Ebonics, also known as Black English or African-American Vernacular English has become the butt of many jokes recently and is a controversial issue under much criticism and close study.Ebonics is described as a contact language and people aren’t exactly sure how it came about, but seems to have emerged out of the contact between blacks and European language speakers around the time of slavery or colonization of the New World, said Steve Hartman Keiser, a third year doctorate student studying linguistics.It was in the 1960s that an audible defense of the logic and legitimacy of Black English was launched. The Black Arts Movement of that time featured an appreciation and celebration of Blackness, linguist Geneva Smitherman said in her book “Talkin and testifyin: The language of Black America.”Whether or not people view those who speak ebonics as bilingual depends on whether they see it as a language or a dialect, Keiser said.”If one considers it a language, then the speakers may be perceived as bilingual, but if one considers it a dialect, the speakers are called bidialectal (meaning only the speakers can understand each other),” Keiser said.There are many misconceptions that people have about those who speak ebonics. If the people who speak it are stigmatized, then the language itself will be stigmatized, Keiser said.”Some of the most common assumptions are that the person lacks intelligence or has a low socioeconomic status, which have nothing to do with language,” he said.Although no one in the Linguistics department would go on record to comment on Ebonics, one staff member said that it was more of a social and political issue than a linguistics issue.”Most people think that ebonics is a black thing or an illiterate thing, but it’s a cultural thing,” said Fred Scott, a senior majoring in criminology. “There are some white people who speak ebonics too, depending on how and where they were brought up.”Whether or not only blacks speak ebonics deserves more research, Keiser said. “This area has not been sufficiently studied, because there are still too many assumptions being made by non-AAVE speakers that the entire black community speaks the same variety,” he said.Black children speaking ebonics in the classroom has placed the language before the feet of educators, according to a statistical sourcebook edited by Alfred Garwood.On Dec. 18, 1996 the Oakland Unified School District Board of Education approved a policy affirming Standard American English language development for all students. This policy mandates that teachers must use different techniques to ensure that every child has the opportunity to achieve English language proficiency.Language development for black students, who comprise 53 percent of the students in the Oakland schools, will be enhanced with the recognition and understanding of the language structures unique to black students, according to the policy adopted by Oakland’s school district. The district stated that its objective is to build on the language skills that black students bring to the classroom without devaluing students and their diversity. When my students begin to ask a question in ebonics, I always explain to them the correct pronunciation or vocabulary of the words without offending them, said a teacher at the Columbus Afro-centric School who agreed to speak under the condition of not being identified.The teacher said she was told not to comment on ebonics.”Teachers must not confuse language differences with cognitive or learning deficiencies,” she said. “Students can sometimes learn to read and write sooner if they are learning in their own speech variety.”