A "C" Paper

In a world so diverse that we cannot adjust our lens enough to truly scope its intensity, communication manifests in a barely finite range of faces. Each person manages to place a slightly different rotation on their expressions concerning the central ideals of the culture, or region. Language varies in the United States not just with region, but between classes; depending on educational status, race, the influence of those around you as you grew up, occupation, size, strength, gender, value system, and other nuances of personality. Objectivity is so elusive.
Ebonics is not English. I am African-American (as well as Mediterranean, Scottish, French Canadian and Native American), and have many African-American friends, but I don’t speak the particular Ebonics in the way that it is referred to here. Neither do all of my friends. Ebonics is a body of words and the system for its use is common to the people who are of the same community or nation, the same geographical area, or the same cultural tradition. What needs to be clearly defined here, and what John Rickford of Stanford U points out, is the difference between slang, which is constantly changing with time and is used most by youth of all cultures, and AAVE, which is used by African-Americans of all ages, and is imperceptible to those who have not been immersed in the culture.
U.S. society is painstakingly making its way towards complete unification, and in order to unify everyone, all must understand each other. More importantly to those doing the unifying, all must understand the orders given, the directions, the economy, the history, and the mission statement of the United States. The states are united in geographical and economical terms, but as far as and the transfer of loving expressions, we have a very low level of understanding. As a conscious part of the machine, it is difficult to understand the system as a whole, independent of bias. Niko Besnier’s piece on the the small isolated atoll of the Tuvalu group in the central pacific, Nukulaelae, provides insight into the formation of the American definition of literacy and its implementation in society. Literacy is a measure of how well a person of that particular culture can manipulate the medium of communication that has been defined as standard by reading, writing, analyzing and regurgitating. In the case of the United States, and amongst the hierarchal educational and governmental colonized nations, that medium is the English language.
An illiterate person could; hypothetically, not read this essay, while being a prominent ruler in their native society, the big fish in the small pond. Also, a person may be successfully happy and self-sufficient while being illiterate.
Besnier portrays Literacy as a two-sided coin, either as an ideal shaped by its commonality, “embedded” in society, or a monolithic ‘agent’ that is prejudice to whomever it does not bless with its presence, more specifically a device of great ideology through which people must operate, and adhere to “power structures in which reading and writing are enacted” in order to have a successful society . Brutal, even when spoken in “mitigated” terms. Societies are given values based on their interpretations of literacy. The latter refers to the former: The first assumes that literacy is an evolutionary intellectual progression, and that more primitive societies would fall into the illiterate category, and refers to the power structures who implement it. The ‘autonomous’ model and the ‘ideological’ model. Ideologists, according Besnier, believe that western institutions are the shit, as I would say within my particular ethnic group, or more eloquentely, is the model of completely “full ‘unrestricted’ literacy due to their associations with large corporations and wealthy mens clubs. In the same ideological arena the two areas of study most prevalent are the fact that the definition of literacy changes with the culture, and what connection that defined idea has to everyday social interactions. While the autonomous viewpoint is supported by the Great Divide theory, the ideological viewpoint which Besnier sides with argues that the usefulness and success of a cultures method of communication dictates its value. But, as Laura Ahearn notes in her journal entry, “practices can either reproduce or transform the very structures that shape them”(Ahearn 1).
Nukulaelae is a small, isolated atoll of the Tuvalu group in the central pacific that bible thumpers conquered and colonized in the later 1800’s, presenting their version of the bible to the locals. Literacy was beaten into the islanders along with Christianity by leaders who “had highly authoritarian and domineering personalities”(Besnier 2).
Besnier also notes that “Contemporary Westerners couldn’t conceive of a world in which literacy, western technology, and Christianity were not highly desirable”(Besnier 2). There was surely conflicts between the Samoan preachers translation of the word of god and the Nukulaelae inhabitants, as the natives had previously received some number of the bible’s teachings, and regarded of them highly(Besnier 3).
Besnier surmises that the integration of the inhabitants of the surrounding islands, and the resulting need for communication with loved ones led to the development of the mass usage of written letters. Autochthonus,, the word of the day on December 10th 2001, refers to the fact that all inhabitants speak a chiefly universal language in the terms of reading and writing, one that all have spoke since as long as they can remember. Just as Ebonics speakers communicate easily and energetically, Nukulaelae locals have a deep understanding of each other and the common language. Both this and Ebonics share a common thread, and that is the attraction to the expression of love between each other.
As with the Nukulaelae locals, our most valued possession is the pen and paper, and the ability to transform the medium of interpersonal communication into a brilliant array of expressions(Besnier 3).

The Creed of the U.S.A.
The English Dictionary is Our Bible.
The Bible is our history.
History is our technology
Technology is Our truth.

Those who do not read are subject to hell. Or so say those who do.

Nukulaelae Atoll: JSTor, Literacy and the Notion of Person on Nukulaelae Atoll Niko BesnierAmerican Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 93, No. 3 (Sep., 1991), pp. 570-587This article consists of 18 page(s).
Laura Ahearn. Language and Agency
Anuu. Rev. Anthropol. 2001. 30:109-37
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