âItâs Givingâ AAVE, and the Denied Yet Undeniable Impact of Black Culture
I grew up knowing it as Ebonics; I didnât hear 'AAVE' until I was an adult. Apparently itâs used derogatorily- I did not know. But when Robert Williams coined the term in the 70s, its meaning was:
ââŚthe 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 peopleâŚEbonics 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.â
Familiar Examples include but are not limited to:
It was unbelievably difficult to find a solely Black perspective on the subject. Iâm gonna need everyone to let Black linguists talk, itâs literally their job. Anyway, I need yâall to actually WATCH this video. Donât skip it thinking Iâll summarize. Watch it. Actually listen. Thatâs 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.
ââŚâthe disguise language used by enslaved Africans to conceal their conversations from their white slave masters to the lyrics of todayâs rap music, [the magical power of] the word has been shaped by a time when, as observed by Harlem newspaper writer Earl Conrad, âit was necessary for the Negro to speak and sing and even think in a kind of code.âââ
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 âfalseâ. Even acknowledging it as a valid language was seen as abhorrent, by nonblack and certain Black people.
âFor decades, linguists and other educators, pointing to the logic and science of language, have tried to convince people that Black English exists, that isnât 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 âEbonicsâ (a portmanteau of âEbonyâ and âphonicsâ), 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. Itâs 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 âthe impression that black speech was the lingo of criminals, dope pushers, teenage hoodlums, and various and sundry hustlers, who spoke only in âmuthafuckasâ and âpussy-copping raps.ââ The term âEbonicsâ even now is used mockingly by some as a byword for broken English.â"
AAVE is a full dialect with grammar and social rules. But the ones most people are familiar with include:
Th becoming D (âdatsâ)
Double Negative (âI ainât see nobodyâ)
Habitual Be (âItâs cuz he be on that phoneâ)
Possessive s absence (âIâm going to my grandaddy houseâ)
Question word order (âwho that is with the ice cream and cake?â)
Zero copula (âwho that?â)
"Why do you talk like that" Would you rather I code switch?
âCode switching, or adjusting oneâs 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.â
In this context, you might recognize it better as âusing your white people voiceâ.
Some Black Americans, for varying reasons including internalized antiblackness and a desire for assimilation, hate AAVE! Some people will hate that you donât use AAVE! Never assume weâre all on the same page about its use! My own mother used to be big on speaking âproper Englishâ.
The same way regional differences affect standard pronunciation, itâll 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 Iâm going to link the summary for yall to give it a shot, Imma be honest- I do not understand this. I tried. Itâs 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 itâs spoken, you might not know HOW Iâm saying something and therefore will not understand what Iâm 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. Doesnât mean we werenât saying or doing it. If you want to understand, you have to listen!
âLinguist 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 âdissingâ each other, or the New York Times puts out punchy headlines like âGrifters Gonna Griftâ. These many borrowings have occurred across major historical eras of African American linguistic creativity. Now-common terms like âyouâre the man,â âbrother,â âcool,â and âhigh fiveâ 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.â
1) "You Good" can mean, depending on how it is said and the context in which it is spoken:
You donât want these problems so chill.
Do you have enough money/resource?
Itâs fine! Donât worry about it.
2) This was an interesting experience, watching the misunderstanding of AAVE occur live. Itâs the realization that people read this as âThis is something Bugs Bunny would wearâ versus âBugs Bunny would wear the fuck outta that outfitâ. But if you didnât know that, if you arenât familiar with the tonality of AAVE, of course youâd 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) âChill-ayâ versus âChileâ. Yeah, we didnât forget that. This is often why AAVE is used to sound âaggressiveâ 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 Blackness⌠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 whatâs funny.
Black American Sign Language
We even communicate differently in sign language; thereâs an entire history and culture behind the Black deaf experience.
âIn 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. Charmayâs 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.â
Everyone doesnât 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! Theyâre going to speak whatever dialect THEY have! And that doesnât make it any less âBlackâ 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
Yâall remember the song Work. I know you do. It was mainstreamâs love and joy when this song dropped to be overtly racist about it, Black Americans included. Everyone claimed it was âgibberishâ, that she was just mimicking language on a song and âit would be popularâ.
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 Paulâs Temperature, is also in patois! And I thought we loved that song!
So next time Black people speak and you find yourself thinking- âwow, this makes no senseâ, I want you to think to yourself: âdoes it make no sense, or do I just lack the context/knowledge/language to understand it?â
NOW THAT WEâVE HAD SOME EXPLANATION BEHIND THE LANGUAGE!
Me personally, I admit I donât like it being used in stories where it is clear the author doesnât understand the dialect, or where itâs clear the only person who speaks it is the âBlack character who OMG DID I TELL YOU THEY WERE BLACKâ. Iâd rather it be the regular Queenâs English. We speak that too. Iâm not going to decry your fanfiction or your regular modern-day original story as âbadâ 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 âBlackâ 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 isnât going to be a âlook up every turn of phrase on googleâ or âask Ice what every single thing meansâ. Youâre going to have to do what everyone who learns a language does- immerse yourself in it! If you canât be bothered to learn my language, Iâm going to know that when I read your work.
Obviously if thereâs 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 itâs not due to some innate stupidity or other stereotype that this person cannot communicate the same way others communicate around them.
I know someoneâs thinking it, so letâs address it. Thereâs a translation for this word in damn near every language thatâs ever come across Black people. So donât go âoh we donât have that word in my language-â I bet money you do.
Yes, it could be used in historical context- the âhard -erâ. Yes, it could be used in social context- the â-aâ. It follows the tonality rules I discussed earlier; that is, the way itâs 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 weâre 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 canât understand AAVE, you CERTAINLY arenât 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- donât bother. Trying to âwrite realisticallyâ 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 youâre gonna drop that word, you need to be damn well-researched on every other aspect of Black life and oppression in whatever era youâre writing. Just dropping this word to say âlife is racistâ shows a lazy lack of understanding of antiblackness. You donât even have to drop the whole word. A âni-â at the end of the sentence is enough for me to know exactly where weâre going! But if you not gone do the rest of the work⌠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.
Thereâs a societal connotation of stupidity, aggression, and silliness behind the way I speak. None of those things are true, and itâs hard to be told that even the way you communicate with others is bad.
But the other reason itâs so hard is because we spend our lives hearing that those are the connotations⌠when WE speak it. It is not the language- itâs 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 donât like it when you talk about Black Americans as a separate entity from the US of A as it is known. Iâm 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 militaryâs disposal. I am not saying that part somehow changes, of course not. Thatâs just facts. There are people far smarter than I (Edward Said, take the wheel) who could explain this far better. But Iâm only here to explain this one point.
What DOESNâT 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 itâll pay for my creations- even more so when Iâm 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 Iâm 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 it⌠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? Donât get me started on the influence of AAVE in queer spaces!
Of course Iâm 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 âgayâ lingo, and itâs not even just âgayâ- itâs 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 itâll 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 didnât 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 itâs 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 âfineâ, but âdonât likeâ 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! Itâs just not the first time itâs 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 ârizzâ 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?
Iâll use another example, so it doesnât feel like Iâm picking on K-Pop. Iâm currently listening to CÄN NHĂ TRANH MĂI LĂ (Vietnamese, if you couldnât tell) and as much of a banger as it is, with its own amazing cultural spin on the delivery⌠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 storm⌠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 to⌠try paying attention to see just how much of your music takes inspiration from Black creators, but thereâs a non-equivalent amount of Black artists that you support!
Political Bastardization of Powerful Black Colloquialisms
The appropriation of Black English isnât always for entertainment. Sometimes, itâs a purposeful, malicious tactic to demean the words, and therefore the intent behind them.
âMichael 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 Americaâs past and runs all the way up to present day. âWhen you look at the long arc of history and Americaâs reaction to the request for Black liberation â 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,â Harriot says in an interview with [Legal Defense Fund].
Itâs perhaps this very context â Black peopleâs awareness of their history and their power to resist injustice â 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.
âWhen people during the civil rights movement began saying âBlack power,â all of a sudden it became a term that people equated with communism and anti-white sentiment â and then it eventually gave birth to âwhite power,ââ Harriot tells LDF. âThe â1619 Projectâ [which centers the ramifications of slavery and the contributions of Black people in American history] has become an insult. âBlack Lives Matterâ became an âanti-white sentimentâ that was banned in school and spawned âall lives matterâ and âblue lives matter.ââ
This discourse is happening again, it happens like every six months on here, and itâs 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 âintersectionalityâ), 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 donât know, because we are NOT SAYING THEM, and therefore are allowing those deaths to continue as though they do not matter.
Iâm going to stop before I get more upset. But know what violence youâre 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 itâs so infuriating that it does not.
Itâs frustrating that when something is on me, itâs ghetto, ugly, ignorant. But when itâs on the right stick thin pale girl, itâs chic, itâs fashionable, itâs new. So if itâs not the language, and itâs not the fashion or music you donât like⌠It must be⌠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 being⌠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 youâre saying or doing and
2) actually treat them like human beings instead of zoo animals or a species to study. Show respect! Itâs not hard!
This is my body, my language, my creation. Itâs not just to entertain you! Itâs my life! I talk like this because this is how I speak, not because I want to get Tiktok cool points. If Iâm 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 âwell none of that is unique to AAVE, thatâs how other languages work!â Okay then go speak those languages then lmao. But if youâre 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) yâall treat it as. Itâs a form of antiblackness that is so normalized that we donât even think about it⌠but now that youâve read this lesson, you can start! You can start taking the time to actively dedicate a thought to what youâre saying and doing and where it came from. You can take the time to notice when something isnât right- and maybe even choose to speak up, because itâs the thought that counts, but the action that delivers.
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