by Jacob Heilbrunn

About the author: Jacob Heilbrunn is an associate editor of the New Republic, a weekly journal of opinion.

On December 18, 1996, the Oakland school board unanimously approved a two-page resolution declaring black English a formal language. The resolution stated that the district’s 28,000 African American students are bilingual and need to be taught in their mother tongue: Ebonics. “African Language Systems,” the resolution noted, “are genetically based and not a dialect of English.” After the vote, Board Director Toni Cook said: “I think we made a hell of a good beginning. What we did was go offensive and quit saying there’s something wrong with a majority of the children.”

A chorus of voices quickly denounced the Oakland school board. On NBC’s “Meet the Press...