A cat called me up the other day from the Columbia Missourian. Asked me about the legitimacy of ebonics. It's been six or seven years since the Oakland school board passed its resolution on the issue, and I think the reporter wanted to write an update.
The question didn't really seem right to me. "Is ebonics a legitimate language?" How do you define "language" as separated from "dialect" for example? And what does it mean to be "legitimate" in this case? I know the reporter wasn't thinking of it in the "Hammerian" sense. As far as I'm concerned black culture is the standard-bearer of American culture...it represents the best of what America has to offer. Someone asking me if ebonics is a legitimate language in that context is just like someone asking Phil Jackson if Shaq is a "legitimate" center.
The answer I ended up giving him probably won't make it in the story. Not because the reporter is shaky, or anything. But because it wasn't neat or clean...it wasn't a tight enough soundbite. What I told him was that in a very important sense what we think of as "ebonics" is ALREADY legitimate. Anytime you've got a computer chip maker selling computers on the phrase "play that funky music white boy" you've got a context in which ebonics is legitimate. Anytime you've got a major sports association using "We got next" as their marketing slogan, you've got a context where ebonics is legitimate.
Now here is where you have to put Ralph Ellison in the mix.
Where it is ILLEGITIMATE is straightforward. Ask blacks and whites whether they should teach ebonics in school, and I'm certain the answer would be a resounding NO. With blacks...a resounding HELL NO! Ask them whether ebonics should be thought of as a "legitimate language" you'll get the same answer.
When you NAME ebonics you get one answer. But when you ask them instead "what do you think about that Intel ad campaign?" or "What do you think about the WNBA marketing slogan?" or even better "How does MLK's 'I Have a Dream Speech' make you feel when you hear it?" you get another answer totally.
"Oh I love it!"
"I think King is a communist...but that speech sends chills down my spine."
"I think it's cool. That intel ad is the reason I bought my first Dell!"
Black language is the language of modernity, the language of the sophisticate, the language of cool. Always has been. Now it is the language of commerce. We should start telling little Dontay and Latisha that they might not be able to get a job with ebonics, but they CAN get paid.