Use and Misuse of Speech Diagnostics for African American Students

Many African American students have been tested using speech pathology diagnostics that are ill suited to their distinctive linguistic circumstances. Slave descendants of African origin share a unique linguistic heritage in contrast and comparison to every other immigrant group residing within America. In an effort to overcome the legacy of educational bias born of inappropriate speech diagnostics for Black students, this article begins with observations about racial discrimination that reinforced educational disparities that were, at times inadvertently, exacerbated by remedial education programs that failed to improve educational outcomes for Black students. The remainder of the article describes the combination of educational and legal circumstances, owing their existence largely to the efforts of Geneva Smitherman, that gave rise to the controversy over Ebonics and ensuing demands for linguistic human rights in support of educational equality for all students regardless of race.