Chapter 6, Black on White Summary and Analysis

Linguists are beginning to discover that Black English is not simply lazy or ungrammatical English but something much more than simply a variation of English. This form of English has been widely hated and was the product of the slave trade. Many Black English variants exist, including African pidgins, Caribbean Creole, and the English of the American south, among others. The blacks that were imported across the English-speaking world three hundred and fifty years ago spoke several hundred local languages that merged in transit and when blacks began to mix and intermarry.

The slave trade in Britain was centered in Bristol. Many blacks came together and were distributed there. The English blacks spoke was initially unstable and variable, taking English and African words and mixing them, employing a set of grammar rules derived from one...