One of the hardest things for a black linguist is getting across, once and for all, something that the public never quite seems to get: Black English is not bad English. Over the years, people have ...

The wording of the resolution—which stated that ebonics, or the “African Language Systems,” was genetically based and ordered district officials to design a program that instructed students in their ...

John McWhorter is a regular contributor to The Root. The use of the word "up" is just one example of the complexity of Black English — and how there are right and wrong ways to use it. One of the ...

America’s unreflective dismissal of Ebonics is rather fascinating, not because many see it as a “lesser” form of English, but rather because society fails, for the most part, to dip its feet into the ...