Following passage of the "Ebonics" resolution the OUSD directed school administrators to devise instructional programs for Black students "in their primary language for the combined purposes of maintaining the legitimacy and richness of such language... and to facilitate their acquisition and mastery of English language skills."
The school board's action immediately opened a nationwide debate about racism, language, affirmative action, and bilingual education, and the role of public education itself. For many Oakland students, the whole debate appears somewhat ridiculous. "We are like lab rats," McClymonds High senior Shawn Kemp told the Oakland Tribune. "At a white school, you don't see them talking about white English. Do I seem like I'm speaking another language?"
"I'm Black, I speak English. What they're trying to say is we don't talk proper English," said Oakland Technical High School sophomore Aaron Andrews to the New York Times. "If you got a brain in your head, you can talk any way you want to."
Self-appointed spokespeople for "standard English" have loudly advanced their claim that there is nothing legitimate about the language used by Blacks. The New York Times editorially dismissed "inner-city speech" as "colorful in its place." The editors warn that by "validating habits of speech" they term "urban slang," the new policy "will actually stigmatize African-American children."
Resolution stirs much debate
Jesse Jackson sharply attacked the resolution. "While we
are fighting in California trying to extend affirmative
action... in Oakland some madness has erupted over making
slang talk a second language. You don't have to go to
school to learn to talk garbage," he said in a December 21
statement. Jackson has since reversed himself, and plans to
meet with school district officials soon. Noted poet Maya
Angelou and Oakland based writer Ishmael Reed also
challenged the school district's moves.
California Superintendent of Instruction Delaine Eastin told the San Francisco Examiner, "I do believe that it is a mistake to convey to kids that there is an appropriate time for this language." Eastin also explained her view that immigrants should become assimilated, and should not be concerned that their children lose their culture.
Stanley Diamond, of the California English Campaign argued, "This black English waste assures these innocent kids of a permanent niche on that bottom rung."
University of California Regent Ward Connerly, who has led the drive against affirmative action in California included the recently passed Proposition 209, agreed, saying,"[T]hese are not kids who came from Africa last year or last generation even. These are kids who have had every opportunity to acclimate themselves to American society, and they have gotten themselves into this trap of speaking this language - this slang, really - that people can't understand. Now we're going to legitimize it."
Meanwhile, Oakland National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) president Shannon Reeves expressed his worry that the school district's "Ebonics" policy will damage the city's reputation, discouraging business investment in Oakland, if the schools do not teach standard English to Black youth.
Confronted by this debate, the OUSD hired a public relations consultant, Darolyn Davis, who the school district previously employed to promote its anti-labor stance during the 1996 Oakland teachers' strike. Davis and school superintendent Carolyn Getridge have appeared in the local press almost daily since the resolution was adopted attempting to fend off criticism of the school district's policies. School district officials have retreated from early claims that "Ebonics" is genetically based. They have also backed away from organizing instruction in "Ebonics" as a language. "The district is not teaching Ebonics," said Getridge. "[It] is not replacing the teaching of standard American English with any other language." School officials now explain that their aim all along has been to more effectively teach what they call standard English to Black youth. They point to their Standard English Proficiency program, which has been used throughout California for many years, and call for its expansion.
School officials also deny that money for "Ebonics" programs would come from existing bilingual education funds. The Clinton administration announced that no federal money would be available to fund classroom instruction for "Ebonics." "Elevating black English to the status of a language is not the way to raise standards of achievement in our schools," said Clinton's secretary of education, Richard Riley.
The "Ebonics" debate has been seized on by those who attack bilingual education itself, to fuel resentment against those who receive the meager funds for these programs. NAACP president Reeves told the San Francisco Chronicle, "African Americans have expressed growing concern on the impact bilingual education has had on regular classroom instruction." Reeves charged that educators were reluctant to express their feelings on this issue, because they do not want to be seen pitting one ethnic group against another. But, he said, "I believe the route [Oakland educators] chose was, `If you can't beat `em, join 'em.'" Reeves announced that hearings on the issue of Black English will be held in Oakland.
Dismal conditions for Blacks in schools
The debate on "Ebonics" comes in the context of the
utter failure of the Oakland Public Schools to provide a
decent education for Black students. The school district's
own figures dramatically highlight the crisis in the
Oakland schools. While Blacks make up 53 percent of Oakland
students, they make up 71 percent of special education
students and 80 percent of all students who were suspended
from school last year. The average grade point of Blacks in
the Oakland school district was 1.8 on a 4 point scale,
compared to an average for all students of 2.4. Black
students make up only 37 percent of the participants in
special programs for gifted students, and 19 percent of
Black high school seniors did not graduate.
Oakland teachers waged a six-week strike last spring demanding an end to a five-year wage freeze and reduction in the overcrowded classes. Minimal cuts in class size were won. Additional funds obtained from the state government this fall to further reduce class size included nothing for new classrooms.
Today teachers hold class in hallways, auditorium stages, closets and lunchroom corners. Schools lack everything from soap and toilet paper to textbooks and chalk. At some schools, even the playground equipment has been condemned as unsafe.
Since the teachers' strike, however, there has been no fight nor public campaign of any sort to improve conditions in the Oakland schools.
Jim Altenberg is a member of the Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers union.