So What?

(Revised)
Why is it so important to recognize AAVE as a language and not just simply a dialect or

“slang?” The call for Black linguistic justice has come in the midst of the ever-growing Black

Lives Matter movement (“Another Statement”). Black people now, more than ever, are taking

back the right to their own language because the community has had enough of the disrespect

and blatant white supremacy that is active in mainstream English (“Another Statement”). The

Black community, as well as many other POC communities, believe that “Standard English”- a

language implemented in many professional, academic, and even social settings- is a

rule-governed language used to keep people uniform. When the Black community uses words

like, “finna” or typically grammatically incorrect phrases such as “imma be done,” in

professional settings, it is viewed as unprofessional, incorrect, lazy, etc. Because of the negative

perspective of AAVE, many professional or academic communities do not believe it fits into the

standard language that many English speakers have been conditioned to learn.

According to the article, “This Ain’t Another Statement! This is a Demand for Black

Linguistic Justice!,” “socially constructed terms like academic language and standard English

are rooted in white supremacy, whiteness, and anti-Blackness” and contribute to anti-Black

policies (e.g., English only) that are codified and enacted to privilege white linguistic and

cultural norms while deeming Black language inferior” (3), which is why the Black community

maintains the belief AAVE should be implemented in academic and professional settings. Not

only that, but they believe that AAVE should be recognized as a language because it gives Black

people their own voice instead of oppressing an entire community. It allows them to have a voice

in multiple environments without having to adhere to the standardized rules or give up their own

culture in order to fit into the mold.

 In academic settings, many Black students are encouraged to “code-switch”, meaning, “to

shift between languages, or between dialects or registers of a language, within a discourse, esp.

in response to a change in social context” (OED). In the popular Netflix show, “Big Mouth,” (see

fig. 1) fan-favorite character, Devon, sings a song

about code-switching. The lyrics entail the ways

in which Black people switch their personalities

depending on the audience: “As a black kid, you

gotta/ Learn this handy trick of/ Social self-defense/ You gotta switch up your speak/ And give

your manner a tweak/ Depending on the audience...Cause when you're young and Black/ You

develop a knack/ For putting the world at ease.” Members of the Black community have to

switch their language and must develop this “skill” in order to be deemed as non-threatening and

successful in the real world. It is understood that, because members of the white community do

not need to minimize their culture, the Black community should not have to do the same.

Standard English and AAVE can coexist across all social and professional contexts as long as

society is willing to let it.

SLOs for AAVE: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6