09/21/07 Speaker

The speaker from the Center For Applied Linguistics brought about different discussions for the class. One of the heated topics that came up was whether we should call ourselves African-American or Black. Personally I consider myself an African-American. I consider myself this, because I truly am African-American. My father is Nigerian, and my mother is Black American. I feel though, that Blacks should refer to themselves as Blacks. They can't truly call themselves African-American, because they don't know the African side of their heritage. So I totally understand why Blacks would rather be called that, rather than African-American. The other topic that brought discussion was, whether Black vernacular, or "Ebonics" should be considered a language. Many did not think Ebonics should be considered a language. I agree. This is because if it were to be viewed as a language, other race's would assume every Black person must speak Ebonics. This would not be true, considering I do not speak Ebonics. I don't even know what words or phrases would be considered Ebonics. So I feel Ebonics is a vernacular, not a language. This speaker brought out discussions, that I feel brings out every one's personal opinions, which is a good thing. It's nice to hear what your classmates think and feel.