An Essay on Cultural Imperialism and the Language of Black Folk

The long standing debate revolving around language and culture has its roots firmly planted in the belief of white is right. This belief in cultural supremacy exists, not because whites feel they have superior language skills, but because whites believe they and their cultural practices are superior; subsequently making African descendents, Asian, and Mexicano-Latinos inferior to whites. This ideology has carried over and is seen in the debate over Ebonics (Black English). In my paper I intend to show that African Americans do not speak bad English rather their language and cultural practices are dubbed wrong because of cultural imperialism and white supremacy. Because the majority of African Americans do not embrace the language and cultural practice of the white majority their practices are viewed as bad. Furthermore, I intend to critique the contemporary status of language and forms of communication to show that Black English has a unique and specific linguistic formation