Lucy Laney Elementary: African American Vernacular English

As part of our year-long documentary on Lucy Laney Elementary: A deeper look at AAVE, African American Vernacular English, or Ebonics. Lucy Craft Laney Elementary educators are not just embracing it...

[@spacecaseprod]

I would like to show this video in my class but I am unable to due to accessibility requirements. Is it possible to have closed captioning added?

[@Tantejuju65]

Has there been a follow-up on this documentary? Staff is stable? Scores are good?

[@ramonabrown4663]

Thank you for telling this important story.

[@TechnoGlowStick]

I can't believe that some people don't know what, "finna," means. 😟 I hear and use that every day! Think about how many people just smile and nod. 🙁

[@tukushtacos2518]

It's not about a dialect it's a class to learn how and why the English language works. There's structure to it and there's nothing wrong with learning it. You don't need to change the way you talk. When you teach spanish you teach it the same way you don't teach every countries dialect you just teach the proper structured way that in any spanish speaking country would be correct.

[@TiagoLeonardoVersoesoficial]

I just loved it

[@dangeroreilly2028]

I get that during the times of slavery in America, africans(before they were even considered Americans) were taught only enough English to get along. No doubt those people only spoke broken English. That's a shameful chapter in our history, about 150 years ago since the last slave. But now, today, we're not speaking about Africans captured and brought here. We're referencing Americans with African heritage. As others have said, what if a French family moved here? A German family? A Spanish family? Would the small children entering school be keeping the language of their birth in school? Would they be taught AAVE(formerly Ebonics)? Or, would they be taught today's proper grammar? Those students would be taught what is considered traditional, proper English. Yet they might retain the tongue of their birth at home or with friends. I heard a black prof. once explaining that American blacks say "axe" for "ask" because there is no sk combination of sounds in any African vocabulary. They were unable to do it, he said, because of that. It is unfamiliar to them, like some German sounds for the American tongue. That explains an African immigrant new here, but doesn't explain a black youth today whose family has been here for generations. If a black youth cannot ask a question, can he ever have a skill? Or go skiing? Can he attend school? Could a black doctor wear scrubs? Can they be skinny? Can they reach for the sky? All those words have the sk sound, just like ask. Is it asking too much to teach all American kids how to say those words?

[@fertilityqueen7880]

"Finna" is not a word, just be blessed you know what it means. By the way "finna" is derived from "fixing to" which is also improper/ slang used from those who lived in earlier America; blacks and whites!

[@Chumzsprivateaccount]

Finna means "about to"

[@Animalhouser]

Improper? Man go do some research. At best, English is "improper" Latin. Language is a tool to communicate, not a fixated rule or law.

[@pjaypender1009]

You understand that all words are made up, right? Dialects exist and we all speak a dialect. No one speaks a pure form of English. Yours isn't better or more correct.

[@ems3832]

"Finna" is goofy and just makes you sound dense and intellectually lazy.

[@delaneybenlon6106]

Okay jackass

[@ashleighnichole8197]

Oh my goodness the comments here are disturbing.

[@Animalhouser]

Thank God I never learned to "code switch"!!! It's my culture! I will never denounce my culture, my language for the "dominant race". Be the same folks using our language in pop culture, like McDonald's "I'm lovin it!"

[@jessicajohnson4200]

I never heard of this I’m glad they found a better word than Ebonics

[@13579hee]

"Ebonics" was never REALLY a term used in Linguistics

[@boiii6902]

4:05 we love a self aware ally

[@rapturereadybiblestudy2332]

So if a Japanese man moves to Brooklyn New York and refuses to learn English because that is not his native language the same standards would apply right? So none of the blacks in that community would encourage that Japanese man to learn English... This is absolute lunacy... No one would ever live that way. Proper communication is for our ultimate benefit... this is just vain prideful ignorance

[@ashleighnichole8197]

You are comparing completely different things. Aave is still English. They can still communicate 100% with any other English speaker. The idea is that people who speak aave shouldn't be looked at as uneducated. And regardless why is "white English" the right way to speak?

[@marcosffontes]

True

[@rapturereadybiblestudy2332]

@@ashleighnichole8197 Respectfully Ashleigh. I don’t know what you mean by “white English” Australian, Irish, Scottish,Americans are all nationalities that speak English but they have vastly different dialects. No one dialect is the “right” dialect. It all about speaking in a way that the people around you will know what you are talking about. Standard English Dictionaries like Webster or Oxford is the source in which nearly EVERYONE in America is in a mutual agreement to create their daily vocabulary. You are free to go outside the English dictionary if you so choose. You can even make up your own dictionary of words for you and your family or community but do not expect for others outside that community automatically to know what you are talking about if you do.

[@ems3832]

@@ashleighnichole8197 There is no "white" English. There's correct English and incorrect English.

[@StaciW-Italia2309]

​@ashleighnichole8197 It's Standard English, not white English!!

[@caleidasilvaarmando4725]

people show their identities through the they speak... great

[@jays-move8803]

Exactly.

[@ems3832]

"People show their identities through the way they speak." There, I fixed it for you.

[@Person-lk1vs]

thank god, you saved us once again

[@nathankisner8332]

Why do blacks in the UK speak same as everyone else?

[@kierawilliams6048]

Are you a Black person from the UK? Because I am not sure what you are asking.

[@slushdog1012]

People of African decent born in the UK are not African American so theres no reason why they would speak AAVE since they are not American.

[@AllHope23]

They are diverse and have to speak to each other in Standard English

[@kenmtb]

Apparently there is no need to feel so "different". Having said that, people from the UK seem to be more articulate.

[@TheMrjetdoc35]

Nope. If you're learning English, it needs to be spoken correctly. FINNa is not a word in the English language. Also, aks is not a word.

[@annunakiarzu5733]

How is it any different for a child to go to a French immersion school where the teacher speaks NO English but only French. Kids pick it up right a way. This is saying that black kids find it hard to learn regular English at school. How ignorant! They are smarter than that!

[@kthejoker]

"Regular" English as defined by ..?

[@gsxr750dude]

This isnt education

[@MrPancaker57]

how

[@zachariaoliver2862]

Don't be that guy !

[@ems3832]

You're correct, John.

[@megczaban6814]

This comment section is yikes (the negative ones obv)

[@kentuky1233]

Go back to reddit, Meg.

[@swieseldorf]

Yeah because aave is an uneducated form of talk. Teach them is all that needs to be done