From the Washington Times: The Drug Enforcement Administration said Thursday that it does not recognize Ebonics as a formal language, but it still may need translators for agents to understand drug dealers who speak it.
The DEA made that statement in response to questions that arose in the wake of a website earlier this week posting a DEA memo seeking contractors to provide nine linguists who can speak Ebonics.
The memo posted on the Smoking Gun has renewed debate in some circles about whether Ebonics is itself a language, a dialect of English, or neither, possibly described best as a collection of slang words.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/aug/26/dea-memo-ebonics-translators-needed/
Barbara Billingsley is still alive. Even though she is in her 90's, maybe she still can use the work.
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I heard this reported on KXNT the other day, and was AMAZED how they treated it on air. The Airplane! bit is hysterical, and I don't know how black people look upon it today. But Alan Stock (and at least two of the news people) treated the entire subject as a joke, and in really poor taste.
ReplyDeleteI like irreverence as much as anybody, and can even take "insult humor" to a degree (Lisa Lampanelli, for instance), but from a "News Team?" I wouldn't be surprised if they got complaints over it. Well, if anyone beside me was even tuned in. . .
Yeah, James, if anyone else listens besides you. LOL. I just don't think anyone is listening, or at least not as many as before.
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