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Someone Blew Up America


TigrannesIII

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Somebody Blew Up America By Amiri Baraka They say its some terrorist,

some barbaric A Rab, in Afghanistan It wasn't our American terrorists

It wasn't the Klan or the Skin heads Or the them that blows up nigger

Churches, or reincarnates us on Death Row It wasn't Trent Lott

Or David Duke or Giuliani Or Schundler, Helms retiring It wasn't

The gonorrhea in costume The white sheet diseases

That have murdered black people Terrorized reason and sanity

Most of humanity, as they pleases They say (who say?) Who do the saying

Who is them paying Who tell the lies Who in disguise Who had the slaves

Who got the bux out the Bucks Who got fat from plantations

Who genocided Indians Tried to waste the Black nation Who live on Wall Street

The first plantation Who cut your nuts off Who rape your ma Who lynched your pa

Who got the tar, who got the feathers Who had the match, who set the fires

Who killed and hired Who say they God & still be the Devil Who the biggest only

Who the most goodest Who do Jesus resemble Who created everything

Who the smartest Who the greatest Who the richest

Who say you ugly and they the goodlookingest Who define art Who define science

Who made the bombs Who made the guns Who bought the slaves, who sold them

Who called you them names Who say Dahmer wasn't insane Who? Who? Who?

Who stole Puerto Rico Who stole the Indies, the Philipines, Manhattan

Australia & The Hebrides Who forced opium on the Chinese Who own them buildings

Who got the money Who think you funny Who locked you up Who own the papers

Who owned the slave ship Who run the army Who the fake president Who the ruler

Who the banker Who? Who? Who? Who own the mine Who twist your mind

Who got bread Who need peace Who you think need war Who own the oil

Who do no toil Who own the soil Who is not a nigger

Who is so great ain't nobody bigger Who own this city Who own the air

Who own the water Who own your crib Who rob and steal and cheat and murder

and make lies the truth Who call you uncouth Who live in the biggest house

Who do the biggest crime Who go on vacation anytime Who killed the most niggers

Who killed the most Jews Who killed the most Italians Who killed the most Irish

Who killed the most Africans Who killed the most Japanese

Who killed the most Latinos Who? Who? Who? Who own the ocean

Who own the airplanes Who own the malls Who own television Who own radio

Who own what ain't even known to be owned

Who own the owners that ain't the real owners Who own the suburbs

Who suck the cities Who make the laws Who made Bush president

Who believe the confederate flag need to be flying

Who talk about democracy and be lying Who the Beast in Revelations Who 666

Who know who decide Jesus get crucified Who the Devil on the real side

Who got rich from Armenian genocide Who the biggest terrorist

Who change the bible Who killed the most people Who do the most evil

Who don't worry about survival Who have the colonies Who stole the most land

Who rule the world Who say they good but only do evil

Who the biggest executioner Who? Who? Who? Who own the oil Who want more oil

Who told you what you think that later you find out a lie Who? Who? Who?

Who found Bin Laden, maybe they Satan Who pay the CIA,

Who knew the bomb was gonna blow Who know why the terrorists

Learned to fly in Florida, San Diego

Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion

And cracking they sides at the notion

Who need fossil fuel when the sun ain't goin' nowhere Who make the credit cards

Who get the biggest tax cut Who walked out of the Conference Against Racism

Who killed Malcolm, Kennedy & his Brother

Who killed Dr King, Who would want such a thing?

Are they linked to the murder of Lincoln? Who invaded Grenada

Who made money from apartheid Who keep the Irish a colony

Who overthrow Chile and Nicaragua later Who killed David Sibeko, Chris Hani,

the same ones who killed Biko, Cabral, Neruda, Allende, Che Guevara, Sandino,

Who killed Kabila, the ones who wasted Lumumba, Mondlane,

Betty Shabazz, Die, Princess Di, Ralph Featherstone, Little Bobby

Who locked up Mandela, Dhoruba, Geronimo,

Assata, Mumia, Garvey, Dashiell Hammett, Alphaeus Hutton

Who killed Huey Newton, Fred Hampton, Medgar Evers, Mikey Smith, Walter Rodney,

Was it the ones who tried to poison Fidel

Who tried to keep the Vietnamese Oppressed Who put a price on Lenin's head

Who put the Jews in ovens, and who helped them do it Who said "America First"

and ok'd the yellow stars Who killed Rosa Luxembourg, Liebneckt

Who murdered the Rosenbergs And all the good people iced,

tortured, assassinated, vanished Who got rich from Algeria, Libya, Haiti,

Iran, Iraq, Saudi, Kuwait, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Palestine,

Who cut off peoples hands in the Congo Who invented Aids Who put the germs

In the Indians' blankets Who thought up "The Trail of Tears"

Who blew up the Maine & started the Spanish American War

Who got Sharon back in Power Who backed Batista, Hitler, Bilbo, Chiang kai Chek

Who decided Affirmative Action had to go Reconstruction, The New Deal,

The New Frontier, The Great Society, Who do Tom Ass Clarence Work for

Who doo doo come out the Colon's mouth

Who know what kind of Skeeza is a Condoleeza

Who pay Connelly to be a wooden negro Who give Genius Awards to Homo Locus

Subsidere Who overthrew Nkrumah, Bishop, Who poison Robeson,

who try to put DuBois in Jail

Who frame Rap Jamil al Amin, Who frame the Rosenbergs, Garvey,

The Scottsboro Boys, The Hollywood Ten Who set the Reichstag Fire

Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed

Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers To stay home that day

Why did Sharon stay away? Who? Who? Who? Explosion of Owl the newspaper say

The devil face cd be seen Who make money from war

Who make dough from fear and lies Who want the world like it is

Who want the world to be ruled by imperialism and national

oppression and terror violence, and hunger and poverty.

Who is the ruler of Hell? Who is the most powerful Who you know ever Seen God?

But everybody seen The Devil Like an Owl exploding

In your life in your brain in your self Like an Owl who know the devil

All night, all day if you listen, Like an Owl

Exploding in fire. We hear the questions rise

In terrible flame like the whistle of a crazy dog

Like the acid vomit of the fire of Hell Who and Who and WHO who who

Whoooo and Whooooooooooooooooooooo!

Copyright © 2001 Amiri Baraka. All Rights Reserved.

 

you can see this on groong

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Too bad it wasn't posted in its original layout, so I'm posting it again.

 

Nairi

 

*************************

Somebody Blew Up America

 

By Amiri Baraka

 

They say its some terrorist,

some barbaric

A Rab,

in Afghanistan

It wasn't our American terrorists

It wasn't the Klan or the Skin heads

Or the them that blows up nigger

Churches, or reincarnates us on Death Row

It wasn't Trent Lott

Or David Duke or Giuliani

Or Schundler, Helms retiring

 

It wasn't

The gonorrhea in costume

The white sheet diseases

That have murdered black people

Terrorized reason and sanity

Most of humanity, as they pleases

 

They say (who say?)

Who do the saying

Who is them paying

Who tell the lies

Who in disguise

Who had the slaves

Who got the bux out the Bucks

 

Who got fat from plantations

Who genocided Indians

Tried to waste the Black nation

 

Who live on Wall Street

The first plantation

Who cut your nuts off

Who rape your ma

Who lynched your pa

 

Who got the tar, who got the feathers

Who had the match, who set the fires

Who killed and hired

Who say they God & still be the Devil

 

Who the biggest only

Who the most goodest

Who do Jesus resemble

 

Who created everything

Who the smartest

Who the greatest

Who the richest

Who say you ugly and they the goodlookingest

 

Who define art

Who define science

 

Who made the bombs

Who made the guns

 

Who bought the slaves, who sold them

 

Who called you them names

Who say Dahmer wasn't insane

 

Who? Who? Who?

 

Who stole Puerto Rico

Who stole the Indies, the Philipines, Manhattan

Australia & The Hebrides

Who forced opium on the Chinese

 

Who own them buildings

Who got the money

Who think you funny

Who locked you up

Who own the papers

 

Who owned the slave ship

Who run the army

 

Who the fake president

Who the ruler

Who the banker

 

Who? Who? Who?

 

Who own the mine

Who twist your mind

Who got bread

Who need peace

Who you think need war

 

Who own the oil

Who do no toil

Who own the soil

Who is not a nigger

Who is so great ain't nobody bigger

 

Who own this city

 

Who own the air

Who own the water

 

Who own your crib

Who rob and steal and cheat and murder

and make lies the truth

Who call you uncouth

 

Who live in the biggest house

Who do the biggest crime

Who go on vacation anytime

 

Who killed the most niggers

Who killed the most Jews

Who killed the most Italians

Who killed the most Irish

Who killed the most Africans

Who killed the most Japanese

Who killed the most Latinos

 

Who? Who? Who?

 

Who own the ocean

 

Who own the airplanes

Who own the malls

Who own television

Who own radio

 

Who own what ain't even known to be owned

Who own the owners that ain't the real owners

 

Who own the suburbs

Who suck the cities

Who make the laws

 

Who made Bush president

Who believe the confederate flag need to be flying

Who talk about democracy and be lying

 

Who the Beast in Revelations

Who 666

Who know who decide

Jesus get crucified

 

Who the Devil on the real side

Who got rich from Armenian genocide

 

Who the biggest terrorist

Who change the bible

Who killed the most people

Who do the most evil

Who don't worry about survival

 

Who have the colonies

Who stole the most land

Who rule the world

Who say they good but only do evil

Who the biggest executioner

 

Who? Who? Who?

 

Who own the oil

Who want more oil

Who told you what you think that later you find out a lie

 

Who? Who? Who?

 

Who found Bin Laden, maybe they Satan

Who pay the CIA,

Who knew the bomb was gonna blow

Who know why the terrorists

Learned to fly in Florida, San Diego

 

Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion

And cracking they sides at the notion

 

Who need fossil fuel when the sun ain't goin' nowhere

 

Who make the credit cards

Who get the biggest tax cut

Who walked out of the Conference

Against Racism

Who killed Malcolm, Kennedy & his Brother

Who killed Dr King, Who would want such a thing?

Are they linked to the murder of Lincoln?

 

Who invaded Grenada

Who made money from apartheid

Who keep the Irish a colony

Who overthrow Chile and Nicaragua later

 

Who killed David Sibeko, Chris Hani,

the same ones who killed Biko, Cabral,

Neruda, Allende, Che Guevara, Sandino,

 

Who killed Kabila, the ones who wasted Lumumba, Mondlane,

Betty Shabazz, Die, Princess Di, Ralph Featherstone,

Little Bobby

 

Who locked up Mandela, Dhoruba, Geronimo,

Assata, Mumia, Garvey, Dashiell Hammett, Alphaeus Hutton

 

Who killed Huey Newton, Fred Hampton,

Medgar Evers, Mikey Smith, Walter Rodney,

Was it the ones who tried to poison Fidel

Who tried to keep the Vietnamese Oppressed

 

Who put a price on Lenin's head

 

Who put the Jews in ovens,

and who helped them do it

Who said "America First"

and ok'd the yellow stars

 

Who killed Rosa Luxembourg, Liebneckt

Who murdered the Rosenbergs

And all the good people iced,

tortured, assassinated, vanished

 

Who got rich from Algeria, Libya, Haiti,

Iran, Iraq, Saudi, Kuwait, Lebanon,

Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Palestine,

 

Who cut off peoples hands in the Congo

Who invented Aids

Who put the germs

In the Indians' blankets

Who thought up "The Trail of Tears"

 

Who blew up the Maine

& started the Spanish American War

Who got Sharon back in Power

Who backed Batista, Hitler, Bilbo,

Chiang kai Chek

 

Who decided Affirmative Action had to go

Reconstruction, The New Deal,

The New Frontier, The Great Society,

 

Who do Tom Ass Clarence Work for

Who doo doo come out the Colon's mouth

Who know what kind of Skeeza is a Condoleeza

Who pay Connelly to be a wooden negro

Who give Genius Awards to Homo Locus

Subsidere

 

Who overthrew Nkrumah, Bishop,

Who poison Robeson,

who try to put DuBois in Jail

Who frame Rap Jamil al Amin, Who frame the Rosenbergs,

Garvey,

The Scottsboro Boys,

The Hollywood Ten

 

Who set the Reichstag Fire

 

Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed

Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers

To stay home that day

Why did Sharon stay away?

 

Who? Who? Who?

 

Explosion of Owl the newspaper say

The devil face cd be seen

 

Who make money from war

Who make dough from fear and lies

Who want the world like it is

Who want the world to be ruled by imperialism and national

oppression and terror violence, and hunger and poverty.

 

Who is the ruler of Hell?

Who is the most powerful

 

Who you know ever

Seen God?

 

But everybody seen

The Devil

 

Like an Owl exploding

In your life in your brain in your self

Like an Owl who know the devil

All night, all day if you listen, Like an Owl

Exploding in fire. We hear the questions rise

In terrible flame like the whistle of a crazy dog

 

Like the acid vomit of the fire of Hell

Who and Who and WHO who who

Whoooo and Whooooooooooooooooooooo!

 

Copyright © 2001 Amiri Baraka. All Rights Reserved.

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quote:
Originally posted by Sip:

I think this bozo Baraka be needin a lesson or two in ebonics. I counted 190 "who"s (including "Who") in that crock of crap up there! http://zr2.cs.ucla.edu/Sip/zr2/barf.gif


The whole essence of the poem is "Who?". It's a pity you're not able to see the beauty of it.

 

What's "ebonics" btw?

 

Nairi

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Dear Nairi, Even in the new format it is still a terrible poem, if one can call it that.

 

"Ebonics" - is a form of speaking English mostly by African Americans. In California and in some other states they try to teach English using Ebonics to blacks, however it has been a total failure yet some politicians still push Ebonics in some schools districts because they feel that blacks need some special way of learning proper English. More info here: http://www.cal.org/ebonics/

 

"Do ya dig' what I be saying. I hope I made it clear an' did not confuse ya. an don't make me pull mah gat!" - http://www.joel.net/EBONICS/translator.asp

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quote:
Originally posted by nairi:

quote:
Originally posted by Sip:

I think this bozo Baraka be needin a lesson or two in ebonics. I counted 190 "who"s (including "Who") in that crock of crap up there! http://zr2.cs.ucla.edu/Sip/zr2/barf.gif


The whole essence of the poem is "Who?". It's a pity you're not able to see the beauty of it.

 

What's "ebonics" btw?

 

Nairi


I may be missing the whole point of the poem. But my first feeling I got was that I didn't like it at all. It seemed to suggest some things that just made me want to go punch him. So what is that guy trying nto say? I read that thing about 12 times now and everytime I get more confused of what his blabbering is about! Note I admit the possibility that I have completely misunderstood his "poem".

 

Here's our ebonics word for the day: OMELETTE

 

Let's use it in a sentence ....

 

"I should pop yo ass fo what you jes did, but omelette dis one slide."

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quote:
Originally posted by Sip:

Here's our ebonics word for the day: OMELETTE

 

Let's use it in a sentence ....

 

"I should pop yo ass fo what you jes did, but omelette dis one slide." smilies/lol.gif


YO! Sip, ma man, you da phat. Slap mah fro!
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This guy is pathetic. With the same token...

 

Who made our streets dirty

Who sells drugs on the street

Why the jails are full of his kind

Who hates himself because he doesn't like himself

Who invented Koran

Who is Talaat ***** and Suleiman the Magnificent

Who introduced the term "jihad" in the world vocabulary

Who believes that killing other people will grant him eternal life in paradise

Who hijacks planes

Who imposes circumcision (to men and women)

 

And so on and so on... and it would be pathetic as the original is...

 

Idiot!

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quote:
Originally posted by Sip:

So what is that guy trying nto say?
Nothing. He's (or she's) just questioning who's calling who a terrorist. I was actually referring to the style more than the content. But I guess it's just a matter of taste. I like literature. Poetry is one of my favorite forms.

 

Azat, thanks for explaining that African American Vernacular is also called Ebonics.

 

quote:
however it has been a total failure yet some politicians still push Ebonics in some schools districts because they feel that blacks need some special way of learning proper English.
This isn't entirely true however. African American is taught to African Americans just like Armenian is taught to Armenian Americans. It's a language of its own; mostly a mixture of West-African dialects and English. Just like Armenians, African Americans like to preserve their uniqueness and culture. Language plays an important role in preserving culture and as far as I know many African Americans are proud of their language, very much like Armenians are proud of theirs. This has nothing to do with learning "proper" English, or Standard American English. It has to with learning Standard African American English, which is merely another branch of the English language, like British English, Irish English and Australian English.

 

Nairi

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quote:
Originally posted by nairi:

This isn't entirely true however. African American is taught to African Americans just like Armenian is taught to Armenian Americans. It's a language of its own; mostly a mixture of West-African dialects and English. Just like Armenians, African Americans like to preserve their uniqueness and culture. Language plays an important role in preserving culture and as far as I know many African Americans are proud of their language, very much like Armenians are proud of theirs. This has nothing to do with learning "proper" English, or Standard American English. It has to with learning Standard African American English, which is merely another branch of the English language, like British English, Irish English and Australian English.

 

Nairi


Nairi, it would be one thing if they were teaching this as a secondary form of English/ or as another language, however in these school districts the decision was made to teach these kids proper English in form of Ebonics.
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Yes it is. I think there are few more school districts outside of Oakland that adopted that same/similar rules but they are all failures. The reason why Ebonics was introduced in these school districts was because the school system was failing and parents wanted to improve the SAT scores of their kids, and the teachers union would not allow the school district to fire all the incompetent teachers so the idea that Ebonics(new language- it is NOT. it is basically slang) was introduced and all the teacher jobs were saved. Needless to say SAT scores in those schools have not gone up and now the state is threatening to take over the district in case of Oakland.

 

Here is an article from Larry Elder who is a black author and he also writes for TownHall.com weekly.

-----------

So, your kid attends Raymond Avenue Elementary, an inner city school primarily of black and brown students.

 

Your child's young first grade teacher hands out arithmetic problems for homework.

 

1. Easy E and his friend, M.C. Ren, went to the corner store to buy a pack of Old English Soda Pop. If the Soda cost $3.85 and between the two old friends they had a ten dollar bill, how much change would they receive.

 

2. E-40 was concerned with his friend, Too-Short's dental problems so E-40 decided to buy Too Short his missing teeth. If a set of dentures cost 560 dollars, and E-40 has 332 dollars, does E-40 have enough money. If E-40 does not have enough money, how much more does he need.

 

3. Ice Cube was looking to shoot his new video from his next album, "I Know I'm Just a Has-Been Studio Gangster," and he had 72 dollars to complete his video. If Ice Cube was using 6 dollar bills to pay his staff on a daily basis, how many persons does he have working for him. The key is dividing 72 by 6.

 

4. Mack 10 was driving down the strip in his Cutlass sitting on a brand new set of Daytons listening to his West Side Connection tape when one of his four huge speakers blew out. If one of Mack 10's speakers cost 7 dollars, how much would 4 cost. The key is multiplication.

 

5. Dodo Stain and Nappy were best friends who each weighed 500 pounds apiece. Everybody at their work said they were fat slobs so they decided to lose some weight, so they could go to the local clubs and "mack" to all the local momies in town. If both men vowed to lose 20 pounds each week, how many pounds would they lose in 3 months? What will be their combined weight after the 3 months?

 

6. Biggie Little was a rapper who was 2 feet tall and had an ashy forehead. If Biggie needed to grow another 4 feet to be taken serious in the rap game, and there was a doctor who charged 2 dollars an inch, how much money would Biggie Little have to spend to grow the extra 4 feet? There are 12 inches in a foot.

 

7. Dapper Dan was a man who took great pride in his Tuff Skin polyester suits. He owned 9 of them in all different colors. If Dapper Dan's wife left him because he treated her bad and his feet smelled, and when she left she took 3 of his Tuff Skin suits, how many does he have left? If each suit cost 15 dollars, how much will it cost to replace the stolen suits?

 

Unfortunately, the assignment is not a joke. It is real, and was handed out to the children, some of whose parents were not amused.

 

A parent faxed us this homework assignment, and the Raymond Avenue principal refused comment, stating only that the teacher in question was "inexperienced," and that the matter would be handled internally.

 

First Ebonics, now semi-Ebonics.

 

Easy E? As I recall, the late rapper died of AIDS, having fathered, with different women, several children out of wedlock. Yes, we've come a long way from "Run, Spot, Run."

 

Apart from being age inappropriate, the assignment contains bad grammar. As it happens, the teacher in question is black, as was the parent who protested the loudest. Question: Suppose a white teacher handed out this assignment in a predominantly white suburban school district?

 

Can you say, "Excuse me, Principal Jones. There's a Reverend Jackson on the phone--and he sounds quite upset."

-----------

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quote:
Originally posted by Azat:

that Ebonics(new language- it is NOT. it is basically slang)


This is too simplistic Azat. I can't go into it myself because I don't know enough about it, but I can tell you this much, African American English is a dialect of English, just like American English, British English, Irish English, Scottish English, Australian English. It is NOT slang. African American Vernacular English (commonly referred to as Ebonics) is one of the dialects of spoken African American English; resembling Tehran Armenian vs. Esphahan Armenian, both of which are dialects within the Standard Persian Armenian dialect. Like these Armenian dialects, AAVE is NOT slang either. In linguistics "slang" has a very different meaning and it has nothing to do with standard forms of languages, including (vernacular) dialects.

 

This might be an interesting site for you. Also go to Ebonics FAQ's on the same page:

 

http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~patrickp/AAVE.html

 

Nairi

 

[ August 28, 2002, 04:57 PM: Message edited by: nairi ]

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quote:
Originally posted by nairi:

African American English is a dialect of English


Okay. I understand and I did misspeek, but that still does not change my openion of weather these school districs were right to teach kids Ebonics.
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Nairi jan, after reading all this, I think I totally agree with you about the "value" of ebonics and the fact that it IS a valid dialect.

 

However, having had the pleasure of going through this wonderful US public education system (at least high school and above personally and my brothers elementary+) , I think they should concentrate on teaching the kids basic reading, writing, and aritmethic before taking on such lofty goals and complex curricula.

 

It may be hard to believe but these kids can't even READ basic english (standardized, professional world, whatever it is called) let alone the American, British, Irish, or the Shakespearian versions. So on the essense of the topic, I am with you. But from the practical side, where the US education system is concerned, I am definitely with Azat.

 

Teach them 1+1=2 before you teach them the dialect where 1+1=10 (But I agree that both are probably equally important )

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Moshe,

 

Didn't they teach you in the Law School to read between the lines.

Do me a favor, read what I have wrote 50 times. I think we made this exercise in a different topic.

Believe me it helps allot. That way you might find out what exactly this pathetic (if I was racist I should have called him dirty Semite) meant in his writing.

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Listen Abdul bin Hamid bin Said Al-GamaVOR,

 

I am as Armenian as you are. The Jew ploy won't work anymore. Even your big boy Bushie is sidling up to Sharon these days and therefore has to have tete-a-tetes with the Saudi King at his cowboy ranch in Crawford.

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quote:
Originally posted by hagarag:

Listen Abdul bin Hamid bin Said Al-GamaVOR...


http://zr2.cs.ucla.edu/Sip/zr2/roflmao.gif Ah hahahahahahahha ... oh my god I can't stop laughing. That one is just too funny ... GamaVOR. Sorry gamavor ... it is! Kinda like those dumb fart jokes on TV ... they are childish and simple but they always seem to do the trick.
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Leave it to Gamavor to be true to his kind. I am sure he just LOVES the incompetent jackass who illegally sits in the White House.

 

Did you know Gamavor, that Africans living in other parts of the world that are not race-conscious do not exhibit the societal problems which you relate. In Brazil the descendants of Africans are among the most prominent industrialists. Ditto for the children of African diplomats in America and those who have been raised in the Bahamas (e.g. parents of Colin Powell).

 

I am sick of all you right-wing Armenians. If it were not for the likes of Charles Garry, Anna Eshoo, Dick Harpootlian, Cher, etc., I would not even admit to bring Armenian. I want to throw these Republican clowns out of the White House and out of the Congress.

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quote:
Originally posted by Sip:

It may be hard to believe but these kids can't even READ basic english (standardized, professional world, whatever it is called) let alone the American, British, Irish, or the Shakespearian versions.


First a simplistic, introductory clarification: there is no Standard English. English is a language that has been divided into an almost infinite number of dialects, some of which have been officially standardized, and others that haven't. In American schools, children are taught Standard American English as their basic language. In Canada, children learn Standard Canadian English. Both Standard American English and Standard Canadian English are dialects of English.

 

quote:
these kids can't even READ basic english (standardized, professional world, whatever it is called)
Those kids can't read Standard American English because they do not speak that dialect at home.

 

Take Norway for instance. Some people do speak a form of Standard Norwegian, but the majority does not, whatever the social situation. People speak dialect on TV, professors give lectures in dialect, and authors write poems and novels in dialect. The linguistic diversity in Norway is officially recognized and officially protected. This is most clearly illustrated by the fact that in Norway there is a law which states that teachers are not allowed to try to change the way children speak in the classroom. If children come into school speaking dialect, as most do, they must be allowed to continue to do so. This provides an unfortunate contrast with Britain: in 1994 the British Minister of Education announced that all children should speak Standard English. (Excerpt from "Sociolinguistics - An introduction to language and society" by Peter Trudgill, 2000).

 

All they are saying is, if Armenian Americans can learn ESL and AFL, then why can't African Americans learn ESL and AAEFL?

 

quote:
Teach them 1+1=2 before you teach them the dialect where 1+1=10
Sip jan, a dialect, regardless of how it may sound in your ears, is always 1+1=2.

 

Try to read the above poem again and you should notice a grammatical pattern. The rules of the dialect that Baraka uses are in no way random or illogical.

 

Also, it is easier to master a foreign language after you have mastered your mother-tongue. This experiment of teaching African Americans their own Standard English has only been put into practice for a few years. Any scientist will concur that it is not long enough to start drawing conclusions yet.

 

Nairi

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