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Potpourri a smorgasbord of topics
African American English Vernacular “talking (or sounding) black” is a structured language and code switching or changing dialects and/or way of speaking depends on whose company you are in and many times is unconsciously done. It is a kind of bilingualism that exists amongst black American descendants of slaves in order to assimilate smoothly into the majority culture, where one must speak standard English at work in order to become successful while denying a part of self, but you are really showing an alternative side of the same “you” then you revert back to your native English “patois” when at home or a place of comfort where others speak the same English and there is acceptance…
This language or pattern of speech emerged from the linguistic isolation from African native language lost and denied expression by American laws historically and by separation of people of the same tribes during slavery, so everyone had to learn English informally by ear, an improvised version because learning to read and write was illegal, punishable by great bodily harm or death suffered by both the student and teacher. Forced assimilation without education lead to a kind of patois which linguistically merged the languages of those of the African diaspora with standard English spoken by the oppressor which may have had it’s own dialect, so a dialect within a dialect with it’s own vernacular, creating a language which had structure in it’s own right, attached to a culture that is unique and regionally diverse among subsets isolated around the country, the linguistics should be embraced and treated in the context of a normal variant of sorts, then that child should be taught proper English as a second language without stigmatization of their first or native language…
Many times our counterparts do not realize that we speak any other way, but just like everyone, who may have a casual vs professional manner of speech, our young people need to know both in order to communicate effectively to a broader culture in which we live to be as successful as those holding all of the cards…
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