opinions on this? I'm not sure what to make of it; help?

[counterblast]

Of course the only time government agencies go the extra mile to break down language barriers with urban Black communities is to send them to prison.

Note the lack of ebonics translators at state hospitals, the DMV, the welfare/food stamp office, the post office, the courts, ect, and you'll quickly see this is less about inclusion of the Black community and more about incrimination of it.

[727Goon]

Of course the only time government agencies go the extra mile to break down language barriers with urban Black communities is to send them to prison.

Note the lack of ebonics translators at state hospitals, the DMV, the welfare/food stamp office, the post office, the courts, ect, and you'll quickly see this is less about inclusion of the Black community and more about incrimination of it.

This is true that pretty much the only time the government reaches out to the Black and brown community is to put us in jail, but I also think its fucked up that ebonics is not considered English. I mean I don't need a translator to talk to white people, and most people I know can "Talk white" if they have to. So maybe white people need to step their shit up.

[Adi Shankara]

What the hell is Ebonics? like I know what it is...but how is it any different than English? I know quite a few black people, and they all seem to talk English with an accent--aka, just like everyone else in California.

[Il Medico]

So the DEA is calling in translators to decipher slang? :confused:

[leftace53]

I speak "Ebonics" will I be called in to translate? :lol:
I didn't know there was much to "translate", from what I have heard (of ebonics) is that its pretty much english with an accent (this is the third time I've agreed with Sanakara, what is wrong with me). If however it goes further than that, I agree with counterblast, in that of course the only time they are willing to bring in translators its to put a minority group in prison. You will never see the effort to bring in ebonics translators at a hospital or courts.

[bcbm]

So the DEA is calling in translators to decipher slang? :confused:

its not just slang (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_American_Vernacular_English)

[Wanted Man]

Counterblast's point is definitely important here. Strangely enough, the need to treat Ebonics as a language and have professional translators for it only seems to come up in this line of work.

If someone tried to teach Ebonics as a language in school, that'd be a sure-fire way to attract thousands of angry white men protesting about this act of positive discrimination and shit like that. See, for instance, the Oakland controversy in the mid-90s.


This is true that pretty much the only time the government reaches out to the Black and brown community is to put us in jail, but I also think its fucked up that ebonics is not considered English. I mean I don't need a translator to talk to white people, and most people I know can "Talk white" if they have to. So maybe white people need to step their shit up.

Is it really true that "ebonics is not considered English"? I always had the impression that it was popularly considered a dialect of English. These kinds of misconceptions can also be seen in this thread, with someone suggesting that the DEA are simply trying to translate "slang". A lot of people think a "dialect" is the same thing as an "accent", or that it is somehow a "lower" form of some imaginary "pure language". So there are no prizes for guessing how this also impacts the popular perception of Ebonics...

The thing about Ebonics is that its many different characteristics are much more than just "corruptions of proper English". They are, in fact, systematic. Ebonics "has been shown through research to be a rule-governed, linguistic system, with itsown lexical, phonological, syntactic and discourse patterns and, thus, deserves pedagogical recognition." (http://www.cal.org/topics/dialects/tesolebo.html)

The fact that people who speak Ebonic can also speak standard American English is immaterial to this. People who speak Scots can also speak English, people who speak Low Saxon can also speak Dutch and/or German, etc. In these cases, there is also a strong amount of mutual intelligibility, and the ability of "dialect" speakers to switch to the "standard" variety.

It is a big mistake to simply think in these loaded terms. It's also a mistake to think that languages are clearly demarcated like state borders; e.g., in Groningen, in the northern Netherlands, the standard language is Dutch; just across the national border, in Lower Saxony, it is German. Ergo, Dutch and German are real languages, whereas Low Saxon (spoken on both sides of the line) is a dialect, a corruption of either Dutch or German, and it should not be recognised as a language in its own right. Research shows that this is bullshit. One thing that you have to ask yourself is: when does a variety become a language, and when does it become a dialect? In popular perception, this is usually not determined by scientific research about the variety, but by things like nationalism, state recognition, campaigns for or against political correctness, etc.

An article on this: Ebonic Need Not Be English (http://www.cal.org/resources/digest/ebonic-issue.html)

Way more stuff on this subject: http://www.cal.org/topics/dialects/aae.html

[scarletghoul]

X_KKLkmIrDk
Get ahead in life: stop talking black !

[scarletghoul]

Also what do you guys think of Stokely Carmichel's idea that blacks corrupted the english language as a form of resistance ?
plz0vb2Qczo

[Wanted Man]

X_KKLkmIrDk
Get ahead in life: stop talking black !

American news reports always amaze me. I love the tone. It's like they're congratulating a 5-year-old mentally disabled kid for managing to properly use the toilet all on their own.

Anyway, this is an educational video for anyone who is strongly opinionated about how Ebonics is just "slang", there is no more racial oppression, reverse racism is the problem, etc.

EDIT: I would add to this that the good doctor in the FOX video is not necessarily right about his methods. Research has actually shown that recognising and teaching Ebonics as a "valid" variety can help students in learning the "standard" variety as well. If he wants to teach kids "proper English", he could start with Ebonics.

See also the resolution by the Linguistic Society of America on the Oakland question: http://www.stanford.edu/~rickford/ebonics/LSAResolution.html The most important thing here, IMO, is:


What is important from a linguistic and educational point of view is not whether AAVE is called a "language" or a "dialect" but rather that its systematicity be recognized.

[the last donut of the night]

X_KKLkmIrDk
Get ahead in life: stop talking black !

Wow, that shit is disgusting.

It's not even that "ebonics" is hard for white people to understand. White people and black people understand themselves fine. In fact, "ebonics" crosses racial lines as well; who hasn't hear whites, Asians, and Latinos "talk black"? This video just shows the racist idea present in America today, that somehow "talking Black" is a sign of stupidity or inferiority.

[the last donut of the night]

Also what do you guys think of Stokely Carmichel's idea that blacks corrupted the english language as a form of resistance ?
plz0vb2Qczo

I'm not sure it was a form of resistance; AAVE resulted more out of the combinations of pidgins already created in the western coast of Africa between tribes for trade, commerce, etc and those pidgins also being combined with the English language. At least that's one theory I've heard. I might be wrong, so call me out if I am. However, I do think that it's existence to this day is a result of the hyper-exploitation of the Black community and its contrast with white but proletarian communities.