#the root problem is black people being penalised for using their own language

[dickgreyson]

there isnt as much overlap b/w aave and white southern english as u seem to think, and whether or not aave is used to mock is irrelevant. having a distinct aspect of a culture we had to build from the ground up taken + misused by nb people (who then decide for us that its not a big deal and inevitable) is insulting period. yall underestimate how uncomfortable that shit makes us. no black person is unreasonable or "crazy" or lacking nuance for asking ppl respect this issue + avoid using aave.

below the cut!

i feel like youre putting words in my mouth! at no point have i said that black people who object to widespread use of aave in stan culture are crazy! from what i have learned about aave, the articles ive read or the videos ive watched, there is a crossover of southern vernacular and aave. maybe it has been overstated in my mind, and im not super familiar with brittany broski. ive seen some of her videos on youtube, almost none of her tiktoks, and what i have seen of her is someone that switches into a southern drawl to be funny. i was wondering why that was being interpreted as mockery of black people and “blackcent”. especially in a video where all context was removed. because literally my problem was that the person speaking about it said that “well first of all there is an overlap of southern vernacular and aave” and then went on to accept that someone in chat had said “she just uses blackcent all the time its different” when like. that was unfair and untrue! 

im also not trying to delegitimise the discomfort that i have seen african americans expressing because of the misappropriation of their language, but like the discourse is really really really not nuanced at the moment? because cultures mixing is inevitable. yes, white culture steals almost everything from black culture, and is socially rewarded for using this as being trendy. yes, black people are penalised and called ghetto for using their own vernacular and slang. yes, thats fucked up and should be addressed in a broader, more systemic way. why do people have those knee jerk “ghetto” responses to black people using aave, but not white people. and the answer is totally racism.

however, cultures do mix! and a certain amount of people hearing and adopting slang, and wanting to emulate what they find cool about other cultures is natural, and something i dont think should be penalised from the jump. for example, there are many hebrew/yiddish words in the broader american vernacular that have been anglicised and are just used widely now. and this happened while jews were still being downtrodden and looked at negatively by broader american culture. and yet, pop culture still mixed. ever called yourself a klutz? ever wanted to have a nosh? what’s your schtick? has your mother ever told you to stop all that kvetch? do you have schmutz on your face right now? you’re probably bored of my spiel.

i know that it isnt a perfect 1 to 1 comparison, and that 16 year old stan girls saying yassssss queen are cringe, and that ‘internet/meme/stan culture’ is being misattributed, because it was especially pioneered by black women and is just aave. but at the same time, totally stonewalling what people are allowed to say into black language and white language and jew language is never going to work, and i dont think its helpful! and im not saying that black people here are being senseless aggressors, i really dont think that and im sorry if that’s how it came across. some reflection broadly is needed, but cultural osmosis itself isnt a bad thing, and i thought that was a conclusion we broadly reached when we had that huge cultural appropriation discussion in 2014.

brittany as a person probably should reflect on how often she uses aave, and not do that on her platform. and yes, non black people should reflect and abstain from aave themselves. but like some lists i have seen of words to avoid are like “dont say bro or fam” and i mean? really? at that point i think that it is pretty pedantic and that those words are just in common parlance. and thats just how language evolves. im not disagreeing with the main thrust of the movement, aave should be put back into it’s context and non black people should be conscious of how they speak and how that affects black people. but i dont think that an individual person saying bro online is actively malicious.