Black Language is a style of speaking English words with Black Flava—with Africanized semantic, grammatical, pronunciation, and rhetorical patterns. [Black Language] comes out of the experience of U.S. slave descendants. This shared experience has resulted in common language practices in the Black community. The roots of African American speech lie in the counter language, the resistance discourse, that was created as a communication system unintelligible to speakers of the dominant master class.
-Geneva Smitherman, "Word From the Mother", 2006
Ebony + Phonics = Ebonics
Navigatin' the Syllabus...
YOUTUBE ALERT: Geechee Experience ain't new to this! They been outchea educating the people about Gullah Geechee Language and the Geechee experience. Follow them on YouTube and Instagram.
PODCAST ALERT: Check out Anansa Benbow's new podcast, The Black Language Podcast. It's straight FIYAH! Also, see her TedX talk, Grammar Skool, below.
BOOK ALERT: April Baker-Bell's new book, Linguistic Justice: Black Language, Literacy, Identity, and Pedagogy, dropped in May 2020. See the trailer for Linguistic Justice below.
Our mission for the #BlackLanguageSyllabus is to celebrate the beauty of Blackness and Black Language, fight for Black Linguistic Justice, and provide critical intellectual resources that promote the collective study of Black Language. The #BlackLanguageSyllabus builds on the digital origins of other Black radical digital education resources and digital hashtag syllabus projects, such as #LemonadeSyllabus,
#SayHerNameSyllabus, #BlackFeminismSyllabus, and the Abolitionist Teaching Network, that are open access and created outside of traditional academe to reshape how knowledge is produced, affirmed, and accessed.
We recognize that anti-Blackness and anti-Black linguistic racism are ubiquitous, and with the current war on critical race theory and antiracist education, we ain't got time to be waiting on schools and society to celebrate or educate us about our language, so we created the #BlackLanguageSyllabus as a space for political discussions and praxis of Black Language as guided by the work of teacher-researcher-activists in classrooms and communities who stand against institutions that seek to annihilate Black Language + Black Life.
Like other #hashtag syllabi, the #BlackLanguageSyllabus is for Black Language speakers who are looking to re-educate themselves about our mother tongue, academics and educators looking to reimagine their classroom curricula and pedagogies, and for anyone who is interested in learning about Black Language + Black liberation.
[NOTE: If you cannot move past denigrating Black Language, in any way or form, then please know that this site was not created for you.]
Black Linguistic Justice...
Hit Us Up...
We honor the memory of Dr. Robert L. Williams who transitioned to the ancestral realm on August 12, 2020. Dr. Williams coined the term Ebonics (a combination of “ebony” + “phonics”) in 1973, and he edited the book Ebonics: The True Language of Black Folks, which explained the African roots of Ebonics and refuted the popular conception that Ebonics was simply slang or deficient English. We honor the work of Dr. Williams through the #BlackLanguageSyllabus and our continued fight for Black Linguistic Justice. Rest in Power!
I deeply hope that more of us will want to learn to protect Black language. If we lose our fluency in our language, we may irreversibly forsake elements of the spirit that have provided for our survival.
-June Jordan, "White English/ Black English: The Politics of Translation", 1972
Lugha nyeusi ni mtindo wa kuzungumza maneno ya Kiingereza na Black Flava <unk> na Afrika semantic, sarufi, matamshi, na mifumo ya usemi. "Kutoka kwa ""Black Language"" ni uzoefu wa watumwa wa Marekani." Uzoefu huo ulioshirikiwa umesababisha mazoea ya lugha ya kawaida katika jamii ya Weusi. "Mazizi ya usemi wa Kiafrika-Amerika yako katika lugha ya ""kushindana,"" ambayo iliundwa kama mfumo wa mawasiliano usioeleweka kwa wasemaji wa darasa la watawala." "Geneva Smitherman, ""Word From the Mother,"" 2006 Ebony + Phonics = Ebonics Navigating the Syllabus, ""Uzoefu wa Geechee sio mpya kwa hili." Wamekuwa nje wakiwaelimisha watu kuhusu Lugha ya Gullah Geechee na uzoefu wa Geechee. Wafuate kwenye YouTube na Instagram. "Kama unavyoona, Anansi Benbow ana podcast mpya inayoitwa ""The Black Language Podcast.""" Ni moja kwa moja FIYAH! Pia, angalia mazungumzo yake ya TedX, Grammar Skool, hapa chini. Kitabu cha April Baker-Bell, Linguistic Justice: Black Language, Literacy, Identity, and Pedagogy, kimechapishwa mnamo Mei 2020. Tazama trela ya Linguistic Justice hapa chini. """Ujumbe wetu kwa #BlackLanguageSyllabus ni kusherehekea uzuri wa Blackness na Lugha ya Black, kupigania Haki ya Lugha ya Black, na kutoa rasilimali muhimu za akili ambazo zinaendeleza utafiti wa pamoja wa Lugha ya Black." #BlackLanguageSyllabus inajenga juu ya asili ya dijiti ya rasilimali zingine za elimu ya dijiti ya Black na miradi ya mtaala wa dijiti ya hashtag, kama vile #LemonadeSyllabus, #SayHerNameSyllabus, #BlackFeminismSyllabus, na Mtandao wa Ufundishaji wa Ukombozi, ambayo ni upatikanaji wa wazi na kuundwa nje ya chuo kikuu cha jadi ili kurekebisha jinsi maarifa yanavyotengenezwa, kuthibitishwa, na kupatikana. """Tunafahamu kwamba upinzani dhidi ya weusi na upinzani dhidi ya lugha ya kijinsia ni kila mahali, na kwa vita vya sasa dhidi ya nadharia muhimu ya jamii na elimu ya upinzani wa ubaguzi wa rangi, hatuna wakati wa kusubiri shule na jamii kutuheshimu au kutufundisha kuhusu lugha yetu, kwa hivyo tumeunda #BlackLanguageSyllab kama nafasi ya majadiliano ya kisiasa na mazoezi ya lugha nyeusi, kama inavyoongozwa na kazi ya walimu, watafiti na wanaharakati katika madarasa na jamii." "Kama programu nyingine za #Hashtag, #BlackLanguageSyllab ni kwa wasemaji wa lugha nyeusi ambao wanatafuta kujielimisha tena juu ya lugha yetu ya mama, wasomi na walimu wanaotafuta kufikiria upya mtaala wao wa darasa na ufundishaji, na kwa mtu yeyote anayependezwa na kujifunza juu ya ""Lugha nyeusi na ukombozi mweusi.""" """Kama huwezi kuhamia nyuma ya kudharau lugha nyeusi, kwa njia yoyote au fomu, basi tafadhali ujue kwamba tovuti hii haikutengenezwa kwa ajili yako." "Mwanamke huyo wa zamani wa zamani wa Marekani, Robert L. Williams, aliwahi kupewa jina la utani ""Black Linguistic Justice"" na kupewa jina la utani ""Hit Us Up"" na kupewa jina la utani ""Black Linguistic Justice"" na ""Hit Us Up"" na kupewa jina la utani ""Black Linguistic Justice"" na ""Hit Us Up.""" "Wakati wa kuanzishwa kwa neno ""Ebonics"" katika mwaka wa 1973, Williams aliandika kitabu ""Ebonics: The True Language of Black Folks"" ambacho kilikuwa na maana ya ""Ebonics"" na ""Ebonics"" kwa Kiingereza." """Tunaheshimu kazi ya Dk Williams kupitia #BlackLanguageSyllabus na mapambano yetu ya kuendelea kwa Haki ya Lugha ya Weusi." Pumzika kwa Nguvu! Natumaini sana kwamba wengi wetu watataka kujifunza kulinda lugha ya Weusi. Kama tutapoteza ufasaha wetu katika lugha yetu, tunaweza kuacha kabisa mambo ya roho ambayo yametuandalia kuokoka. "Juni Jordan, ""White Kiingereza na Black Kiingereza: siasa ya tafsiri"""