The current state of knowledge of African American language is examined from a broad, multidisciplinary perspective that includes its structure, history, social role and educational implications, as well as the linguistic scholarship from which it derives, as a case study of language planning. A diverse array of topics including Hip-Hop culture, the Black Church and the Ebonics controversy are unified by a pervasive theme of latent conflict between academic knowledge and 'real world' knowledge of Black language.
C. DeBose
community culture knowledge Nation sociology
'...the work makes good recommendations for next steps that linguists and activists can take to raise the status of AA and hopefully make education language policy and culturally relevant pedagogy easier to implement.' - Julia Deak, Current Issues in Language Planning