Can You Speak Ebonics? The DEA Has a Job For You

Remember back in 1996 when everyone was making fun of the Oakland, California school board for declaring “Ebonics” (aka African American Vernacular English ) a language of its own and not a dialect of English?

Turns out they may have been on to something .

Wanted by the Drug Enforcement Administration: Ebonics translators.

It might sound like a punch line, as “Ebonics” — the common name for what linguists call African-American English — has long been the butt of jokes, as well as the subject of controversy.

But the agency is serious about needing nine people to translate conversations picked up on wiretaps during investigations, Special Agent Michael Sanders said Tuesday. A solicitation was sent to contractors as part of a request to companies to provide hundreds of translators in 114 languages.

“DEA’s position is, it’s a language form we have a need for,” Sanders said. “I think it’s a language form that DEA recognizes a need to have someone versed in to conduct investigations.”