so i was watching michael eric dyson on msnbc. he was deconstructing harry reid's notion of "black dialect": you know, more like jesse jackson or colin powell? ludacris or paul robeson? but of course in another mood dyson knows very well what the content of the idea is and celebrates ebonics, english africanisms and african englishisms etc; the dialect of the novels of zora neale hurston or toni morrison, nikki giovanni, langston hughes, etc. henry louis gates, e.g. has gone far down the road of a chastened racial/linguistic nationalism. it's a difficult question, not a cut-and-dried mistake, to talk about black dialect.