You Don't Talk Like That

By: Nadia Wright  

America has a deep history of stealing and appropriation. Whether that’s because of Manifest Destiny, biblical greed, or a false racial hierarchy, there is one thing that certain Americans cannot keep their hands off of: Black people.

Of course, this statement applies to us as humans. Our ancestors were sold and seen as commodities, and this nation was a primary contributor to these chattel practices, but even after we were granted freedom, we were not granted autonomy.

White America still owned us systemically, and outside the courtroom, they decided to take whatever they wanted. Blues became country, meals got watered down, and tongues got twisted.

You heard me, twisted.

Once called Ebonics, African American Vernacular English (AAVE) is a dialect of English spoken by Black Americans. AAVE was looked down upon and slandered for being a Black creation. Now, our language is “cool slang” and has been stolen, appropriated, and misused for decades. However, the creation of the Internet changed everything.

With the help of the World Wide Web, everything is at your fingertips: websites, tutorials, movies, and games. Videos can be clipped and used as memes, celebrities can be quoted, and AAVE is misinterpreted and misused.

This form of appropriation is now virtual, and the manual labor once needed to access our speech is no longer a factor.

Nowadays, you don't have to go to a jazz club to hear a brotha’ say “baby” in a certain cadence or go to an aunt's house to hear “boo-boo the fool.” All you have to do is open TikTok, and you'll be exposed to the deep, intricate dialect that is AAVE.  

I talked to my friend Elanie Wright, an avid reader, music fanatic, and lover of whimsy, about the misuse of AAVE and the internet's contribution to this discourse.  

“I think it's become so normalized for White people to use AAVE on the internet because a lot of what's going viral came from the Black community. I think this is why ‘It's just a joke’ became such a common excuse for the behavior.”

We all know that Black people can be hilarious, but our comedic moments have been floating around and landing in the laps of people who only value us for our humor. The basis of truth and experience that lies underneath these comedic sentences is erased and ignored when used by the wrong people. We are turned into memes, quoted in unfitting circumstances, and reduced to stereotypes.

Virality and “ignorance” provide cushions for others who insist upon using AAVE. Sometimes the language isn't even accidentally misused but is used mockingly or with a conceding tone. I asked my friend Shandrell Brown, a fellow Aggie and writer, about the topic.

“Misusing AAVE is like using a tampon that's too big, yes it does what it was intended to do, but it's uncomfortable and can spread diseases throughout the body.”  

If this had made it on TikTok, a blonde-haired ten-year-old would be using it by the morning!

Using AAVE may provide comedic relief or be used as a means of connection, but it lies on a twisted tongue, further spreading antiblack and colonial subcontext throughout the country. And before you ask, yes, it is that deep.

You may be asking what this misuse looks like. It can look like a White girl calling her mama boo boo the fool, a White boy saying “finna” or somebody in a Black woman’s TikTok comments calling a thinkpiece “hootin' and hollerin”.  

The effects of this appropriation are much larger than TikTok comments and “Twitter Talk.” Think of the reason Alex Consani went viral, or why Timothee Chalamet is going on tour with Druski and singing hymns. Think of every single non-Black celebrity that has used our language to sound relatable, be funny, or talk their way up to stardom. This misuse is not just cultural exploitation, but a slap in the face.

“Terms that have been used as a form of endearment have been taken, colonized, and bastardized by non-Black groups, more often than not, by white people. They have turned them into nothing more than jokes,” said Adedeji Adekanle, a fellow Aggie and engineering major.

“Unc is a term of respect and endearment used to show respect for a man older than you in a less formal setting, but now White people use it for anyone and everyone. Reaching Unc status was something to be proud of, but now it's just used casually,” he said.

Language is a means of survival, and right now, more than ever, the language of strong, sweet, and beautiful people is being thrown all over the place.

So when certain groups misuse our words and blaspheme our ancestors and history, it is not something we should take lightly. We must evaluate the impact that our culture has on the twisted tongues of others and analyze the damage this misuse is doing to our community.

We must actively work to stop a pattern of appropriation and theft as old as America itself, and when we ask ourselves why, in the words of Shandrell, we must remember that “our ancestors gave ‘em the teeth to say it.”