# Help, I have a new job in the ER and it is making me prejudiced **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 29, 2012, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-i-have-a-new-job-in-the-er-and-it-is-making-me-prejudiced/645506 "2012-12-29T19:30:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2012, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-i-have-a-new-job-in-the-er-and-it-is-making-me-prejudiced/645506/161 "2012-12-30T19:47:18Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > All I’m saying is that he was not speaking grammatically correct Ebonics (or AAVE). How surprising. Because usually the Ebonics speakers are meticulous in their adherence to Ebonics grammar. ---
**Author:** ![Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleeps_With_Butterflies)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2012, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-i-have-a-new-job-in-the-er-and-it-is-making-me-prejudiced/645506/162 "2012-12-30T19:48:44Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > And maybe that dumb motherfucker did say “My dick be broke.” > > All I’m saying is that he was not speaking grammatically correct Ebonics (or AAVE). So if someone wants to cite this as an example of how funny black people speak, rather than one stupid individual’s idiosyncratic speaking style, they perhaps may need to reconsider. > > I’m about sick of this got’damn thread. See this is where it gets ridiculous. I did NOT cite it as an example for all funny black people. I threw it in as a crazy thing that was said and then said I’ve heard worse from white people, black people and all people in between but you’re walking away with the idea that I’m floating this as a black thing. Stupid people say stupid things when they’re in pain or scared. The fact that you’re trying to insinuate I’m citing this as a race thing is unfair, wrong, and straight up bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2012, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-i-have-a-new-job-in-the-er-and-it-is-making-me-prejudiced/645506/163 "2012-12-30T19:50:18Z")
> [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](#): > > Because yes, subculture dialects always make sense. Just like when the doctor asked the hillbilly white boy about his infected penis he said “lick deez here nuts” and of course he didn’t say the HERE part because gosh, unless his nuts aren’t with him all the time that just wouldn’t make any sense! But people actually _say_ “this here,” “these here,” “deez here,” “that there,” “that thar,” and various iterations of “this” or “that” that are pronounced incorrectly and/or come with the superfluous addition of “here.” It’s commonplace, so if you told me someone said “This here is some good rum,” I wouldn’t be skeptical because people actually speak that way. Doesn’t matter if it’s wrong. There is terrible grammar in the world, some of which is laughably bad, but again, no one would arrange their sentence to say “Troppus, all wrong are you on the topic this is.” That’s just not the way it works. No, we don’t expect people who routinely mangle the English language to stick with the strict grammatical conventions of language (obviously), but there are sentence structures that people just don’t say. I suppose it’s possible, the same way a lot of highly improbable shit is possible, but seriously, nobody says “My apt be messy” unless they mean to say “My apt is generally messy.” It just seems pretty clear to me that the OP was mocking the way the man spoke, or perhaps all his mind registered was “black man yelling about his thumb in ungrammatical fashion,” which ran through his mind’s translator as “My thumb be hurtin,” but I would bet bajillions of dollars that this phrasing was not used. It is _so_ bizarre that I’m skeptical and believe it was run through his White Man’s Filter, and is not an accurate transcript of what was said. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2012, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-i-have-a-new-job-in-the-er-and-it-is-making-me-prejudiced/645506/164 "2012-12-30T19:50:51Z")
> [@Nzinga\_Seated](#): > > I expected him to come in and say, “Oh, wait, he didn’t say it like that…maybe I quoted him wrong” or even, “Oh, I guessed I hammed it up a bit, but yeah, he was speaking very loudly and using lots of slang and profanity” or something like that. > > The fact that he didn’t address it just convinces me that yes, his intention was to mock black English, and he just got called out on it. If someone, say, Italian screws up English due to it being a second language we don’t assume automatically that he’s “mocking” English, just that, not being fluent, he doesn’t quite get it right. Are you absolutely sure that he was “mocking” the language… or just not fluent in that dialect? One of the reasons white people do such a piss poor rendition of black dialects is because any attempt by them to do so is perceived as “mocking” even if it’s not intended as such. How much improvement can you expect if any attempt to use the dialect is met with hostility and negative assumptions? (Which is not, I hasten to add, to imply you yourself were hostile in your post) Black dialect is not the first language of most white people and by golly it shows. As a result, your attempt to correct him on his usage of black English may not have come across as you intended it to, being seen as nitpicking or an attempt to discredit his stance or hostility or whatever even if that was not your intention. Until we can all self-examine our words for unintended bias and assumptions discussions of race in the US will continue to be uglier than they need to be. ---
**Author:** ![Brynda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Brynda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynda)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2012, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-i-have-a-new-job-in-the-er-and-it-is-making-me-prejudiced/645506/165 "2012-12-30T19:51:10Z")
**Sleeps** , just because a dialect breaks the rules of grammar we are taught doesn’t mean it doesn’t have rules of its own. Here’s a short wiki on “habitual be.” > **[Habitual be](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitual_be)** > > Habitual be, also called invariant be, is the use of an uninflected be in African-American English (AAE), Caribbean English and certain dialects of Hiberno-English to mark habitual or extended actions in place of the Standard English inflected forms of be, such as is and are. In AAE, use of be indicates that a subject repeatedly does an action or embodies a trait. In General American English, however, the use of (an inflection of) be means only that an individual has done an action in a particula... However, IMHO, the OP incorrectly inserting “be” into his memory does not a racist make. At least not a habitual one. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2012, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-i-have-a-new-job-in-the-er-and-it-is-making-me-prejudiced/645506/166 "2012-12-30T19:54:18Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > How surprising. Because usually the Ebonics speakers are meticulous in their adherence to Ebonics grammar. Every speaker tries to adhere to the grammar of their dialect. Communication would be mighty hard if they didn’t. If I heard someone say “My dick be broke”, I would certainly wonder what kind of minstrel show they just auditioned for. Does this make me a meticulous speaker of Ebonics? ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2012, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-i-have-a-new-job-in-the-er-and-it-is-making-me-prejudiced/645506/167 "2012-12-30T19:56:00Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > If someone, say, Italian screws up English due to it being a second language we don’t assume automatically that he’s “mocking” English, just that, not being fluent, he doesn’t quite get it right. Are you absolutely sure that he was “mocking” the language… or just not fluent in that dialect? One of the reasons white people do such a piss poor rendition of black dialects is because any attempt by them to do so is perceived as “mocking” even if it’s not intended as such. How much improvement can you expect if any attempt to use the dialect is met with hostility and negative assumptions? (Which is not, I hasten to add, to imply you yourself were hostile in your post) Black dialect is not the first language of most white people and by golly it shows. > > As a result, your attempt to correct him on his usage of black English may not have come across as you intended it to, being seen as nitpicking or an attempt to discredit his stance or hostility or whatever even if that was not your intention. > > Until we can all self-examine our words for unintended bias and assumptions discussions of race in the US will continue to be uglier than they need to be. Ok. Ok. I didn’t think he was racist for his comment. I thought he was mistaken, or just kind of hamming it up a bit. I wasn’t sure it was mockery until he came back to the thread and didn’t address it. Even then, I don’t think that means he is a racist. Mocking black English doesn’t make one racist. ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2012, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-i-have-a-new-job-in-the-er-and-it-is-making-me-prejudiced/645506/168 "2012-12-30T19:56:16Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > Every speaker tries to adhere to the grammar of their dialect. “Tries to” does not equal “succeeds to”. Claiming that every Ebonics speaker meticulously adheres to the Ebonics grammar is ridiculous on its face. ---
**Author:** ![Troppus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a587f6/32.png) [@Troppus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troppus)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2012, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-i-have-a-new-job-in-the-er-and-it-is-making-me-prejudiced/645506/169 "2012-12-30T19:56:46Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > And maybe that dumb motherfucker did say “My dick be broke.” > > All I’m saying is that he was not speaking grammatically correct Ebonics (or AAVE). So if someone wants to cite this as an example of how funny black people speak, rather than one stupid individual’s idiosyncratic speaking style, they perhaps may need to reconsider. > > I’m about sick of this got’damn thread. A lot of us took Linguistics in school. I sure suffered through it. Also had a job working with poor, homeless kids and their families, and I can vouch that most city kids used some mixture of southern slang and AAVE, as well as a sprinkling of words and phrases they picked up from pop culture. Cringed through"knockin boots" “booty call” “thick” (curvy) and many other sexual euphemisms kids picked up from the radio. Cringed when rural black kids attempted to sound more urban by using “be” instead of will or am, but I knew they were busy establishing a separate identity from rural white kids so I never once felt the need to correct their grammar. Language varies by region, bottom line. The OP ruffled the same feathers that last month’s “fat girls” on the restaurant receipt: Maybe it’s true, maybe it isn’t; rude to say it aloud. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2012, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-i-have-a-new-job-in-the-er-and-it-is-making-me-prejudiced/645506/170 "2012-12-30T20:03:18Z")
> [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](#): > > See this is where it gets ridiculous. I did NOT cite it as an example for all funny black people. I threw it in as a crazy thing that was said and then said I’ve heard worse from white people, black people and all people in between but you’re walking away with the idea that I’m floating this as a black thing. Stupid people say stupid things when they’re in pain or scared. The fact that you’re trying to insinuate I’m citing this as a race thing is unfair, wrong, and straight up bullshit. I understand that you are being defensive and sensitive about something you shouldn’t care about one way or the other. But that’s neither here nor there. You were the one that quoted a black man in a thread about anti-black prejudice, where people were talking about improper Ebonics. The thread was not “Let’s talk about stupid things we’ve heard.” So I’m not about to apologize for reacting to your post the way I did. ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2012, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-i-have-a-new-job-in-the-er-and-it-is-making-me-prejudiced/645506/171 "2012-12-30T20:03:41Z")
When does my huff get here? I’m ready to go. Newcrasher, wait for me! ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2012, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-i-have-a-new-job-in-the-er-and-it-is-making-me-prejudiced/645506/172 "2012-12-30T20:05:08Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > “Tries to” does not equal “succeeds to”. Claiming that every Ebonics speaker meticulously adheres to the Ebonics grammar is ridiculous on its face. So it’s a good thing I didn’t claim this, isn’t it? These here white folks are certainly trippin’! ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2012, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-i-have-a-new-job-in-the-er-and-it-is-making-me-prejudiced/645506/173 "2012-12-30T20:05:29Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > If someone, say, Italian screws up English due to it being a second language we don’t assume automatically that he’s “mocking” English, just that, not being fluent, he doesn’t quite get it right. Are you absolutely sure that he was “mocking” the language… or just not fluent in that dialect? One of the reasons white people do such a piss poor rendition of black dialects is because any attempt by them to do so is perceived as “mocking” even if it’s not intended as such. How much improvement can you expect if any attempt to use the dialect is met with hostility and negative assumptions? (Which is not, I hasten to add, to imply you yourself were hostile in your post) Black dialect is not the first language of most white people and by golly it shows. > > As a result, your attempt to correct him on his usage of black English may not have come across as you intended it to, being seen as nitpicking or an attempt to discredit his stance or hostility or whatever even if that was not your intention. > > Until we can all self-examine our words for unintended bias and assumptions discussions of race in the US will continue to be uglier than they need to be. Fair enough, but if someone were to relay what an Italian whose English isn’t so great said to me in a mangled up, fake Italian accent, I’d automatically assume that person was mocking. Just tell me what the person said, and stoppa talkinga likea theesa, with the exaggerated hand motions. No Italian guy talks like that, and saying he did is bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleeps_With_Butterflies)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2012, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-i-have-a-new-job-in-the-er-and-it-is-making-me-prejudiced/645506/174 "2012-12-30T20:06:29Z")
ETA: This is in response to \*\*monstro. \*\*Honestly I don’t want an apology. I don’t need one or want one and I apologize if I gave that impression. I have something better. I now have knowledge of how you post, reason, react, and how you make judgements, accusations, and assumptions. That’s much more valuable and will assist me in the future when I read your posts. ---
**Author:** ![Troppus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a587f6/32.png) [@Troppus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troppus)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2012, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-i-have-a-new-job-in-the-er-and-it-is-making-me-prejudiced/645506/175 "2012-12-30T20:08:57Z")
Can anyone here who claims authority on Ebonics explain how Run DMC got away with it for so long? ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2012, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-i-have-a-new-job-in-the-er-and-it-is-making-me-prejudiced/645506/176 "2012-12-30T20:09:44Z")
> [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](#): > > Honestly I don’t want an apology. Don’t need one or want one. I have something better. I now have knowledge of how you post, reason, react, and how you make judgements, accusations, and assumptions. That’s much more valuable. What judgments, accusations, and assumptions have I made against you or anyone else? Please quote something so others can see how much I’ve bullied you. Maybe they can make you feel better. ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2012, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-i-have-a-new-job-in-the-er-and-it-is-making-me-prejudiced/645506/177 "2012-12-30T20:13:59Z")
> [@Troppus](#): > > Can anyone here who claims authority on Ebonics explain how Run DMC got away with it for so long? When did Run DMC get away with using it the way the OP did? ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2012, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-i-have-a-new-job-in-the-er-and-it-is-making-me-prejudiced/645506/178 "2012-12-30T20:16:16Z")
> [@Nzinga\_Seated](#): > > When does my huff get here? I’m ready to go. Newcrasher, wait for me! You ain’t about to leave me here with this mess you made, girl! ---
**Author:** ![Troppus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a587f6/32.png) [@Troppus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troppus)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2012, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-i-have-a-new-job-in-the-er-and-it-is-making-me-prejudiced/645506/179 "2012-12-30T20:16:53Z")
**Sleeps** , was your patient trying to lighten the mood because he was feeling sheepish about his condition? Because he could have been speaking ironically to lighten the mood and take his embarrassment down a notch. It would be pretty hard to say “Sir, my penis is hurting.” in front of a mixed audience. It would be easier to joke around a bit “My dick be hurtin’” is funny. I kind of doubt the same guy would have said “My arm be hurting” when “My arm hurts” or “I hurt my arm”. I have no problem believing he said it, I’m just betting he was deliberately mangling the language to add levity. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2012, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-i-have-a-new-job-in-the-er-and-it-is-making-me-prejudiced/645506/180 "2012-12-30T20:17:10Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > Every speaker tries to adhere to the grammar of their dialect. Communication would be mighty hard if they didn’t. I don’t know _anyone_ who speaks with perfect grammar all the time, even native speakers screw up on occasion. Yet communication happens. Most dialects spoken by white folks don’t an on-going state of being like some black American dialects do, hence “my apartment be messy” vs. the “standard white grammar” of “my apartment is usually messy” and both groups can say “my apartment is messy” meaning it’s a sty _right now_ regardless of whatever state it is normally in. This distinction is pretty plain to someone like **Nzinga** but not to Joe Average White because to JAW “be” and “is” are the same thing when to **Nzinga** they’re not, more like the difference between “walk” and “walking”. Ask the white boy if he can’t hear the difference between “I am going for my daily walk” vs “I go walking daily.” One refers to a _specific_ episode and one refers to an \*ongoing \*pattern of behavior. Yes, yes, obvious to some of obvious, but provided to (I hope) enlighten some folks who are wondering what all the shouting is about. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-i-have-a-new-job-in-the-er-and-it-is-making-me-prejudiced/645506.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-i-have-a-new-job-in-the-er-and-it-is-making-me-prejudiced/645506.md?page=10)