Justice Department Seeks Ebonics Experts

thesmokinggun.com ^ | 08/23/2010 | n/a

[massmike]

The Department of Justice is seeking to hire linguists fluent in Ebonics to help monitor, translate, and transcribe the secretly recorded conversations of subjects of narcotics investigations, according to federal records.

A maximum of nine Ebonics experts will work with the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Atlanta field division, where the linguists, after obtaining a “DEA Sensitive” security clearance, will help investigators decipher the results of “telephonic monitoring of court ordered nonconsensual intercepts, consensual listening devices, and other media”

The DEA’s need for full-time linguists specializing in Ebonics is detailed in bid documents related to the agency’s mid-May issuance of a request for proposal (RFP) covering the provision of as many as 2100 linguists for the drug agency’s various field offices. Answers to the proposal were due from contractors on July 29.

In contract documents, which are excerpted here, Ebonics is listed among 114 languages for which prospective contractors must be able to provide linguists

[Le Chien Rouge]

Hire some wanna be rappers—white or black—.....seriously.

[Red Badger]

Just ask The Zero to translate. Harry Reid said he could.................

[Pietro]

Mrs. Cleaver speaks a mean m*therf***kin’ ebonics

[Celerity]

Call me when they need Klingon speakers.

[Abathar]

They would need several, a jive talker in Detroit is not using the same lingo as a rap star wannabe out in LA I bet.

[DainBramage]

You mean they say B!tch and Muhfugga in more than one dialect?

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Sounds racist to me (Sarc)...

[wideawake]

The idea is pretty silly - what they are looking for is not speakers of a dialect, but people who are familiar with the ever-changing and highly localized slang of the urban streets.

It is impossible to demonstrate proficiency in it the way one can demonstrate proficiency in Arabic or even Kreyol.

[Roccus]

[Ezekiel]

[cartan]

“I be uh professor o' da linguistics o' Ebonics. What do ya you wants me ta analyze? in the hood”

[Dr. Ursus]

I speak jive. Just don’t call me Shirley!

[elpadre]

check out some urban high school “English” teachers - a great source!

[dalebert]

be sure to include great benefit package and triple retirement.

[Mobties]

Here's a declension to get you started:

e coli
ebola
ebonics

[csmusaret]

I can translate redneck for them.

MR Boy Pigs
MR Not Boy Pigs
OSAR CMP?
LIB MR Boy Pigs

[MortMan]

You were betean by a measly 5 seconds!

[boomop1]

get algore he did pretty good the that black church.

[pabianice]

Just call it what it is. Spoken illiteracy.