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The New York Times ran a full-page ad denouncing the decision. Researchers later discovered that editors had given away the space *for free.*
Meanwhile, when linguists put together an open letter (ahem) stating their support for Oakland and the validity of African-American English, the Times refused to run it.
I spent a lot of time on LexisNexis looking into this. At the time, opinions were divided between "Oakland was bad" and "Oakland was terrible." Defending the decision was completely unthinkable.
There was a finite number of news sources at the time, with a finite number of editors. Most were male and white and straight and cis. If this group of, I don& #39;t know, 75 dudes decided an opinion wasn& #39;t worth hearing, it wasn& #39;t. Like, it *really* wasn& #39;t.
We& #39;re in a different media environment now with different problems. I don& #39;t know if the & #39;Ebonics& #39; controversy would play out better now, but it would certainly play out differently.
The "cancel culture" moral panic feels like it& #39;s a backlash by those 75 dudes who are used to defining the parameters of acceptable opinion. I realize this is an exaggeration, but that feeling is why I have such an emotional reaction to stuff like the Harper& #39;s letter.
We& #39;re objectively *not* living in a time when free speech is being constricted. Instead of too few gatekeepers, we arguably have none at all. The debates now shouldn& #39;t be about who gets to speak — anyone can post anything anywhere — but about which opinions get platformed.
That& #39;s what& #39;s at the heart of the James Bennett and JK Rowling and "American Dirt" controversies. That& #39;s the debate we should be having. That letter, and everyone who signed it, is pretending it doesn& #39;t exist.
(If you want an hour-plus of me ranting about the & #39;Ebonics& #39; controversy, see here) https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-ebonics-controversy/id1380008439?i=1000465289876">https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas...
Sorry to go all Soundcloud on you, but I also made a video about this, which has some interesting footage from the Congressional hearing https://youtu.be/J3D2iyBqlCk ">https://youtu.be/J3D2iyBql...
