Readings
- Bastard Tongues, chapt. 6
- African American vernacular English and Hawai'i Creole English: A comparison of two school board controversies
This essay compares the controversies surrounding actions taken by two school boards-one in Hawaii and the other in Oakland-in their attempts to help students in their districts attain fluency in standard English. Public reactions expressed during each of these two incidents demonstrated a general lack of understanding about languages and nonstandard dialects. The myths and characterizations about Hawaii Creole English and African American Vernacular English, and the issues these two stigmatized dialects have raised, point to educational policy implications concerning academic achievement and the politics of language.
People
"Reinecke was born in southeastern Kansas. He moved to Hawai'i in 1926, became a Profesor at the University of Hawaii in creole languages, and wasted no time in becoming one of the islands' leading "dissenters" against the control of Hawaiian society by the plantocracy and the military that existed for much of this century. He formed life-long friendships with both Jack Hall of the ILWU and Art Rutledge of the Hotel Workers Union, who used to say, "John made the snow balls, and I threw them." Assisting the unions cost him and his wife their jobs during the red-baiting of the 50s as he was branded a communist and persecuted relentlessly as one of the Hawaii Seven. He, nevertheless, stood courageously by his principles and wrote so extensively about the early years of the labor movement in Hawai'i that he can truly be considered the father of Hawaii's Labor History. Many of the changes in Hawaiian social and labor organization for which he worked in the 1930s and 1940s became reality though at the time they seemed an impossible dream." [1]
Languages
