โItโs Givingโ AAVE, and the Denied Yet Undeniable Impact of Black Culture
I grew up knowing it as Ebonics; I didnโt hear 'AAVE' until I was an adult. Apparently itโs used derogatorily- I did not know. But when Robert Williams coined the term in the 70s, its meaning was:
โโฆthe linguistic and paralinguistic features which on a concentric continuum represents the communicative compentence of the West African, Caribbean, and United States idioms, patois, argots, ideolects, and social forces of black peopleโฆEbonics derives its form from ebony (black) and phonics (sound, study of sound) and refers to the study of the language of black people in all its cultural uniqueness.โ
Familiar Examples include but are not limited to:
It was unbelievably difficult to find a solely Black perspective on the subject. Iโm gonna need everyone to let Black linguists talk, itโs literally their job. Anyway, I need yโall to actually WATCH this video. Donโt skip it thinking Iโll summarize. Watch it. Actually listen. Thatโs part of the problem to begin with, is not listening. Even if you have to read this lesson later, so be it.
One of the points emphasized in this video was that AAVE was formed of the need to communicate, and specifically to communicate in a way that hid what we were saying and thinking from antagonistic white society.
โโฆโthe disguise language used by enslaved Africans to conceal their conversations from their white slave masters to the lyrics of todayโs rap music, [the magical power of] the word has been shaped by a time when, as observed by Harlem newspaper writer Earl Conrad, โit was necessary for the Negro to speak and sing and even think in a kind of code.โโโ
Because it was in a form that white people could not understand, as well as already existing racist biases against the humanity and intelligence of Black people, naturally it was assumed that our way of communicating was ignorant and โfalseโ. Even acknowledging it as a valid language was seen as abhorrent, by nonblack and certain Black people.
โFor decades, linguists and other educators, pointing to the logic and science of language, have tried to convince people that Black English exists, that isnโt just a politically correct label for a poor version of English but is a valid system of language, with its own consistent grammar. In 1996, with the unanimous support of linguists, the Oakland School Board voted to recognize AAVE, or the more politicized term โEbonicsโ (a portmanteau of โEbonyโ and โphonicsโ), as a community language for African American students, a decision which might have opened up much needed additional funding for education.
Instead it resulted in intense public backlash and derision due to the still widespread, incorrect belief that Black English was an inferior, uneducated form of English associated with illiteracy, poverty, and crime. Itโs hard for a language to get ahead when it keeps getting put down. Some linguists, such as John Russell Rickford, have noted how even sympathetic linguistic research, which has derived a lot of benefit and understanding from Black English grammar, can unknowingly focus on data that represents African American communities negatively, giving โthe impression that black speech was the lingo of criminals, dope pushers, teenage hoodlums, and various and sundry hustlers, who spoke only in โmuthafuckasโ and โpussy-copping raps.โโ The term โEbonicsโ even now is used mockingly by some as a byword for broken English.โ"
AAVE is a full dialect with grammar and social rules. But the ones most people are familiar with include:
Th becoming D (โdatsโ)
Double Negative (โI ainโt see nobodyโ)
Habitual Be (โItโs cuz he be on that phoneโ)
Possessive s absence (โIโm going to my grandaddy houseโ)
Question word order (โwho that is with the ice cream and cake?โ)
Zero copula (โwho that?โ)
"Why do you talk like that" Would you rather I code switch?
โCode switching, or adjusting oneโs normal behavior to fit into an environment, has long been a strategy for BlPOC individuals to navigate interracial interactions successfully. Code switching often occurs in spaces where negative stereotypes of Black individuals run counter to what are considered appropriate or professional behaviors and norms in a specific environment, and regularly happen in work settings.โ
In this context, you might recognize it better as โusing your white people voiceโ.
Some Black Americans, for varying reasons including internalized antiblackness and a desire for assimilation, hate AAVE! Some people will hate that you donโt use AAVE! Never assume weโre all on the same page about its use! My own mother used to be big on speaking โproper Englishโ.
The same way regional differences affect standard pronunciation, itโll affect the AAVE used. Culture in the area as well will affect the words that come from it. So someone Black using a phrase in Philadelphia might not automatically know what someone Black from Compton is saying.
Someone did their dissertation on this topic, and while Iโm going to link the summary for yall to give it a shot, Imma be honest- I do not understand this. I tried. Itโs interesting how something that comes so innately, once written out like this is like WHAT. But the research has been done!
"Aaron earned an iron urn"- Baltimore
GloRilla and "Mursic"- Memphis
A lot of AAVE from New York City is popularized; so you might hear words from anywhere that originated from Harlem or Queens, or New York Ballroom culture
One major source of misunderstanding AAVE is people not understanding tonality. AAVE is often tonal, similar to many African languages, languages in general- meaning that unless you hear it or are innately familiar with how itโs spoken, you might not know HOW Iโm saying something and therefore will not understand what Iโm trying to convey. Given the history, this was on purpose!
Black language- Black culture in general, really- is often conveyed orally. Everything we say and do is not going to be written down for someone else to study. Doesnโt mean we werenโt saying or doing it. If you want to understand, you have to listen!
โLinguist Margaret G. Lee notes how black speech and verbal expressions have often been found crossing over into mainstream prestige speech, such as in the news, when journalists talk about politicians โdissingโ each other, or the New York Times puts out punchy headlines like โGrifters Gonna Griftโ. These many borrowings have occurred across major historical eras of African American linguistic creativity. Now-common terms like โyouโre the man,โ โbrother,โ โcool,โ and โhigh fiveโ extend from the period of slavery to civil rights, from the Jazz Age to hip-hop: the poetry of the people. This phenomenon reflects how central language and the oral tradition are to the black experience.โ
1) "You Good" can mean, depending on how it is said and the context in which it is spoken:
You donโt want these problems so chill.
Do you have enough money/resource?
Itโs fine! Donโt worry about it.
2) This was an interesting experience, watching the misunderstanding of AAVE occur live. Itโs the realization that people read this as โThis is something Bugs Bunny would wearโ versus โBugs Bunny would wear the fuck outta that outfitโ. But if you didnโt know that, if you arenโt familiar with the tonality of AAVE, of course youโd think the first one is what it meant! And it's not wrong-wrong - he would wear it, but that's not necessarily all it meant.
3) โChill-ayโ versus โChileโ. Yeah, we didnโt forget that. This is often why AAVE is used to sound โaggressiveโ on the internet- if you perceive (however subconsciously) how Black people speak is aggressive, then when you decide to emulate my speech in your moment of aggression, it is because you think my Blackness will make you seem more intimidating! You find Blacknessโฆ intimidating. Same reason you think it makes you funnier than if you were to deliver the same joke using your own dialect. It means the jokes not funny; my language is whatโs funny.
Black American Sign Language
We even communicate differently in sign language; thereโs an entire history and culture behind the Black deaf experience.
โIn April 2020, Nakia Smith, aka Charmay, created a TikTok account introducing five generations of her Black Deaf family and how they communicate in Black ASL. As a social media influencer of Black ASL content, Charmay made a series of educational and informative videos on the history and practice of Black ASL. Charmayโs video went viral, landing in a New York Times article, Black, Deaf and Extremely Online, and Blavity: TikToker Has Gone Viral For Putting The Culture On To Black American Sign Language. Additionally, Netflix requested Charmay to explain the difference between Black ASL and ASL.โ
Everyone doesnโt speak AAVE!
If your Black character is not Black American, and has never once been connected with Black American culture or people, they are probably NOT going to speak AAVE! Theyโre going to speak whatever dialect THEY have! And that doesnโt make it any less โBlackโ of them!
Different dialects and languages across the diaspora include but are certainly not limited to:
Jamaican and Caribbean Patois
Everyone Owes Rihanna an Apology
Yโall remember the song Work. I know you do. It was mainstreamโs love and joy when this song dropped to be overtly racist about it, Black Americans included. Everyone claimed it was โgibberishโ, that she was just mimicking language on a song and โit would be popularโ.
Meanwhile, it was her singing in her native island patois! The people who spoke her language understood it! Anybody who actually tried to understand it, understood it! Another popular song, Sean Paulโs Temperature, is also in patois! And I thought we loved that song!
So next time Black people speak and you find yourself thinking- โwow, this makes no senseโ, I want you to think to yourself: โdoes it make no sense, or do I just lack the context/knowledge/language to understand it?โ
NOW THAT WEโVE HAD SOME EXPLANATION BEHIND THE LANGUAGE!
Me personally, I admit I donโt like it being used in stories where it is clear the author doesnโt understand the dialect, or where itโs clear the only person who speaks it is the โBlack character who OMG DID I TELL YOU THEY WERE BLACKโ. Iโd rather it be the regular Queenโs English. We speak that too. Iโm not going to decry your fanfiction or your regular modern-day original story as โbadโ if you choose to use whatever language your region commonly uses. We know how to speak it. We will be okay. Using AAVE is not going to sell me that this character is โBlackโ if the rest of the character writing is still bad.
If it means that much to you, because it is important to the character, then you as the writer need to commit to learning proper AAVE! This isnโt going to be a โlook up every turn of phrase on googleโ or โask Ice what every single thing meansโ. Youโre going to have to do what everyone who learns a language does- immerse yourself in it! If you canโt be bothered to learn my language, Iโm going to know that when I read your work.
Obviously if thereโs a context where the Black people involved do not know how to speak a language, it is perfectly fine to show that, as long as you are showing that itโs not due to some innate stupidity or other stereotype that this person cannot communicate the same way others communicate around them.
I know someoneโs thinking it, so letโs address it. Thereโs a translation for this word in damn near every language thatโs ever come across Black people. So donโt go โoh we donโt have that word in my language-โ I bet money you do.
Yes, it could be used in historical context- the โhard -erโ. Yes, it could be used in social context- the โ-aโ. It follows the tonality rules I discussed earlier; that is, the way itโs used and who is using it makes ALL the difference in how it will be received.
Everyone is not on the same page about the use of this word within our community. Some Black people think it should never be used, period, even by us! Some Black people think that it should be reclaimed and use it as such! The only thing weโre on the same page about is that YOU should not be using it.
I say this to say to nonblack writers: put the pen down.
My stance is, if you canโt understand AAVE, you CERTAINLY arenโt going to be able to incorporate the social use of this word. Period. If you scared of the potential smoke incurred if you fuck it up- and if we see it, you will catch it- donโt bother. Trying to โwrite realisticallyโ does not cut it. You should be doing everything in your power to understand and write a great Black character in all ways before ever thinking this is something you should do. In fact, if you're that thirsty to use this word, you have some other things you need to consider.
In the historical context, just watch yourself. If youโre gonna drop that word, you need to be damn well-researched on every other aspect of Black life and oppression in whatever era youโre writing. Just dropping this word to say โlife is racistโ shows a lazy lack of understanding of antiblackness. You donโt even have to drop the whole word. A โni-โ at the end of the sentence is enough for me to know exactly where weโre going! But if you not gone do the rest of the workโฆ you know what they say about stupid games.
The Fundamental Disrespect
If you watched the prior videos (and you should have) and paid attention up to this point, you have already heard the struggles that both AAVE as a dialect and those that speak it go through.
Thereโs a societal connotation of stupidity, aggression, and silliness behind the way I speak. None of those things are true, and itโs hard to be told that even the way you communicate with others is bad.
But the other reason itโs so hard is because we spend our lives hearing that those are the connotationsโฆ when WE speak it. It is not the language- itโs ME that makes it so! And that gets into the other part of this lesson, something that AAVE is oft victim to.
This part is a little scarier for me to write, because people donโt like it when you talk about Black Americans as a separate entity from the US of A as it is known. Iโm gonna put on my political hat for a second, but I promise this ties into my overall point so stick with me!
The reality is that the United States of America has forced a cultural hegemony upon the planet (amongst other forms). Yes. That is due to the capitalism, colonialism, imperialism and damn near just about every other -ism at the US government and militaryโs disposal. I am not saying that part somehow changes, of course not. Thatโs just facts. There are people far smarter than I (Edward Said, take the wheel) who could explain this far better. But Iโm only here to explain this one point.
What DOESNโT get acknowledged is how much of what is deemed American pop culture across the world is both 1) stolen 2) Black culture! We do not have equivalent political power despite what our hypervisibility would suggest, but our social currency is raw diamond- so naturally, it has to be plundered! The white American dollar might mean far more than my life, but itโll pay for my creations- even more so when Iโm not involved!
The issue is that if your society says that I am less than, how can you justify how you covet everything I create? If Iโm supposed to be so much less than you, why do you seek my language, my fashion, my music, my body? Why do you feel entitled to my creation, but you think you should have itโฆ Without me?
Sit on that one for a second!
Let's refer back to that chart at the beginning. How many of these have you seen or even used before? How long did it take for you to know it was AAVE? Donโt get me started on the influence of AAVE in queer spaces!
Of course Iโm going to get started. Ballroom culture, created by Black and Latino people in New York City in the 80s (Paris is Burning, anyone?), has spawned so much popular โgayโ lingo, and itโs not even just โgayโ- itโs of color! Black English in particular is the source of many of the words that queer people use now in casual conversation, brought into the ballrooms, normalized, and then proliferated with other communities.
I can always tell when a new phrase from AAVE has hit nonblack audiences because itโll suddenly be in every sentence I see, often butchered. Remember that historical context- of having to speak in code. Have you ever considered why AAVE is always evolving? Why we have to find new ways to communicate with each other? Have you considered that when people are constantly taking and misplacing your words, they may lose meaning or value, and so you have to come up with something else?
Appropriation of Black Music
Jazz, swing, the blues, disco, rock and roll, pop, even rap and hiphop have all been subject to appropriation- intentional or not. Far more intentional than you might want to believe. And it all comes back to money!
White audiences in the 1900s loved Black music- as long as they didnโt know Black people were singing it! Often, songs would be completely lifted and given to white bands to re-record. When Frankie Lymon first came on stage to perform, some of the audience was stunned! Even you know Itty Bitty Pretty One!
A more modern-day example: not to pick on the K-Poppies, but unfortunately itโs a low hanging branch example.
What K-Pop groups are doing now is heavily influenced what Black pop, rap, and R&B artists were doing from the late 90s to this very day. Part of the reason I enjoy K-Pop is because it reminds me of the stuff I used to listen to growing up. How many times have you heard someone think a Korean rapper in a K-Pop group is โfineโ, but โdonโt likeโ rap otherwise? Or will listen to K-Pop groups, but have very few to no one Black of the same sound on their playlists?
Rover by Kai (2023) vs Swalla by Jason Derulo (2017)- Idk how popular Kai is outside of EXO, but I do know that some influence was had. And I like the song, btw! I prefer the music video! Itโs just not the first time itโs been done!
Sweet Juice by Purple Kiss (2023) vs Say It Right by Nelly Furtado on a Timbaland beat (2006)
Taemin and Michael Jackson, period. Taemin having a song called The Rizzness. How did โrizzโ get to him? How did he know? More relevantly, how did the people who wrote his music know? How did something that started with Black people in Baltimore get all the way to Taemin in South Korea without influence?
Iโll use another example, so it doesnโt feel like Iโm picking on K-Pop. Iโm currently listening to CฤN NHร TRANH MรI Lร (Vietnamese, if you couldnโt tell) and as much of a banger as it is, with its own amazing cultural spin on the deliveryโฆ it is CLEARLY influenced by Black American rap. He nicknamed himself Vietgunna. Yall.
A non-American musical example: Afrobeats has taken the music industry by stormโฆ How many of those people who enjoy an afrobeat from a nonblack artist will enjoy it from Wizkid or TEMS?
Those polls, where they ask how many Black artists you listen toโฆ try paying attention to see just how much of your music takes inspiration from Black creators, but thereโs a non-equivalent amount of Black artists that you support!
Political Bastardization of Powerful Black Colloquialisms
The appropriation of Black English isnโt always for entertainment. Sometimes, itโs a purposeful, malicious tactic to demean the words, and therefore the intent behind them.
โMichael Harriot, columnist at TheGrio and author of the upcoming book, Black AF History: The Unwhitewashed Story of America, explains that this kind of insidious takeover and flipping of Black vernacular to anti-Black pejorative has numerous parallels in Americaโs past and runs all the way up to present day. โWhen you look at the long arc of history and Americaโs reaction to the request for Black liberation โ every time Black people try to use a phrase or coin a phrase that symbolizes our desire for liberation, it will eventually become a cuss word to white people,โ Harriot says in an interview with [Legal Defense Fund].
Itโs perhaps this very context โ Black peopleโs awareness of their history and their power to resist injustice โ that made woke so ripe for the pernicious mutation it has now undergone. Indeed, the forced transformation of the colloquialism echoes how countless other Black ideas and intellectual contributions have been maligned.
โWhen people during the civil rights movement began saying โBlack power,โ all of a sudden it became a term that people equated with communism and anti-white sentiment โ and then it eventually gave birth to โwhite power,โโ Harriot tells LDF. โThe โ1619 Projectโ [which centers the ramifications of slavery and the contributions of Black people in American history] has become an insult. โBlack Lives Matterโ became an โanti-white sentimentโ that was banned in school and spawned โall lives matterโ and โblue lives matter.โโ
This discourse is happening again, it happens like every six months on here, and itโs one of the things on here that fills me with a hatred that I struggle with every single time. It is hard, I literally feel that hatred in the pit of my chest right now as I type this.
Kimberle Crenshaw (Black woman and the originator of the legal term โintersectionalityโ), the Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies, and African American Policy Forum coined the hashtag in 2014. TWENTY FOURTEEN.
It was meant to highlight the violent deaths of Black women and girls at the hands of police, which happens at a high rate like Black men and boys, but often goes far less acknowledged. By appropriating the hashtag, you are actively choosing to speak over the very names and deaths of Black women and girls we donโt know, because we are NOT SAYING THEM, and therefore are allowing those deaths to continue as though they do not matter.
Iโm going to stop before I get more upset. But know what violence youโre contributing to in your negligence.
How to Avoid Cultural Appropriation while Showing Appreciation
Everything is obviously not appropriation. It is possible for people to appreciate, replicate, and take influence without being disrespectful! It happens! And because it is possible, is why itโs so infuriating that it does not.
Itโs frustrating that when something is on me, itโs ghetto, ugly, ignorant. But when itโs on the right stick thin pale girl, itโs chic, itโs fashionable, itโs new. So if itโs not the language, and itโs not the fashion or music you donโt likeโฆ It must beโฆ Me. I am somehow not worthy of respect for the very culture I create.
Can you imagine being told that? That you are not worthy of beingโฆ you?
If you are worried about cultural appropriation, both in your writing and in your life, the easiest way to avoid that is to:
1) acknowledge and support the culture that created what youโre saying or doing and
2) actually treat them like human beings instead of zoo animals or a species to study. Show respect! Itโs not hard!
This is my body, my language, my creation. Itโs not just to entertain you! Itโs my life! I talk like this because this is how I speak, not because I want to get Tiktok cool points. If Iโm around people who treat the way I talk like childish babble, it makes me feel stupid and disrespected. We can see that, and we can read it in your writing.
And yes, you may be saying โwell none of that is unique to AAVE, thatโs how other languages work!โ Okay then go speak those languages then lmao. But if youโre absolutely determined to understand and utilize mine, then you need to treat it with respect and not like the Gen Z slang babble (or worse- the threat) yโall treat it as. Itโs a form of antiblackness that is so normalized that we donโt even think about itโฆ but now that youโve read this lesson, you can start! You can start taking the time to actively dedicate a thought to what youโre saying and doing and where it came from. You can take the time to notice when something isnโt right- and maybe even choose to speak up, because itโs the thought that counts, but the action that delivers.
