Ebonics was coined in 1973 to replace racist labels for Black speech

Evidence

Social psychologist Robert Williams had coined the term “Ebonics” back in 1973 to replace all the racist identifiers, like “Nonstandard Negro English.” “We know that ebony means black and that phonics refers to speech sounds or the science of sounds,” he explained then. “Thus, we are really talking about the science of black speech sounds or language.” Ebonics remained a little-known linguistic term until the Oakland school board resolution set off a typhoon of assimilationist ire and antiracist defenses in the late 1990s. — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 1169

Categorization

• DEFINE: Etymology of ‘Ebonics’ and its origin as a deliberate antiracist renaming, later hijacked by the Oakland controversy.