I found Wolfram’s article quite helpful in getting an overview of the controversy regarding Oakland School Board Resolution on Ebonics. The notion of “language ideology,” which Wolfram defines as “an underlying, consensus belief system about the way language is and is supposed to be” (109) is also very illuminating. He basically argues that the Oakland incident called into question the implicit language ideology people have, which otherwise might not necessarily even be given much thought by anyone, and that is why the public and/or the media (over)reacted. While his point is very well taken, I am still a little skeptical as to what exactly is the “language ideology” and whether the public (who are the “public”?) share the unified ideology. In other words, I am wondering if the (over)reaction of the media was really a reflection of public opinion, or if it was something orchestrated by the media. Wolfram states that “Americans in general have been socialized in the same language ideology, which appears to be no respecter of ethnic background, social class, and position” (111), but is it really true?

The judgment of scholars and teachers in the fields of education and linguistics should be more trusted and respected, and the Oakland School Board’s decision to take some action to help the children, who are behind in school most probably because of the language barrier, should also be encouraged. Wolfram provided detailed analysis of exactly how the resolution was misinterpreted, but if his assumption of American people’s language ideology is correct, then, perhaps, the most significant reason that the media came to interfere with their resolution was the fear of the destruction of the language ideology – that there should be some kind of “ideal” “pure” and “good” English, and legitimating Ebonics somehow invalidates their “pure” English.

Perhaps, we need to be more educated about the “continuum” nature of language. There is not a black-and-white dichotomy in language. Just as in many other areas, even if there are whites and blacks, most parts are usually quite grey.