I watched a few minutes of her testimony. She speaks easily understood African American Vernacular English (AAVE) rather than standard english. From what I’ve read AAVE has grammatical rules and pronunciation that are inherited from African languages which makes it historically interesting.
Speaking AAVE does not make the speaker unintelligent. It’s a different language than standard English. Millions of people in the US speak it.
If a white man was on the stand and spoke Louisiana Creole or Southern American English or Yat, I don’t think the newscasters or attorney’s would have been as disparaging of the speaker’s intelligence.
Wait…it’s inflammatory to post an opinion that a public figure appears to be stupid?
When did that rule start?
I haven’t made any inflammatory remarks toward or about SDMB posters, and so I am a bit confused. If mocking people in the news makes a post pit-worthy, surely a whole lotta other threads need to be there…I just thought my opinion of her was a mundane pointless thing I must share.
She does not seem like Mensa material. And I’d be surprised if her IQ is above 90. College should be for folks with an IQ of 115 or higher. That excludes about 83% of the population.
Let’s see, joined 27 Oct, has one total post as of my response date, resurrects a two-year old thread to post surrilous remarks that do not advance the conversation and are obviously inflammatory…
I leave it to all concerned to draw their own conclusions and decide if they wish to engage. I doubt, however, that it will be worth your time.
Follow-up story from a year after the original thread, in case anyone’s curious. I couldn’t find anything about how she’s doing now.
On reading it, I have to say I feel a bit iffy about the amount of grooming she’s been put through by her mentors. On the one hand, she probably needs much of it if she’s going to succeed in college, and it’s undoubtedly broadening the range of opportunities and choices available to her. On the other hand, it sounds like they’re trying to make her over into a flavor of middle-classness that’s not really her, when there’s no earthly reason she shouldn’t wear stiletto heels or go to fashion school if she wants to (and, in fact, middle-class young people have the luxury of not getting their fashion choices and self-presentation continually policed).
Jeantel was so far behind in her education. A classic example of how kids fall through the cracks in our education system. What Joyner and his volunteers have helped her accomplish is amazing. It’s so much more than education. They had to help Jeantel build confidence in herself and believe that she could accomplish anything. Yes, its been non-stop work for the past year. Thats what it takes when an adult is at a 4th grade level. She had a huge amount to learn to catch up to other people her age. Getting her high school diploma is an important first step.
I hope she takes their offer to continue on to college. She could eventually emerge as a respected professional. But that’s entirely her choice and what she wants from life.
I respect Joyner’s commitment to help these kids that our education system left behind. Giving them a chance to succeed in life.