Congresswoman Corrine Brown - Ebonics 101

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   BillyDRitchieposted 13 years ago

   Okay, right or left, this is funny.....your tax dollars at work......
   
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgbBP9Em00A

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2. 48

   ShortStoryposted 13 years ago

   Ok, that was amusing. It was not 'ebonics,' but just a not very intelligent woman wasting taxpayer money. I like the school pride but come on Florida, you've got to start taking this whole 'voting' thing a little more seriously.

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   mikelongposted 13 years ago

   Having lived in the South, I realize that there are different ways that many words are pronounced....
   
   I would have much more criticism for the person who wrote the subtitles, for he/she is the one who made the Congresswoman's words seem so out of place...which they weren't...
   
   Something tells me that the creator of said subtitles is 1) not from the south, and 2) probably not black...  Based on many of the "interpretations" of the person creating the subtitles, I'm wondering if there isn't latent or blatant racism at work..
   
   I have watched a lot of CSPAN, and have observed many legislators giving speeches....and I have heard the English language destroyed by men and women who were not black...
   
   But, for some reason, I don't see them pilloried like this...
   
   Why?

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      lady_love158posted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Really? You never saw Palin pilloried for her vocabulary?

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         Jim Hunterposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Or Bush...Hypocrisy on display

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   mikelongposted 13 years ago

   I have not yet seen a forum here discussing it....and I was mentioning legislators...which Palin is not..  I have never seen Palin on CSPAN before...
   
   But, you are right...she destroys the English language...
   
   Again...for the video which is the basis of this thread, the real problem is with the person who did the subtitles...

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      ShortStoryposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      You admit that a white woman is also criticised for her 'issues' with the English language, yet you persist with your racism angle? Nothing else on the checklist to go with?

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   mikelongposted 13 years ago

   I am looking at this specific thread...
   
   This is quite clear, and aside from your need to be argumentative, I don't understand the purpose of your statements Short Story...
   
   This thread is about a Legislator...not some political pundit and failed governor...
   
   The thread's title talked about Ebonics....
   
   Race was brought into it from the very beginning...and I had nothing to do with it...
   
   If you cannot see this, then you are completely blind...
   
   That was not an insult, just a point that needed to be made...
   
   Now, if you want to start a thread about "politicians who destroy the English language" that is another thing...
   
   But then you won't be able to focus on "Ebonics"...
   
   Right?

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      BillyDRitchieposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Sorry, but some school systems have actually worked to have Ebonics taught as a part of English.  Are you saying that all these school systems are racist as well?

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      ShortStoryposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Why wouldn't one then be able to discuss Ebonics? It might stimulate an interesting discussion.

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   mikelongposted 13 years ago

   No...I am questioning the motives of 1) the person who added the nonsense subtitles. (without the subtitles I don't think anyone would have paid this speech any mind whatsoever) and your use of Ebonics 101 in the title...
   
   Are you Black?  Do you speak Ebonics? Have you taken an Ebonics course? Have you done an analysis of this Congresswoman's language and found its correlation to some Ebonics course that you know of?
   
   If not, then why did you use the term?
   
   If this is all about politicians who don't use proper English, then diversify your post....
   
   But, will I see you, Billy, add the link showing Palin or Bush bastardizing the language?  Will you show the bumblings of Limbaugh or Beck?
   
   Or do you just pick one type of person?
   
   You did this...I just responded to it...  If you don't like what I write, that is another story...
   
   Having also lived in Hawaii, I am very familiar with Pigeon English...and a course could be taught about that too... It is widely spoken and understood....and not something I would mock..
   
   Language is a unique and beautiful thing...and I love its diversity...and while Palin and others have abused it, I don't think you will find a single comment that I have made that pokes fun at them for it...except when comparing the public speaking skills of Obama to Bush...which has nothing to do with partisan politics or ethnicity..
   
   Again...how come no one here, except me, has pointed out the nonsense that the person doing the subtitles perpetrated?

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      Jim Hunterposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      "Have you taken an Ebonics course?"
      
      I haven't.
      
      Why would any thinking person take a course on Ebonics?
      
      Is there a course on "Redneck speak"?
      
      If not then its racist.
      
      RACIST RACIST RACIST RACIST RACIST RACIST.

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      BillyDRitchieposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Dude, I don't care if you respond or not.....and yes, I used the term ebonics, so sue me.
      
      If Rush or Palin put out something as unintentionally amusing as this, I'll be the first to post it.  I'm not above criticizing conservatives and Palin is almost as many laughs per minute as Joe Biden.....

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   mikelongposted 13 years ago

   Good Billy....and the internet abounds with their ridiculousness....they are much easier to find than this clip you placed here..
   
   So, should I be expecting a Palin/Bush/Limbaugh/Beck clip soon?
   
   Or will your words about posting them too simply wither?
   
   As for "redneck speak" I don't know what that is...
   
   I wouldn't mind discussing Ebonics...but I don't see that happening here...
   
   I just see someone trying to mock it...and the type of people who use it...

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      BillyDRitchieposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Perhaps because its worth mocking.....is it really too much to expect people to learn to speak well?
      
      By the same token, dude, I doubt you'd be exhibiting any of this feigned outrage if I had posted a clip of Sarah Palin.....

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   mikelongposted 13 years ago

   If someone had done to Palin what was done to this woman I would have the same response...  Again...the person who made the subtitles created something that otherwise did not exist...
   
   Feigned outrage?  I suppose you know me... Perhaps you have some hidden cameras here observing what my actual responses are?
   
   I do not stand for fraud....regardless of its political pursuasion...
   
   If someone lied about Palin...made something up to mock her, I would write against it...
   
   Again...Ebonics is not part of this at all....except through the bigotry of the person who created the nonsensical subtitles...

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      BillyDRitchieposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Nobody was lying about anybody.  They were altering the subtitles to reflect what her words sounded like.  Nothing was lost in translation and what she was talking about was not in any way misrepresented.
      
      Personally I found the subject of her speech to be far more amusing than how she said it, but coupled with the fact that the women is an elected official yet speaks like someone from the ghetto, it becomes a classic.
      
      Sorry it upsets you so (well, not really, but...)

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   mikelongposted 13 years ago

   Exactly.....they were changing words based off the way they were said...which is based on geographic region she was raised within...
   
   She says "defense" knowing what she is implying, and the person with the subtitles changes it to something else....
   
   Regional pronounciations used against people....
   
   I call that wrong, and fraudulent....grave misrepresentation..
   
   She speaks like someone who is from the South...not someone from the "ghetto" you are mentioning...
   
   In fact, your new stereotype about the "ghetto" is apalling... I know men and women who live in such conditions who communicate better than some here on hubpages, and better than some who serve in office, including our last president...
   
   There are many different types of slang...based on culture, based on geographic location....and they are very different from place to place...  Try listening to music from Los Angeles, from Miami, from New York....you will find many differences, regardless of whether or not they all derived from "ghettoes"....

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      BillyDRitchieposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Man, I feel sorry for anybody who is as easily offended as you are......you mention Sarah Palin and Rush making gaffes, perhaps when you demonstrate the same sense of umbrage over the fun that is incessantly poked at them in these forums, maybe then I'll care what you have to say.
      
      Or does that make too much sense?

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    mikelongposted 13 years ago

    Hmmm..easily offended as me....
    
    Well, I suppose I will take this thread of yours and share it with friends of mine..
    
    Perhaps I will take it and randomly show this thread to people living in "the ghettoes" that you mentioned, and let us see if they are not offended....
    
    I wonder, if you were African American...what would your response be?
    
    But...perhaps its too much to see the world through different optics?
    
    It is one thing to look at the failings of an individual...it is another to try to bring ethnicity and culture into it...
    
    If you cannot see this, then you are blind...
    
    Mock Palin for her failings...but if I bring up anything having to do with her culture and heritage that is something completely different...
    
    You brought Ebonics into it....you have to question your own actions...

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       Jim Hunterposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       "Mock Palin for her failings...but if I bring up anything having to do with her culture and heritage that is something completely different..."
       
       Does Ebonics play a large role in her "culture and heritage"?
       
       I doubt it, its just easier for her to talk like she's from the streets than to speak in a more dignified manner.
       
       Dignified is what was called for given the setting.
       
       I know lots of people from the south and Florida in particular, she didn't sound like any of them.
       
       She should have been mocked and she should continue to be mocked.

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    mikelongposted 13 years ago

    I have lived in Alabama, North/Western Florida, and have travelled through Louisiana as well... I have heard not only similar pronounciations, but beyond this...
    
    Dignified?  If I remember correctly, murders have occurred on Capitol Hill, and far more indecent and condemnable actions have taken place...
    
    I watch CSPAN, and a great many of the "debates" are quite poor....both in terms of the structure of many arguments, but in word usage..
    
    Again...concerning Ebonics, who brought it up?  Did that Congresswoman decide that she would "talk in Ebonics" that day?
    
    I repeat, the person who did the subtitles did an extreme job with his/her spelling and sound translation...
    
    If Palin talks like an ignoramous, I don't hear anyone talking about her "Alaska"-ness....or her being a woman...or anything related to where and how she was raised...
    
    When Bush is mocked for his destruction of the English language, the fact that he attended and graduated from an Ivy League school might be brought up...or that this guy has a graduate degree, and yet speaks like an idiot...
    
    But should I make fun of his Texan drawl? 
    
    In my book, that is crossing the line..

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