Columnist Bernie Hayes
While growing up in my neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago, sounding black meant pronouncing words, articulating sounds and enunciating words and phrases. Some of the people in my neighborhood might have spoke with a Southern drawl or accent, while others had a command of ‘proper’ English. We all used colloquiums and slang and the current hip phrases, but we understood if we were to graduate from high school or college, own a business, or get a job, we had to know how to speak.
But now there is a new phenomenon in the village. Some black students who do well in school are disliked by a number of other black students. The stigma of “acting white” appears to be felt by black students who obtain the best grades, and they pay a high cost in terms of their popularity. Years ago, the village had wonderful, aristocratic role models such as our teachers, our clergy and community leaders. Our politicians and our great artists were never accused of “acting white.”
W.E.B. DuBois believed that educated Black leaders should direct Blacks to freedom. He further understood that African Americans could not achieve social equality by emulating white ideals; equality could be achieved only by teaching black racial pride with an emphasis on an African cultural heritage.
A recent study by The National Bureau of Economic Research contends that academic achievement of the average black child in the U.S. lags behind that of the average white child at kindergarten entry and the achievement difference grows throughout the school years. A typical black 17-year-old student reads at the same level as a typical white 13-year-old. On the Scholastic Aptitude Test, the average black student scores more than a standard deviation below the average white student. If this is the case, maybe more of our children should consider “acting white.” What is wrong? We all know there are many reasons for this disparity, but that is another column.
Dr. Robert L Williams of University City, an African-American social psychologist, coined the term “Ebonics” in 1973. In 1975 he authored Ebonics: The True Language of Black Folks. He recently told me “black dialect is the linguistic memory of African languages. It is a misunderstanding of some black people because the purpose of language is to communicate, and speaking Standard English is a form of communicating and does not belong to any particular racial group.”
Williams’s goal was to combine the words “ebony” with “phonics” to refer to “black sounds.” Williams and several other African-American social scientists had gathered at a conference sponsored by the National Institutes of Health to discuss the psychological development of black children. Williams and his associates had been displeased with the term “Black English” and began to ponder the alternatives.
Black youths who are in the midst of other blacks who are achieving should attain a feeling of self-respect, join them in celebrating their heritage, be proud of their personal worth and work to attain the same good grades and level of respect. Our youths can transform African-American identity and history. The hip hop movement has already transformed American culture in general.
Our youth should remember what the Rev. Jesse Jackson said at Wattstax in 1972. He made the crowd roar by making them shout, “I am somebody – I may be unskilled, but I am somebody.” He made them yell, “I am black, beautiful and proud and I must be respected.” These are good thoughts for our youths today. Achieving is not acting white. It is being black.
I can be reached by e-mail at: berhay@swbell.net.