Oakland Ebonics controversy

On December 18, 1996, the Oakland Unified School District school board of Oakland, California, United States, passed a controversial resolution recognizing the legitimacy of Ebonics — what mainstream linguists more commonly term African American Vernacular English (AAVE) — as an African language. The resolution set off a firestorm of media criticism and ignited a national debate.

For students whose primary language was "Ebonics", the Oakland resolution mandated some instruction in this, both for "maintaining the legitimacy and richness of such language... and to facilitate their acquisition and mastery of English language skills." This also included the proposed increase of salaries of those proficient in both Ebonics and Standard English to the level of those teaching limited English proficiency (LEP) students and the use of public funding to help teachers learn AAVE themselves.

Some interpretations of the controversial issues in the resolution include the idea that Ebonics is not a vernacular or dialect of English, that it is a separate language; a member of the African language family; that African Americans particular language and their dialects; that speakers of Ebonics should qualify for federally funded programs traditionally restricted to bilingual populations; and that students would be taught American Standard English via Ebonics. The Rev. Jesse Jackson condemned the resolution, saying "I understand the attempt to reach out to these children, but this is an unacceptable surrender, borderlining on disgrace." His comments were seconded by former Secretary of Education William Bennett, former New York governor Mario Cuomo, and Senator Joe Lieberman. Jackson would later reverse his position, attributing his initial opposition to a misunderstanding of the school district's proposal. He said, "They're not trying to teach Black English as a standard language. They're looking for tools to teach children standard English so they might be competitive."

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