While I'll concede the fact that after reading these selections, my respect for Ebonics as a cultural jewel for Blacks is much higher, I must admit that I still don't think Ebonics should be considered its own language, much less be taught in schools. Just as where I grew up, there was really no controversy of teachers not teaching classes in Tex-Mex, a fuse of English and Spanish that has gained popularity over the last hundred years in my native area, I don't think Ebonics in schools should be an issue at all. How the language, or dialect (however you want to look at it), came into existence should not be a factor at all in whether we should teach that mode of speaking in public schools.

Mexicans have not lost their cultural identity because they are taught “white” English in public schools. In the same way, Blacks can still celebrate their culture without arguing that their “mother tongue” somehow supersedes standard English today in the United States. With the exception of hip-hop stars, which, for the most part, I have much contempt for, I have yet to see a successful individual who speaks pure Ebonics. Realistically, since the rest of the United States won't conform or even accept Ebonics, perpetuating the fact that it should be viewed in the same light as modern English is just “enslaving new generations in the chains of ignorance,” as Jacob Heilbrunn so eloquently put it. Furthermore, while I agree with Smitherman's plan to teach multiple languages in schools, I don't believe Ebonics should be considered a “mother tongue,” as he says. The “mother tongue” of Ebonics speakers is English + the multiple native African languages Ebonics creators fused with English to create the dialect. Just as Smitherman says at the end of his selection, people should be in touch with their “mother tongues,” such as German, Polish, Italian, and so on. There are certainly fuses of German and English, Polish and English, and Italian and English, but none of these are considered “mother languages.” Why should a fuse of English and another native African language be treated any differently? What's with the double standard? Yes, Ebonics is immensely more popular than these smaller language fuses, but, as I see multiple times a day at the University of Texas, the popularity and action or idea doesn't necessarily yield positive results.

"...this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." - Abraham Lincoln