Well it appears that there are 2 themes running through this thread: 1) That I think all black people speak the same, and 2) What I am talking about is simply bad grammer.
As I mentioned, I live in a very diverse area and I work in an inner city hospital. Many of my colleagues and coworkers are black; and I interact with people of various ethnicities routinely. My best friend is black and has attended better schools (ivy league) and speaks much more eloquently than I do! I think therefore, that I can put that assumption to rest.
The second one is more puzzling to me, as I have already cited a source for the definition of AAVE. If anyone has a source that contradicts that definition, I would like to see it posted. I stated that AAE is most likely derived from West Africa and the Caribbean. The following is some discussion regarding this:
Quote:
8.2.1. One could ask, first of all, whether the sociohistorical conditions under which Africans came to and settled in the United States might have facilitated the importation or development of pidgins or creoles. With respect to importation, Stewart (1967), Dillard (1972), and Hancock (1986) favor the hypothesis that many slaves arrived in the American colonies and the Caribbean already speaking some variety of West African Pidgin English (WAPE) or Guinea Coast Creole English (GCCE). Rickford (1987a:46-55) and Schneider (1991:30-33), among others, feel that such slaves were probably not very numerous. However, the case for significant creole importation from the Caribbean in the founding period has been bolstered by recent evidence that "slaves brought in from Caribbean colonies where creole English is spoken were the predominant segments of the early Black population in so many American colonies, including Massachussetts, New York, South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia and Maryland in particular." (Rickford 1997:331).
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My ruminations around this subject center on whether it is appropriate to correct a child speaking AAE (implying that it is wrong) or allowing the child to maintain parallel dialects with the idea that it is just another tool to help him better assimilate into black culture if he happens to need it.
I understand that if my child interviews for a job with Chase Manhattan speaking AAE, he's not going to get it. Language is always embedded in the socioeconomic and political fabric of a culture. That being said, language is neutral--what makes one dialect superior to another, and why?
At the same time I started thinking about this I coincidentaly picked up the book "Black Skin, White Faces". Fanon describes in great length the colonization of Martinique by the French, and how it was considered that the natives who assimilated the language of their oppressors were considered the "good negroes" for having abandoned their native creole. It appears at this time there is a movement afoot to reclaim their native language.
My son attends a daycare that is staffed entirely by AA women. The children are all AA with the exception of one asian, one white, and a couple of hispanic kids. This is where my son spends most of his days. This is where he learns. I have heard AAE spoken here, and I consider it another opportunity for him to internalize an aspect of black culture.
Finally, dialect is more than just syntax. It has rhythm, cadence and patterns. It spills over into other aspects of culture. It also falls on a continuum. For those of you who insist that it is only bad grammer, I can only recommend that you learn more about it, or at the very least give me a source to show that I am wrong. I happen to think that the transmission of culture involves more than just hanging a picture of MLK on the wall and sending my kid to culture camp once a year. If this is a tool that I as a CC parent could encourage to help him connect to SOME blacks some of the time, than so be it.