Posted on 08/04/2005 5:06:34 AM PDT by SJackson
A Brooklyn College professor says Ebonics is superior to the tongue of White Devils
--Assistant Professor of Adolescence Education at Brooklyn College
--Teaches that rap music is an effective tool for teaching English literacy to schoolchildren, and that proper English is language of white "oppressors"
--Required students to view Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 911
Priya Parmar is an Assistant Professor of Adolescence Education at Brooklyn College's School of Education in New York, where she teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses to aspiring teachers.
Of special interest to Parmar, whose doctoral dissertation is titled "KRS-One Going Against the Grain: A Critical Study of Rap Music as a Postmodern Text," is rap music. No mere enthusiast of the genre, Parmar holds that it is an unappreciated tool for imparting English literacy to young children: A 2003 Brooklyn College faculty newsletter reports that Parmar's scholarly writing "focuses on using hip-hop culture as a tool to increase literacy skills" in elementary and secondary schools.[1]
Those critics who question whether rap music, with its on reliance grammar-averse Ebonics slang, is an effective medium for teaching literacy are dismissed by Parmar as craven apologists for bourgeois hegemony. "Rap music causes moral panic in many because of its 'threat' to existing values and ideologies held by the dominant middle class," asserts Parmar.[2] On the strength of no evidence whatsoever, Parmar also claims that "research has shown that Ebonics is a legitimate systematic language."[3] Nor does Parmar doubt that the explicit lyrics and violent subject matter of rap make perfectly appropriate learning aids for young children:
"From my experience in the classrooms—and that of my students who are practitioners in the field—we've learned that kids—even as young as third grade—are very sophisticated about the homophobic, violent and sexual messages from some mainstream rap artists. If you give students an opportunity to deconstruct the lyrics and then compare them with those of more political and social-consciousness raising artists, such as [rap groups] The Roots and Dead Perez . . . youth are capable of distinguishing between reality and false perceptions and stereotypes perpetuated in commercialized rap."[4]
Rap, Parmar teaches, is more than a means of teaching literacy. It is also a vehicle for social engineering. In addition to teaching children grammar and sentence structure, Parmar maintains, the "critical examination and deconstruction of rap lyrics becomes a method to get students to critically examine such issues as race, class, culture, and identity." Parmar calls this mode of instruction an "an empowering, liberating pedagogy." She notes with approval that one of her former students used rap to "explore economic social and political issues" in a middle school.[5]
Parmar's controversial course at Brooklyn College, "Language Literacy in Secondary Education," typifies the professor's preference for politicized pedagogy. Required of all students who intend to become secondary-school teachers, the course is designed to teach students to draft lesson plans that teach literacy. Parmar's syllabus informs students that the principal focus of these lesson plans must be "social justice."[6]
Another theme animating Parmar's course is her aversion to the proper usage of English. To insist on grammatical English, Parmar believes, is to exhibit an intolerable form of cultural chauvinism—a point reinforced by the a preface to the requirements for her course, which adduces the following quotation from the South African writer, Jamul Ndebele: "The need to maintain control over English by its native speakers has given birth to a policy of manipulative open-mindedness in which it is held that English belongs to all who use it provided that it is used correctly. This is the art of giving away the bride while insisting that she still belongs to you."[7] Students are expected to share Parmar's antipathy toward grammatical rule-based English, as she does not countenance dissent: In December of 2005, for instance, several disaffected Brooklyn College students wrote letters to the dean of the School of Education taking issue with Parmar's hostility toward students who dared voice their support for the correct usage of English.
Nor was this the only confrontation between Parmar and her students. Evan Goldwyn, a Brooklyn College student who took Parmar's course, caused a campus storm when he wrote a lengthy critique of the course detailing his objections to Parmar's teaching methods. Topping Goldwyn's list of grievances were Parmar's pronounced bias against English and her alleged bigotry against white students. "She repeatedly referred to English as a language of oppressors and in particular denounced white people as the oppressors," Goldwyn wrote. "When offended students raised their hands to challenge Professor Parmar's assertion, they were ignored. Those students that disagreed with her were altogether denied the opportunity to speak."[8]
Students also charged that Parmar's insistence on bringing politics into the classroom went beyond issues relating to English literacy. For instance, one week before the 2004 presidential election, Parmar turned over her course to a classroom screening of Michael Moore's polemical anti-President Bush documentary, Fahrenheit 911.[9] Students were allegedly required to attend the screening, even if they had already seen the film. "Most troubling of all," Goldwyn wrote, "she has insinuated that people who disagree with her views on issues such as Ebonics or Fahrenheit 911 should not become teachers."[10]
Parmar, according to Goldwyn, has also retaliated against students who disagreed with her political opinions by lowering their grades. After challenging Parmar about her teaching methods, Goldwyn and another student found themselves accused of plagiarism after the semester had ended. The accusations were reportedly based on the final assignment for Parmar's course, which asked students to devise a special lesson plan for "linguistically and culturally diverse students." Following an informal investigation, conducted, at Parmar's instigation, by the dean of the education school, Goldwyn received a D-minus for the course.[11]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] http://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/bc/pubs/fn/fall03/1103.pdf
[2] http://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/bc/pubs/bcmag/spr2004/bcmag.pdf
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
[6] http://www.nysun.com/article/14604
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Ibid.
[11] Ibid.
Yo... dat be cool, dig?
Few great societies are out right conquered at their prime. Usually when the conquering armies arrive, all they're doing is kicking in the rotting walls and watching the rats and roaches run. In other words, most great civilizations first rotted from the inside, the conquerers just gave them the final push. Ebonics is another symptom of the rot.
This has nothing to do with minorities and everything to do with an underclass and a broken educational system. Unless you consider uneducated rednecks or hillbillies who speak just as badly, minorities, you are way off.
"Discriminating on the Basis of Political Disposition"
has to be the scariest thing I have read in a long time. Sounds like only leftists need apply to teacher's college.
And yet, throughout India, English is the neutral language so that everyone can talk to each other without giving up their 12 different languages and 400 dialects. Nuff said.
FYI: English is not a Romance (Latin-based) language; it is Germanic.
What good be dem ebonics if yo' don' got no maffonics teechur fo' dem riffmatics?
LOL!!
"I am not going to say that English is a perfect language. The spelling is not standardized and the grammar is tricky."
The reason English spelling is so irregular is because of its roots: English has virtually borrowed from so many sources: French, Spanish, Greek, Latin, German, Celtic, Scandinavian, etc.
And, African. Words like jazz, gumbo, etc., which were donated by slaves. That's the irony. This "professor" claims English is the language of oppressors, when in actuality it is the most open & democratic language of all.
The vocabulary, in fact, is what makes English so wonderfully rich & nuanced.
Black hatred is very very very real. If anyone has the misfortune to sit and talk to one of these people you can not concieve the type of sociopathic stance they take to feed their hatred.
Everyone but black people have no soul. If you do not believe as they do that black people are oppressed and are entitled to TAKE by any means then you are an "uncle tom" or just plain lost.
Sociopathic may not go well with hatred as a decription but it is the best way to describe the experience.
This professor's world view is built around his personal hatred of all things which hate europeans. It is built around tearing others down so he can create some mythical fantasy ancestry that makes HIM the decendent of somether "special."
The scary part is that he is not alone. There are many many more like him, spiting out his hatred. (some even made movies)
This is a required course apparently. That's not very funny.
You should send that to her so that she can incorporate in into her "lesson plans".
Idiots like this guy are one of the main reasons for the continued decline of the blacks and the ruination of music. Bill Cosby is right!
Unfrigging believable. Don't get offended at me asking, are you black? If so, what percentage, do you think, of blacks actually buy into this idiocy?
You know, I worked 2 UN missions during my military time and I got a chance to meet several real Africans. Interesting things: 1. they were all educated in proper oxford english and 2. they all said the same thing: their countries were better off under colonialism then now.
that is an excellent point
I challenge her to explain any of the complex ideas that she just spewed in that hate filled rant using only ebonics.
I'm a firm believer in torturing the English language. I love to do it. I'm the first one you'll find on here saying "I hop you'll soon be vey scroon." I even taught the word "screwn" to one of our editors here at work and she loved it.
But if you don't know what it is that you're torturing you might sound cool as a child but as an adult you just come across as retarded. And you don't get the job.
It's similar to having a name like Lashariashondapotporeea.
For the record we have a woman here named Latoya Lashonda who is vey, vey sweet. I'm glad her name didn't keep her from getting hired.
but those "red neckS" know they speak with a southern accent.
They do not pretend idoms are a seperate "language".
This professor is using her status to push "blackness" as a seperate language as a power tool.
Just like the hispanic people are pushing mandatory spanish upon the government as a tool of balkanization.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.