Ebonics is fundamentally an English-derived Black American language variety rooted in the Anglic language family, not an African language transplanted to America. Linguists prove that the concept of African languages surviving the transatlantic slave trade were impossible to have remained intact.
It is important for Black Americans to understand that conflating similarities can become a pathway to our erasure, if we do not assert our cultural distinctions. Ebonics is not just our language, it is a cultural artifact, a linguistic imprint of our people’s history and existence.
When we reclaim our ancestral customs and cultural innovations we are not just connecting back to those who came before us, we are connecting to a neuro-adaptive system, a culture embedded in our very DNA.
We must protect it at all costs.
#BlackAndFree
Credit: @CallTyroneASAP@luv_ambitions