Oakland Schools Drop 2 Key Points in Ebonics Stand

OAKLAND — After enduring a month of blistering criticism for its resolution calling Ebonics a language distinct from English, the Oakland Board of Education on Wednesday retracted the two points that most enraged its critics.

In a unanimous vote, the seven-member board dropped a reference to African American speech as a “genetically based” language and eliminated a proposal that students be taught in Ebonics, a word coined from “ebony” and “phonics.”

Even more than the rhetoric of black separatism that infused the original resolution, those two ideas had fueled a debate that raged across talk radio, television and the pages of national magazines and newspapers.

The amended policy calls for teachers to learn “African American language systems” so they can help “move students from the language patterns they bring to school to English proficiency.”

“We are trying to teach them standard English, that’s the point,” said board member Robert Spencer. “But at the same time I understand the need to embrace all of the cultures in our community.”

The argument in a packed hearing room repeatedly grew heated, with some members of the audience shouting at the board and board members turning off the microphone when speakers exceeded their allotted time.

Leo Bazile, an Oakland attorney, urged the school board to stand firm on its policy, blaming the media for misinforming the public that the Oakland schools are trying to teach Ebonics as a separate language. “Not since . . . Stokely Carmichael put the words ‘black power’ together have I seen this kind of reaction,” he said.

The debate over Ebonics has won praise for raising important questions about the poor record of urban school districts in improving academic achievement among African American students, but it also had an ugly side, with some using the linguistic issue as an excuse for telling racist jokes.

Critics, including the head of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People and prominent African American writers and intellectuals, said that teaching students in Ebonics would demean them and hold them back.