Not to take anything away from this article, but the proposition that AAVE is a dialect is self-evident to anyone with a background in a language with strong di

Not to take anything away from this article, but the proposition that AAVE is a dialect is self-evident to anyone with a background in a language with strong dialects. German and UK English come lightly to mind. The politics of the debate were interesting and should not be ignored. For many people around Oakland the question of whether Ebonics is a dialect was a canard. At least for me the real issue was that the Oakland schools were doing an awful job providing basic education to their students. The Ebonics debate was a distraction from fixing real problems. Oakland schools ended up being taken over by the state a few years later [1]. [1] http://www.eastbaytimes.com/ci_12753927 http://www.eastbaytimes.com/ci_12753927