Ebonics is from ebony, meaning black of course, and the word ebonics was originally a negative connotation for the language barriers that existed because of the slave trade...I've read somewhere in one of my anthropology books (looking in it now for referencing) that ebonics is actually a very intelligent language, different from english, but more proficient because it cuts out obsolete pieces of language that we leave incorporated only because it's traditional. English is actually a very crippling language. Hang on. I'll find out what this book says damnit. It's in Cultural Anthropology, The Human Challenge, by Haviland.