African American Vernacular English (AAVE) is a colloquial language spoken amongst Black people. However, this historic vernacular should not be reduced to “Twitter language” and be used without regard for Black creators and how their language has caused them to be discriminated against.
Like other vernacular languages, AAVE arrived because of the isolation between Black people and other communities. When slave ships arrived in the Americas, they still had their native languages. As they worked on the plantations, they picked up words and terms from white people.
While Southern Americans and East Coast Americans may have different colloquialisms because of isolation from each other, AAVE developed because of segregation and discrimination. Black Americans were seen as lesser than and weren’t welcome in public spaces.
Because of this, they had to find their own communities. The Great Migration to Harlem, New York, during the late 1910s is a great example of this. Because they were not welcome by the racism in the South, they created a new renaissance of art, culture, and localisms. The same way they created their own styles of music, they built their own colloquialisms.
As Harlem prospered, Black Americans were still treated unjustly, and American entertainment painted them as dumb and lazy. Actors mocked their culture by using stereotypes in minstrel shows starting in the 1910s until the 1960s. Along with Blackface, Black people were mocked for how they spoke. Protrayers spoke in a “southern slave accent” by using AAVE common for the time.
Even in children’s movies, entertainment creators pushed these racial stereotypes. Disney’s 1941 film Dumbo featured black crows, led by “Jim Crow”, spoke and danced similarly to minstrel shows happening around this time. Streaming service Disney+ now has a message before Dumbo begins after many pointing out the racist display.
Today, Black people regularly face microaggressions when it comes to how they speak.
Linguistics expert Professor John Baugh conducted an experiment in 1999 to see if how people talk affected whether a landlord would discriminate against people with different vernaculars, including AAVE.
He found those who spoke AAVE were more likely to be discriminated against, or falsely told an apartment was no longer on the market, than someone who spoke in Standard English.
During a NPR interview in April 2014, Psychology professor Derald Sue talked about how telling someone they are “articulate for a Black person” when they do not use AAVE has a deeper, condescending tone; to say a Black person is articulate when not using AAVE implies a part of their culture is improper.
Recently, with the frequent use of social media, many colloquialisms and phrases rooted in AAVE have been deemed as “Twitter language”. Black creators help spread the use of AAVE by popularizing phrases such as, “We been knew,” or “It’s the [insert flaw] for me.”
Because this vernacular has become so popular, many people have started to use it. Roast battles on TikTok became a trend by using the “It’s the [insert flaw]” for me. Non-Black content creators such as Awkwafina and WoahVicky have even built their careers off of using AAVE.
Nora Lum along with many others have been called out for their use of AAVE to further themselves. She is famously known in Crazy Rich Asians as Piek Lin Goh. Before this role, she created the internet persona Awkwafina in which she used AAVE for songs and skits.
Lum characterized Awkwafina as a foil to herself- loud and boisterous compared to her quiet personality. When she is loud, she puts on what many call a “Blaccent” and frequently uses the colloquialisms rooted in AAVE. When she is on the red carpet or doing interviews however, she speaks Standard English.
The problem with this is that it tells everybody they can enjoy using AAVE phrases except for Black people. Non-Black people can freely take part in Black culture but stop whenever they want.
Black people however should not have to turn off their own culture or stop participating in it when other people find it inappropriate. They should not be discriminated for how they talk while non-Black people get to base careers off of using AAVE.
It is disgusting to tell Black people they speak improperly or simply be racist, but also use their colloquialisms. AAVE was created because people refused to treat them as equal. People should not pick and choose parts of Black culture they want to use, and then participate in racist behavior or ignore racism they witness.