This just in from ABC News, The Smoking Gun and others: The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), a branch of the Dept. of Justice, is looking for 9 linguists who are fluent in Ebonics to “…monitor, translate, and transcribe the secretly recorded conversations of subjects of narcotics investigations…”
According to documents excerpted in The Smoking Gun piece, Ebonics is listed among the many languages for which the DEA is actively seeking linguists. The languages are divided between “common languages” and “exotic languages.” Ebonics is listed as a “common language” spoken solely in the United States (some of the languages listed as “exotic” include Amheric, Byelorussian and Ewe).
A decade after a controversial decision to teach some students at a California school in Ebonics over a decade ago, the DEA has now thrust itself into a contentious political debate by classifying Ebonics as a “common language” of the United States.
So what do you think, is it?
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