Little Controversies here and there...
Once in a while you open the newspaper (or click on one) and discover that someone has triggered a controversy. This week I have discovered two controversies which I like. The first one came out on Tuesday, reported by the Associated Press, about how the DEA in the United States is considering hiring Ebonics translators to help them understand the language used by drug dealers in wiretap conversations. Good stuff, this. I am an English teacher, and I write poetry and fiction, but (or and) at heart I am a linguist (my BA was in Linguistics and English):we were given great training on all issues linguistic at the University of Zimbabwe; so yes, I love this stuff.
Plus I am teaching a college writing class under what we call the Diop program at my college, a program whose emphasis is the African American experience.It's a program, which means I work with the same students for two semesters, assigning college essays on African American issues. Our first topic usually deals with language and how African Americans have named themselves or have been named over the centuries. So when the Ebonics article came out in newspapers on Tuesday, it made our day. The students could tell I was shaking with joy, and may even have wondered why, if not how....
While predominantly African American, the students don't necessarily agree with what the scholars we study argue (we use a collection of essays entitled Get it Together:Readings about African American Life). At first, the students may even question the idea of having to learn about the African American experience. Why? Because they are African American? That is, if they agree at all that they are African American (a term coined in 1989)...some say just call me American, others say call me black, and others, call me Jerome, call me human. And I love, just love, this...because, in every composition class I teach, critical thinking takes center stage, and there is nothing as beautiful as encountering student resistance...the questioning of curriculum, etc. At the end of the day, of course, the curriculum wins, we know what's best for them, but when they question it, when they challenge it, they help us shape it in a way that serves them best.
We had such a great time talking about the language (not necessarily dialect) of African Americans. But get this, we were not teaching ourselves Ebonics, in some cases we did not even recognize what that was supposed to mean, but we agreed that something existed that had the structure of a language, and writing in Standard Academic English, which I am paid to teach, we argued about this creature, compared notes, consulted experts, consulted the Linguitics Society of America; we agreed, we disagreed, we reached common ground. We have a whole year to keep coming back to this topic if we have to; in the meantime, we have the next issue to cover.
The second controversy of the week was V.S. Naipaul, the award winning author of A House for Mr Biswas, who has, again, told the world that he does not think much of Africa is...I almost would say...civilized. Old argument, right? But what he says matters. He is a Nobel Laureate; many people may take him seriously. I usually take him seriously. And now this...Africans what? So now I am waiting to read his latest book, the one causing the controversy, which is about his observations of African countries, African cultures when he traveled there for six months, covering such countries as Nigeria, Ivory Coast, which disappointed him, and South Africa, which scared him (and he does not get scared that easily, neither do I). I am going to read the prose of this new book, learn a few more things about putting sentences together, but I will also check carefully what he says about Africa, whether he writes, as prominent Zimbabwean writer Petina Gappah (a friend of mine) says, with wisdom, with the compassion he shows in his masterpiece, A House for Mr. Biswas.
Today is Friday and as I walk out of the week, I am happy that these two mini-controversies occurred.
Plus I am teaching a college writing class under what we call the Diop program at my college, a program whose emphasis is the African American experience.It's a program, which means I work with the same students for two semesters, assigning college essays on African American issues. Our first topic usually deals with language and how African Americans have named themselves or have been named over the centuries. So when the Ebonics article came out in newspapers on Tuesday, it made our day. The students could tell I was shaking with joy, and may even have wondered why, if not how....
While predominantly African American, the students don't necessarily agree with what the scholars we study argue (we use a collection of essays entitled Get it Together:Readings about African American Life). At first, the students may even question the idea of having to learn about the African American experience. Why? Because they are African American? That is, if they agree at all that they are African American (a term coined in 1989)...some say just call me American, others say call me black, and others, call me Jerome, call me human. And I love, just love, this...because, in every composition class I teach, critical thinking takes center stage, and there is nothing as beautiful as encountering student resistance...the questioning of curriculum, etc. At the end of the day, of course, the curriculum wins, we know what's best for them, but when they question it, when they challenge it, they help us shape it in a way that serves them best.
We had such a great time talking about the language (not necessarily dialect) of African Americans. But get this, we were not teaching ourselves Ebonics, in some cases we did not even recognize what that was supposed to mean, but we agreed that something existed that had the structure of a language, and writing in Standard Academic English, which I am paid to teach, we argued about this creature, compared notes, consulted experts, consulted the Linguitics Society of America; we agreed, we disagreed, we reached common ground. We have a whole year to keep coming back to this topic if we have to; in the meantime, we have the next issue to cover.
The second controversy of the week was V.S. Naipaul, the award winning author of A House for Mr Biswas, who has, again, told the world that he does not think much of Africa is...I almost would say...civilized. Old argument, right? But what he says matters. He is a Nobel Laureate; many people may take him seriously. I usually take him seriously. And now this...Africans what? So now I am waiting to read his latest book, the one causing the controversy, which is about his observations of African countries, African cultures when he traveled there for six months, covering such countries as Nigeria, Ivory Coast, which disappointed him, and South Africa, which scared him (and he does not get scared that easily, neither do I). I am going to read the prose of this new book, learn a few more things about putting sentences together, but I will also check carefully what he says about Africa, whether he writes, as prominent Zimbabwean writer Petina Gappah (a friend of mine) says, with wisdom, with the compassion he shows in his masterpiece, A House for Mr. Biswas.
Today is Friday and as I walk out of the week, I am happy that these two mini-controversies occurred.
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