“Language is the preparation for world leadership,” said Geneva Smitherman, ending NIU’s observance of Black Heritage Month Tuesday with the lecture “Black English Revisited: Talking and Testifying.”

Smitherman, a social linguist, is the author of more than 50 articles and three books on black and oral communication. She also is a professor of speech communications, theater and journalism at Wayne State University in Detroit.

Smitherman spoke to a small crowd of students and faculty about the use of black English and how it has affected people speaking that language.

She gave an example of black English with the use of “to be.” She explained that in black English “to be” means “to continue.”

If the sentence “The coffee be cold.” is used, for example, it means the coffee is continuously cold. However, if the sentence “The coffee cold.” is stated, it means that the coffee is cold only at that moment.

Students have been placed in learning disability classes because of their use of black English. Students learn and progress with their education at a slower pace when they are placed in learning disability classes, she said.

Smitherman gave a personal experience in which her use of black English affected the furthering of her career.

About 25 years ago, Smitherman earned her English degree and wanted to become a teacher. The law in more than 40 states at that time stated that individuals had to pass speech tests to become teachers. She said she flunked the test because of her use of black English.

Smitherman then enrolled in a speech therapy class which did not consist solely of black students; Mexican and white people were also enrolled in her class.

She discovered that these people also had flunked the speech test because they did not speak standard English.

Educators should implement policies consisting of wider communication—in which people should accept other people’s languages—and also education in a foreign language, she said.

“To implement the policy, we must get different educational organizations to adopt the policy and get involved with it,” she said, calling this is “a vision for the 21st century.”