Ebonics: Twelve Years Later

In December of 1996, California’s Oakland Unified School District Board of Education passed a resolution establishing the teaching of Ebonics (aka Black English) in its schools. The ruling made international news and has been the source of thousands of jokes.  One of my favorites remains Leroy’s writing assignment.  In brief:

Ebonics Word List

Leroy’s assignment in his Ebonics class was to use each of the words from this list in a sentence. Here’s his work that earned him a perfect score:

• HOTEL - I gave my girlfriend da crabs and the HOTEL everybody.
• CATACOMB - Don King was at the fight the other night, Man, someone give that CATACOMB.
• ISRAEL - Alonso tried to sell me a Rolex, I said Man, that looks fake. He said, No, ISRAEL.
• UNDERMINE - There is a fine lookin’ hoe livin’ in the apartment that’s UNDERMINE.
• STAIN - My brother asked if I was STAIN for dinner again.
• ODYSSEY - I told my bro, you ODYSSEY the tits on this hoe.

But things have changed in the last twelve years.  Sort of.  Now portions of the King James Version of the Holy Bible have been translated into Ebonics. The following is a translation of the Lord’s Prayer. I’m including the English version in parentheses:

BIG DADDY’S RAP (THE LORD’S PRAYER)

Yo, Big Daddy upstairs, (Our Father, who art in heaven)

You be chillin’ (Hallowed be thy name)

So be yo hood (Thy Kingdom come)

You be sayin’ it, I be doin’ it (Thy will be done)

In this here hood and yo’s (On earth as it is in heaven)

Gimme some eats (Give us this day our daily bread)

And cut me some slack, Blood (And forgive us our trespasses)

Sos I be doin’ it to dem dat diss me (As we forgive those who trespass against us)

Don’t be pushin’ me into no jive (And lead us not into temptation)

And keep dem Crips away (But deliver us from evil)

‘Cause (For)

You always be da Man, G Straight up. (Thine is the Kingdom, the power and the glory, forever and ever)

Aa-men (Amen)

Some Biblical purists might object to the translation of the Lord’s Prayer into Ebonics, but those individuals who support such a translation say that it is an attempt to reach, in a language they can understand, the people who are in most need of the message.  Sounds like a rather condescending attitude to me.  But then again, I don’t think I’ve ever fully understood the need for Ebonics.  If someone can learn Ebonics, couldn’t they learn English?