The Way Attitudes Change a Decision

One of the many cases that plays a big role in Ebonics history is the case in Oakland California that tried to put Ebonics into the school system. However against great effort many people in the community did not let it happen. One article that describes and discusses this well is “Ebonics: Theorizing in Public Our Attitudes toward Literacy” by Richard Marback, published in “College Composition and Communication”. In this article Marback tells the reader about the case and why it didn’t go through. He also tells of the celebrities that don’t agree with it. Some of them are mentioned were Bill Cosby and Jesse Jackson. These two did not agree with the school trying to put Ebonics into school because they did not think it was the right thing to do. “Jesse Jackson initially characterized the resolurion as ‘an unacceptable surrender bordering on disgrace’”. Bill Cosby named the resolution “Igno-Ebonics”. Thomas Sowell said that Ebonics is a distraction and that it is only wanted by “race hustlers” and that it brings out “ghetto children (12).” All three of these highly looked up to people wanted nothing to do with this resolution because it was not what they saw as the best.
There were many white people that were against this resolution going through but as Marback points out it is not only white people. There are many people that are black and highly looked up to that thought it was a bad idea. Marback also talks about how it is not just that people don’t want it it is a bad attitude that many people have. He believes that if people did not have a bad attitude they would most likely support the idea more. He talks in great detail about how the ideas that people have are not what they should be. Many people think that Ebonics is bad and that it should not be put into school. These people are not really looking at the benefiting effects but just hating Ebonics and not letting it in to the school system. I think that Marback describes this very well on page 14.
The victim-blaming of Ebonics critics is cause for concern because it misdirects tour collective attention away from the mobilization of public attitudes and the justification of socioeconomic inequalities that infuse literacy education with so much significance in the struggle for civic life.
In this quote Marback is talking about how people are blaming Ebonics and that is why it is not going through. When reading what is around this quote it is very evident that he is trying to change the way that people view Ebonics. I believe that his main point of this article is to help people see that it is not the resolution is bad it is the attitudes of the people that are bad. If they did not have a bad attitude then there wouldn’t be the problem with the fact that people do not like the resolution. I agree with Marback on this point, that the attitudes are what are stopping people from agreeing that this resolution is a good thing and if they change their attitude them they will agree with the resolution.