The problem with humans is that we want to be treated both as individuals but also recognized as part of a larger racial group. Straddling both is impossible without conflicts arising. How is one to know that when you speak, you are doing so based on your individual beliefs and not your cultural background? How is one to know which you want to be percieved as at any point time? Each minority grasps and wears their cultural backing. White people don't wear Saris because it is a cultural artifact of India. Europeans don't use chopsticks because it is a cultural artifact of China.
Sadly, Blacks in this country were robbed of their cultural background, and having been refused access to successful assimilation into the white mainstream for much of their existence, their culture is a makeshift one, incorporating elements of the slave existence, the pervasive depression among them at that point in time (blues, and rock and roll?), and, to be blunt, the widespread ignorance among them. Ebonics is a cultural artifact of ignorance, nothing else.
Again, being both part of a group and an individual breeds inevitable conflict in a lunique land like America where multiple groups exist. Homogenous countries, which pretty much make up the rest of the world, don't have these problems to a large extent, because there is only one culture and one group.
People like to point out that other minorities in this country, especially the Asians, don't exhibit the social dysfunction that the Black contingency does. However, the Asians, for the most part (ignoring the railroads for a minute), have come of their own accord and on their own terms. Along with them is a strong cultural identity that provides guidance. But you'll notice that the second and third generations are starting to suffer the same problems that were usually only recognizable among "indigenous" minorities.
Sadly, Blacks in this country were robbed of their cultural background, and having been refused access to successful assimilation into the white mainstream for much of their existence, their culture is a makeshift one, incorporating elements of the slave existence, the pervasive depression among them at that point in time (blues, and rock and roll?), and, to be blunt, the widespread ignorance among them. Ebonics is a cultural artifact of ignorance, nothing else.
Again, being both part of a group and an individual breeds inevitable conflict in a lunique land like America where multiple groups exist. Homogenous countries, which pretty much make up the rest of the world, don't have these problems to a large extent, because there is only one culture and one group.
People like to point out that other minorities in this country, especially the Asians, don't exhibit the social dysfunction that the Black contingency does. However, the Asians, for the most part (ignoring the railroads for a minute), have come of their own accord and on their own terms. Along with them is a strong cultural identity that provides guidance. But you'll notice that the second and third generations are starting to suffer the same problems that were usually only recognizable among "indigenous" minorities.