" I suggest that we may learn from spaces of silence as well as spaces of speech..."

Text: http://www.wright-house.com/ac/papers97/Gilbert-Manning-Paper.html

Written by Fenix A. Gilbert-Manning in 1997 for a conference facilitated by an instructor for the advocates for the children program, part of the College Park Scholars community at the University of Maryland, college park, this paper greatly demonstrates one of bell hook's quotes that states: " I suggest that we may learn from spaces of silence as well as spaces of speech, that in the patient act of listening to another tongue we may subvert that culture of capitalist frenzy and consumption that demands all desire must be satisfied immediately, or we may disrupt that cultural imperialism that suggests one is worthy of being heard only if one speaks in standard English…"

Despite the prefabricated reputation that the United States proudly grips for retaining and sheltering a wide-range of populations, historically it has built a linguistic wall that bears the weight of their national identity, while blocking the languages and dialects of others, therefore excluding diversity. This encompasses the use of "Standard English".

"Standard English" is the designated label that communicates the 'correct' and widely accepted form of the English language; and if not used, this linguistic wall acts as a barrier for other languages to be heard or even acknowledged; African Americans have greatly suffered from this, leading to the birth of controversies of their language, that is Black English; in spaces of silence from the African Americans, Americans used racial classification in the naming of their "language" - Black English. As a result, in the 1970s within spaces of speech from the African Americans, an alternate stamp: African American Vernacular English (AAVE) was given, which provides recognition as a separate language that holds great worth and value. 

However due to the Americans' ignorance regarding the presence of African Americans and their language, the development of Black English was bumpy and rather harsh. As mentioned in the paper, the deficient theory, in which proposes that "the brains of minority children are lacking a quality that makes them unable to speak Standard English" supports that from these 'spaces of speech' as well as 'spaces of silence' from the African Americans, the Americans assumed that they were attempting to speak the broken version of the Standard English. If only the speakers of 'Standard English' had the patience to listen to African Americans' way of speaking, they would recognize that they have a distinct language that is in their eyes their own 'Standard English' or standard way of speaking.

Another controversy is the unfair placement of black students within special education programs, resulted from the teacher's personal judgement, believing that they have learning disabilities; however they only respond to questions in a form of English that the teacher would not understand. This causes trouble for the black students as the unexpected and unnecessary placement into these programs limits their abilities to learn, while confining them from expanding their knowledge. Therefore within spaces of speech, this was proven wrong by the black student that made the local news, who was an honour roll student that spoke Standard English at home and school. Teachers are impatient, and if only patient in the act of listening to AAVE or in fact any black student, would learn that they are worthy of being heard despite the use of Non-standard English. This marks the acceptance of AAVE by the users of Standard English as well as the disruption of cultural imperialism. Also, AAVE should not mark societal level, as there are also no general consensus on how to deal with AAVE on a societal level. Therefore this subverts the culture of capitalist frenzy and consumption that demands all desire must be satisfied immediately, as AAVE completely breaks such belief.