Ermie Smith writes You asked me to cite other inaccuracies in the Wikipedia article on Ebonics I direct your attention to the Wikipedia article on the Oakland Ebonics Controversy The Wikipedia article states For students whose primary dialect was AAVE the Oakland resolution mandated some instruction in that dialect both for maintaining the legitimacy and richness of such language and to facilitate their acquisition and mastery of English language skills This also included the proposed increase of salaries of those proficient in both AAVE and Standard English to the level of those teaching LEP limited English proficiency students and the use of public funding to help teachers learn AAVE themselves 1 This not accurate In fact it is an outright lie In the first place the OUSD Board s December 18 1996 resolution was not about children who speak African American Vernacular English Black English or any other appellation that implies inherently that the English language is the home native or primary language of the parents and children that were the specific basis for the Oakland Unified School Districts OUSD resolution The OUSD December 18 1996 resolution was concerning children whose parents had identified their home native or primary language as 1 Ebonics 2 Pan African Communication Behaviors and or 3 African Language Systems As proof of this assertion I cite the fact it that the appellations African American Vernacular English does not appear anywhere in the entire OUSD resolution In fact the first four Whereas clauses of the OUSD resolution speak only to the existence of a linguistic continuity of the West Niger Congo African language system in the language of African slave descendants and their unique language stature The very first whereas clause of the OUSD resolution states WHEREAS numerous validated studies demonstrate that African American students as part of their culture and history as African people possess and utilize a language described in various scholarly approaches as Ebonics literally Black sounds or Pan African Language Communication Behaviors or African Language Systems For more information relative to the appellation Pan African Language Communication Behaviors see Pan African Language In The Western Hemisphere 1973 The second Whereas clause of the resolution states Whereas these studies have also demonstrated that African language systems have origins in West and Niger Congo languages and are not merely dialects of English Now what more evidence does it take to prove that the OUSD resolution was not about African American Vernacular English or any other appellation that implies inherently that the English language is the home native or primary language of the parents and children that were the basis for the Oakland Unified School Districts OUSD resolution Here is more A critical analysis will reveal that in its very essence the OUSD resolution was about the vindication of the equal protection of the law rights of the Afrocentric parents and their children under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution That is the right of English Language Learners ELL of African ancestry to not be discriminated against on the basis of their language ancestry and provided instruction in the English language as a second language i e ESL In short to be provided a Free and Appropriate Public Education As proof of this assertion I cite the fifth whereas clause of the OUSD Board s resolution which reads Whereas judicial cases in states other than California have recognized the unique language stature of African American pupils and such recognition by courts has resulted in court mandated educational programs which have substantially benefited African American children in the interest of vindicating their equal protection of the law rights under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution See OUSD resolution page 1 para 5 As further evidence that the OUSD Board s resolution was about Ebonics Pan African Communication Behaviors or African Language Systems and not African American Vernacular English I cite the fact that first Now Therefore Be It Resolved clause of the OUSD resolution states NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED the Board of Education officially recognizes the existence of and cultural and linguistic bases of West and Niger Congo African Languages Systems and these are the language patterns that many African American students bring to school Clearly based on this passage of the resolution what the OUSD Board was addressing was the existence of Ebonics Pan African Communication Behaviors or African Language Systems and not African American Vernacular English The second Therefore be it resolved clause of the OUSD resolution states BE IT RESOLVED that the Board of Educ