Peace On That

There is something amazing going on with the Ebonics debate. It has gone from a movement to improve reading scores of African-American children to a being a façade in covering racist attitudes. Townhall’s columnist, Mike Adams, who has a habit of making racist comments under the guise of political satire, recently wrote an article called “Hooked on Ebonics”. The article made absolutely no sense except to highlight the fact that the writer is irked by the existence of ethnic and racially defined social groups.

One of the groups offered a scholarship for students that spoke Ebonics. In response to that, Mr. Adams writes an email littered with what he deems as Ebonics.

I be really getting tired o' deez automatic responses. Could ya please answer muh ma f****n serious inquiries about yo' program? Ever since da outbreak o' wildfires in Malibu, California, I gots felt uh calling ta give up everything - muh ma f***n job, muh ma f****n home, an' most o' muh ma f****n gat collection ta come he`p whitey California liberals who gots lost mo' in recent weeks than most peeps gain in uh lifetime.

Given dat I be bi-lingual, though not bi-sexual, I feel dat I gots mo' ta offer than da average applicant who speaks only one language. Given muh ma f****n linguistic diversity, I would be ready, willing, an' able ta extend he`p ta those in minority communities once whitey liberals in Southern California iz back on they feet ag'in.
Please take muh ma f****n inquiries mo' seriously than ya gots ta dis here point.

Mike Adams
Word!

After being challenged by a black professor for his antics, Mr. Adams was forced to reveal even more of his racist thoughts in a column entitled, “Ebonic Plague: The New Black Death”. In his column, Mr. Adams recalls a black secretary that could not spell or write very well but was not released from her job because her supervisor considered her communication deficiencies as a cultural problem, not to be used against her. To most people this makes no sense and I don’t know many black people that would support this logic.

But Mr. Adams can’t contain his racisms and suggest that “laziness is the main reason why blacks refuse to criticize the obvious absurdity of Ebonics.” To provide himself some cover, he pens this:

Of course, many people will say that it is not politically correct to suggest that some blacks are lazy. But the existence of a stereotype in no way proves the non-existence of cases conforming to the stereotype. There really are gay hairdressers, you know.

It's a nice try but it falls flat. A racist will always justify their racism by first making a sweeping generalization that truly defines how they feel then narrow their views so they are attributed to an individual rather than an entire race. So it is up to the rest of us to point out the facts. First, Ebonics has never had widespread support in the black community. This is supported by the fact that only the Oakland and Los Angeles school districts have ever formally recognized Ebonics. And many parents… yes black parents, disapproved.

Second, the proponents of Ebonics did not look to teach Ebonics and place it on par with English. They sought to recognize the way in which many black children speak and use that structure as means to help those students make the transition to Standard English. So to suggest that Ebonics is a method to not bother with learning to read or write Standard English is disingenuous, and further illustrates your ignorance and racist ways.

Finally, in Mr. Adams haste to use his newfound ammunition to spew his racist thoughts, he apparently didn’t research the scholarship (rather lazy of him) to understand that the use of Ebonics was in reference to the original name of the USC Black Alumni Association.

Mike Adams simply used this discussion as a means to express his racist views and provided a platform for other racist to interject their racist views as well. Townhall.com has become a bastion of white supremacy discourse disguised as an “exchange of ideas”. The article is crap as is the case with most of the columns written by Mike Adams.