Date:  Wed, 8 Oct 1997 19:36:28 -0400
From:  "Peter L. Patrick" <PPATRICK[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]GUVAX.ACC.GEORGETOWN.EDU>
Subject: Re: The Lords Prayer/Ebonics

I know we had a lot of discussion about the purveying of racist jokes
(and other kinds) in the wake of the Ebonics controversy. I too
think that simply passing them along as "interesting" condones them or
lends the mantle of "scientific interest" to behavior that I am sure
most people on the list do not tolerate in person, and I would like to
second Sali's indignation -- regardless of the motives behind the act.
    I am chiming in because there IS a way to address the topic
usefully as linguists, and that is by considering the materials cited
in the light of language ideology research. Maggie Ronkin and Helen
Karn, students here at Georgetown's program, will be presenting a
paper on this topic at aDS in NYC, likening "Mock Ebonics" to Jane
Hill's work on "Junk Spanish" as a system of strategies for
representing racist stereotypes. Since I don't want to seem to take
credit for the ideas, which are Maggie and Helen's own, I won't
summarize them here, but Maggie is on the list and I'm sure wo0uldn't
mind if interested people contacted her on the topic at
    ronkinm[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]gusun.georgetown.edu

I recommend the talk to all, having heard an early version of it in my
AAVE seminar a few weeks ago.

    --peter patrick