Re: Ebonics

[Dale Thorn <dthorn@gte.net>]

Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM wrote:
> jim bell <jimbell@pacifier.com> writes:
> > At 01:30 PM 12/22/96 -0500, Mark Rosen wrote:
> > >Hehe. What I mean to say is that since both Ebonics and a Southern accent
> > >are learned during early childhood, you have no control over how you talk.

> > This is not true.  The recent commentary and interviews I've seen on this
> > subject make it clear that the people speaking "Ebonics" are quite capable
> > of speaking in standard English, and do so when they find it, er, convenient.

> How does this tie into assassination politics?

Some of the postings here about people making a non-hire list because
of their speech "accent" is reminiscent of other forms of targeting.
I thought AP was more oriented toward selection based on behavior,
although in some people's poisoned minds, another person's speech
patterns/accents could be interpreted as behavior.

Don't you suppose that when some of the party-line-liberal (brainwashed)
persons (esp. from the Northeast or the Bay Area) hear a person speaking
in an authentic Southern "accent", that they often feel a twinge of fear,
as though someone from the KKK or whatever has just entered their immediate
surroundings?  I know that sounds kind of silly, but people do have those
knee-jerk reactions to certain visual and auditory clues, particularly
when they've been bombarded by big media with all those stereotypical
images over the years.