#2469: Defending Creole: AP article : A reply

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From:Dwillautho@aol.com

Thank you for this explanation.  It was very informative.  Indeed Creole is a 
language, the language of the people and thus should be respected.  It is 
unlike "Ebonics" or Black English in the States where African Americans talk 
broken, gramatically incorrect English.  As an African American, I have a 
broken with Ebonics, but understand the concept of Creole.  Creole has was 
said was deverloped as a communication between slaves and grew into a 
language.  I think it is similar in deriative to the Creole spoken by Blacks 
of French descent in Louisiana.  It too is a language derived from French, 
developed by the Africans.  I can remember however a close friend's father 
who grew up in Louisiana was told by the nuns not to speak Creole as it was 
an illiterate language.  They had to speak pure French in school.  This is 
the kind of thing that robs people of their culture and their sense of pride. 
 For blacks in Haiti because they are educated and upper -middle class to 
subscribe to the theory that Creole is an unacceptable language is further 
proof that blacks in Haiti and the diaspora just are not a cohesive group.  
We should embrace all aspects of our culture even those of us who are opposed 
to Ebonics.

D. Williams