The Decline of Our Common Language

Language is the glue that holds a society together. What defines a nation-state, as opposed to an empire, are shared cultural traits-principally among them language. Now, I realize that there are, and have been, many countries with multiple languages, and these have had varying degrees of success. Switzerland has done fine, for example. India is doing quite well, with English and Hindi being the lingua franca` (so to speak), but a hodgepodge of languages is generally a bad thing because it means a hodgepodge of different cultures without adequate ties. Look at the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Look at the more modern Yugoslavia. Czechoslovakia never worked, although they parted amicably. Canada has been fighting to survive for decades. The entire Middle Ages was a lesson in multicultural failing; no Medieval kingdoms could survive for long, including Charlemagne`s, because there was no sense of cultural identity.

Generally an empire works because it is held by force of arms. China is a classic example of that today. The old Soviet Union was multicultural and multilingual, and the Red Army was the only thing which held it together. Rome, Alexander`s empire, Persia,the Aztecs, Incans, etc. survived because of fear of military action. They were able to impose an artificial comity among the subject peoples. India had a common culture imposed on her by the British, and they are doing well now, but it remains to be seen if old animosities between groups return. Certainly, Pakistan and Bengladesh were part of old India, but cultural differences were too great to avoid partition. Sikh seperatists today threaten the peace of the Indian republic.

But the need for a certain amount of cultural homogenaity is especially necessary for a country such as the United States. The U.S. has always welcomed huge numbers of immigrants and enforced enculturation on them, and our republic presupposes an informed citizenry with interests in common.

Which is why the last thirty years has been so destructive in the black community; there has been an increasingly dim view held by many African-Americans toward ``being white``-enculturating into the mainstream of American life-and efforts have been made to validate an unique culture of ``blackness``. We hear this all of the time with stories in the press asking if this fellow is ``black enough`` or that fellow. Is Barack Obama black enough? How about Condi Rice?

Nowhere is this better illustrated than in the argument over linguistics. The idea that Ebonics-black English-is somehow a seperate language and that children should be taught using it ties in with the multiculturalism of our era. Teach immigrant children in Spanish! Teach the deaf in ASL! Now teach black children in the newly dubbed Ebonics! (Ebonics is a dialect, not a language.) It is a great disservice to do this, and it not only hurts the children so miseducated but it damages society by widening the wedge between the races here in America.

Dr. Bill Cosby has been fighting this trend, a lone voice in crying in the wilderness. Below is a frank assessment by Dr. Cosby:


Can't Blame White People
>
> by: Bill Cosby
>
>
>
> They're standing on the corner and they can't speak English.
>
> I can't even talk the way these people talk:
>
> Why you ain't,
>
> Where you is,
>
> What he drive,
>
> Where he stay,
>
> Where he work,
>
> Who you be...
>
> And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk.
>
> And then I heard the father talk.
>
> Everybody knows it's important to speak English...
>
> except these knuckleheads.
>
> Mushmouth is what they speak!
>
> You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth.
>
> In fact, you will never get any kind of job making a decent living.
>
> People marched and were hit in the face with rocks to get an education,
>
> and now we've got these knuckleheads throwing that all away.
>
> The lower economic people are not holding up their end in this deal.
>
> These people are not parenting.
>
> They are buying things for kids. $500 sneakers, for what?
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> And they won't spend $200 for Hooked on Phonics.
>
> I am talking about these people who cry
>
> when their son is standing there in an orange suit.
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> Where were you when he was 2?
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> Where were you when he was 12?
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> Where were you when he was 18?
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> And, how come you didn't know that he had a pistol?
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> And where is the father?
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> Or who is his father?
>
> People putting their clothes on backward:
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> Isn't that a sign of something gone wrong?
>
> People with their hats on backward,
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> pants down around the crack,
>
> isn't that a sign of something?
>
> They're walking around with their nasty underwear showing, and
>
> holding onto their pants to keep them from falling to the ground!
>
> Or are you waiting for Jesus to pull his pants up?
>
> Isn't it a sign of something
>
> when she has her dress all the way up to her panty line,
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> and got all types of needle piercings
>
> going through her body?
>
> What part of Africa did this come from?
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> We are not Africans.
>
> Those people are not Africans;
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> they don't know a thing about Africa .
>
> With names like Shaniqua, Taliqua and Mohammed and all of that crap,
> and all of them are in jail.
>
> Brown or black versus the Board of Education
>
> is no longer the white person's problem.< B>
>
> We have got to take the neighborhood back.
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> People used to be ashamed.
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> Today a woman has eight children
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> with eight different 'husbands' --
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> or men or whatever you call them now.
>
> We have millionaire football players
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> who cannot read.
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> We have million-dollar basketball players
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> who can't write two paragraphs.
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> We as black folks have to do a better job.
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> Someone working at Wal-Mart
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> with seven kids saying...
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> you are hurting us.
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> We have to start holding each other
>
> to a higher standard.
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> We cannot blame the white people any longer.
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> It is not for media or anyone of this time
>
> anymore to say whether I'm right or wrong.
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> It is time, ladies and gentlemen,
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> to look at the numbers.
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> Fifty percent of our children are dropping out
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> of high school.
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> Sixty percent of the incarcerated males
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> happen to be illiterate. There's a correlation.
>
> Tell the media to stop asking me what I think
> about people who don't believe what I'm saying,
> or feel that I'm too harsh or feel that I'm just running my mouth
> because I'm old.
>
> Seventy percent of the teenagers pregnant happen to be
> African American girls.
>
> Don't ask me to soften my message.

Bill Cosby


Children must be educated, be taught to speak properly, and that was done, and continually reinforced, in previous eras. Modern educational theory eschewed this idea of standard english in favor of free expression. We witnessed this in many forms of literature; free verse poetry, for example. The idea of formal rules to be followed was somehow ``oppressive`` and so discarded. We are now reaping the harvest from this rebellion against standards, with (as the New York Times would say) minorities hardest hit. They are the ones who need this disciplined approach the most, since they are coming from a position of disadvantage. Now the experiment has taken over, and those teaching in the poorer neighborhoods are as ignorant and ineloquent as those they are teaching. It has become a self-perpetuating cycle.

The rise of the Hip-Hop culture, and it`s acceptance among the mainstream of Americans, has exaserbated this problem since Hip-Hoppers are full of inventive new slang which is becoming mainstream in the minority culture. Booya! Hoe! Whasupwitdat! playa! Dimba! Crib! etc. are all linguistic abominations best scrubbed from our collective consciousness, and further dividing us as a nation. We need to be coming together, not building walls. Seperation of language builds walls.

Oh, and don`t forget what is happening with the illegals in this country who aren`t even bothering to learn to speak English!

Doctor Cosby knows what he is talking about!