Houston fires school cop who created 'Ghetto Handbook'

[workout_girl]

I really don't understand this story. Supposedly he was mad at his boss so he made a ghetto handbook?! Ok, how is that fireworthy? He says his wife is black, so I doubt he was being racist.
Poor taste? Yea.

The city's school system has fired a police officer for creating and distributing a "Ghetto Handbook."

The eight-page booklet, handed out to other police officers at a May roll call, said the definitions it contained would allow readers to speak as if they "just came out of the hood." It was subtitled "Wucha dun did now?"

Gang investigator Roby Morris, 34, had worked for 11 years at the Houston Independent School District before being fired this past week, according to an investigation report released Friday. He had been on paid leave since August.



"This incident represents an egregious violation of our standards of conduct and decency," said school district spokesman Terry Abbott.

Morris told investigators he made the booklet to get back at one of his bosses. He also pointed out he is married to a black woman and that they have three children together, according to the report.

Morris could not immediately be reached for comment Saturday.

 

[Safe-Keeper]

Fire Webster's. They make all these really racist books full of Norwegian words. Call it 'Norwegian-English dictionary'. I'm extremely offended.

But seriously, what the [rule8]?!

 

[Bikewer]

If he'd have titled his pamphlet, "African-American slang vernacular for dummies" would it have been accepted?

Frequently in this particular forum we are presented with the actions of police (my colleagues, after all) which might well be described as....Unwise.

Hard to guess motivation here. Did the guy really think that officers should learn to communicate in this patios? Perhaps an attempt to let officers understand the near-un-understandable patter?
Wouldn't he have run the idea by his superiors first?
If this was supposed to be some sort of statement or stunt, why produce a hard copy of the evidence to be used against you?

Sometimes you just gotta shrug.....

 

[Alt+F4]

You read the entire "handbook" here:

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/0831073ghetto1.html

"ebonics could save your life"? Yikes!

 

[Tokenconservative]

If he'd have titled his pamphlet, "African-American slang vernacular for dummies" would it have been accepted?

Frequently in this particular forum we are presented with the actions of police (my colleagues, after all) which might well be described as....Unwise.

Hard to guess motivation here. Did the guy really think that officers should learn to communicate in this patios? Perhaps an attempt to let officers understand the near-un-understandable patter?
Wouldn't he have run the idea by his superiors first?
If this was supposed to be some sort of statement or stunt, why produce a hard copy of the evidence to be used against you?

Sometimes you just gotta shrug.....

Unwise in the PC times, to be sure.

One wonders: had a cop in East LA handed out Spanish-English dictionaries or phrase books, would he have been treated the same way?

Yeah...in these times, prolly. But SHOULD he be treated this way for simply attempting to help his colleagues understand the patois or entirely foreign tongues they encounter every day?

Tokie

 

[Mephisto]

He says his wife is black, so I doubt he was being racist.

I see this all the time as evidence that this person or that person ISN'T racist, but how does it prove anything? It's the same as trying to prove a man isn't a sexist because he married a woman!

Until you positively KNOW the relationship between a man and his wife you can't make this claim with any validity. For all we know he (whatever man in question, not just this police officer) might treat his wife like a slave and belittle her family as well, in which case he might be a sexist as well as a racist.

You read the entire "handbook" here:

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/0831073ghetto1.html

"ebonics could save your life"? Yikes!

Thanks for that link. After reading the entire "slum slang dictionary," I fail to see how knowing slang for information (411) or high quality wine (cristal) is going to save a cop's life. Certainly communication is a patrol officer's most often used "weapon," but when it comes down to life threatening, actions speak louder than words and no policeman worth his badge should require interpretation.

That said, I don't think the policeman should have been fired, but I would definitely like to see him partnered with a Black officer in a dangerous neighborhood to perhaps remind him why printing such a thing was really stupid!

.

 

[quixotecoyote]

Now I wouldn't object to someone publishing a good, comprehensive, book of street slang and vernacular to aid in police understanding. This book was unpolished, unprofessional, incomplete, and I venture to say inaccurate.

phat is labeled as 'a' which I assume means adjective, but is defined as 'looks good'

hoodrat is defined as 'scummy girl', which differs from the usages I've heard.

peeps is defined as 'people' when, in my understanding, it is used to refer to friends or peers.

aight is labeled as a verb and defined as 'are you alright', when in my experience it means simply, 'alright'.

Now Houston street talk may be slightly different than in Kansas City, but I'm still thinking this was an attempt to condescend rather than promote understanding.

 

[332nd]

Now I wouldn't object to someone publishing a good, comprehensive, book of street slang and vernacular to aid in police understanding. This book was unpolished, unprofessional, incomplete, and I venture to say inaccurate.

phat is labeled as 'a' which I assume means adjective, but is defined as 'looks good'

hoodrat is defined as 'scummy girl', which differs from the usages I've heard.

peeps is defined as 'people' when, in my understanding, it is used to refer to friends or peers.

aight is labeled as a verb and defined as 'are you alright', when in my experience it means simply, 'alright'.

Now Houston street talk may be slightly different than in Kansas City, but I'm still thinking this was an attempt to condescend rather than promote understanding.

Quite right. What really amazes me when people do things like this is they seem oblivious to their own slang/dialect.

 

[EGarrett]

If he'd have titled his pamphlet, "African-American slang vernacular for dummies" would it have been accepted?

It's not "African-American slang vernacular." It's street vernacular. Attributing things to race that are not caused by race is the root cause of racism.

 

[slingblade]

Yeah, now where's the one for white people? Oh, that's right, we already have one: the dictionary! That's because all white people talk "normal," and all black people don't!

Isn't that funny!

 

[quixotecoyote]

Yeah, now where's the one for white people? Oh, that's right, we already have one: the dictionary! That's because all white people talk "normal," and all black people don't!

Isn't that funny!

My argument is that the vernacular is rich/poor rather than black/white. When was the last time you saw the boardroom crowd talk like the street corner crew? Did it matter what race they were?

 

[athon]

Now I wouldn't object to someone publishing a good, comprehensive, book of street slang and vernacular to aid in police understanding. This book was unpolished, unprofessional, incomplete, and I venture to say inaccurate.

phat is labeled as 'a' which I assume means adjective, but is defined as 'looks good'

hoodrat is defined as 'scummy girl', which differs from the usages I've heard.

peeps is defined as 'people' when, in my understanding, it is used to refer to friends or peers.

aight is labeled as a verb and defined as 'are you alright', when in my experience it means simply, 'alright'.

Now Houston street talk may be slightly different than in Kansas City, but I'm still thinking this was an attempt to condescend rather than promote understanding.

I agree. If the cop made an effort to publish something seriously, I don't think there would have been much of an issue. But treating it as something of a tongue-in-cheek exercise out of a problem he has with his boss...I'd fire him for that too. That's how he treats the issue of race relations?

Athon

 

[Bikewer]

Interestingly, our local police academy (as part of the state-required continuing education program) offers a course entitled "Street Spanish for Law Enforcement".

It's geared to allow some level of communication with illegals, of course.

However, there is no corresponding course on "gangsta" language. I suppose it's assumed that such individuals are at least capable of communicating in standard English...

 

[slingblade]

My argument is that the vernacular is rich/poor rather than black/white. When was the last time you saw the boardroom crowd talk like the street corner crew? Did it matter what race they were?

Settle down, I wasn't even addressing your argument; I don't even know what it is.

However, since you've decided to school me, I'll just inform you that race, gender, and class are all intertwined, and don't exist in isolation.

And yes, because of the social mess that is race, it does freaking matter "what race they were" whenever someone tries to perpetuate the "us vs. them" mythos.

 

[EGarrett]

And yes, because of the social mess that is race, it does freaking matter "what race they were" whenever someone tries to perpetuate the "us vs. them" mythos.

You took that phrase completely out of context. But yet you put it in quotation marks. I hate when people do that.

 

[slingblade]

You took that phrase completely out of context. But yet you put it in quotation marks. I hate when people do that.

I did not take it out of context! I included its complete context when I quoted the post. The context is hardly lost!

I then re-used four of his words to make a point of my own.

Go correct someone who recognizes your authority. I don't really care what you hate.

 

[quixotecoyote]

Settle down, I wasn't even addressing your argument; I don't even know what it is.

Well given that you quoted the post where I first stated my argument, there's not much of an excuse for that.

However, since you've decided to school me, I'll just inform you that race, gender, and class are all intertwined, and don't exist in isolation.

And yes, because of the social mess that is race, it does freaking matter "what race they were" whenever someone tries to perpetuate the "us vs. them" mythos.

The us vs them mythos is a separate issue from which modes of communication are employed by which groups. While race, gender, and class are all intertwined in some aspects, the broad categories of dialect are not necessarily included. I spent a lot of time growing up in a poor white town. I spent a lot of time in college with middle-class black people. The poor white people talked in street language similar to the booklet and the fairly affluent black people talked like what you described as 'normal'.

You don't see black politicians or business leaders using words like 'foo' and 'peeps'. Maybe this is an issue primarily of economic status rather than racial status.

 

[EGarrett]

I did not take it out of context! I included its complete context when I quoted the post. The context is hardly lost!

I then re-used four of his words to make a point of my own.

Go correct someone who recognizes your authority. I don't really care what you hate.

Yeah, you quoted the post then proceeded to not actually respond to it. Why do you do that, and moreso, why use quotation marks while doing so? Can you see how that would irritate people?

 

[linusrichard]

The first thing I notice is that this guy really needs to improve his own language skills before attempting to make a dictionary. The spelling is awful, the pronunciation guides don't make sense, and he designates about half of these words "a" which I assume means "adjective," although many of them aren't. And the first part isn't in alphabetical order.

The next thing I notice is that a lot of it just doesn't make sense. "Cristal" is a slang term for high quality wine? No, Cristal is a brand of high quality wine. If I show up with some Moet & Chandon (i.e., some high quality wine), and say, here, have some Cristal, according to this dictionary I'm right, but in real life, I'm wrong. "Bail" is slang for money to get out of jail? No, "bail" is non-slang for money to get out of jail.

The next thing I notice is that the guy doesn't have any idea what ebonics is. Ebonics (or AAVE) isn't just "black slang" - it not only has its own vocabulary and pronunciation, but its own grammar and syntax. For example, in SAE, you can say "I [verb]" or "I am [verb]ing," and they have different meanings. In AAVE, you can also say "I be [verb]ing," and that has a distinct meaning as well. Also, in AAVE, you can invert the structure of a question, so the SAE "What am I going to do now?" can be expressed in AAVE as "What I'm going to do now?" These are just examples. I haven't studied it in much depth, but "Wucha dun did now?" sounds to me not like genuine AAVE, but like a crude caricature of AAVE as a subliterate, "wrong" version of SAE.

Is this guy racist? I don't know. The fact that his wife is black is not dispositive. It strikes me as a low move to use the "I'm not racist, my wife is black" defense. Is the guy an idiot? Clearly. Is the dictionary offensive? It insults my intelligence, and it perpetuates common misconceptions about AAVE. I don't know if it's offensive in the way people seem to be claiming.