Why can't black people learn how to speak correctly, Erica? There are people in my law school who practically speak in ebonics and you can barely even tell what they're saying. Why can immigrants come to the U.S. and learn how to speak perfectly (like my Russian friend who moved here 10 years ago and speaks perfectly) but black people can't?
Why are you generalizing, once again? Its not as if NO black person speaks proper English.
Second, I've gone through this question before and I was called stupid for bringing the answer to the forefront. Ebonics is similar to slave speak. You heard it in Negro Spirituals, and some speeches. You also heard it from Southern Whites of yester-year. When Africans were 'brought' to America, the ony languages they knew of was from their own land. It would have sounded like Ebonics to anyone who wasn't from where they came from.
WHen they learned to speak broken English to communicate with their masters, they developed a new way of speaking. It wasn't good because it wasn't proper English...it wasn't bad, either because at least they could communicate a little. As for why ebonics is spoken so much now in the black community, I don't know for sure. But I'll offer that the ancestors from the South had something to do with the dumbing down of black society where language is concerned.People were told they couldn't go to school, so they didn't. People were told that they couldn't read, so they didn't. The cycle continues today. I hope to rid our public schools of ebonics..I can start with my class though.