The Oakland Board of Education held the first of what they hope will be many all-school Ebonics Competitions this past weekend, and the winner, Huong Lee Fong, 13, couldn't be happier.
The Grade Eleven student moved to the United States from Wuhan, China with his parents two years ago, skipping three grades and becoming fluent in English after only seven months. He tackled Ebonics next, along with calculus, computer science, algebra, trigonometry and economics.
At his school, Malcolm X Memorial High, he is at the very top of his class in each subject and in the top two of his class in French, History, Geography, German, Spanish and Physical Education, Shop and Drivers Ed. Fong takes home a prize of $100, a Black History Month Sweatshirt, a complete autographed set of the works of Eldridge Cleaver and a promised dinner with Louis Farrakhan sometime in the next month.
Malcolm X Memorial High principal, Leroy Washingon Junior, denied reports he was disappointed that the winner of the competition, designed to increase African-American pride and self-respect, was won by an Asian student. "Not at all, not at all," he chuckled. "Why, little Huong Lee has worked hard. And anyway, I'm just glad he isn't a Jewish kid.
