AVE is not TikTok slang, not generational slang
etc. It's AAVE that gets popularized by others in their
communities and repeated to the point online of it being
labeled as such. Point blank.
Thanks for coming to my TedTalk 🙃
Let's not forget that English was and remains an imperial language, and that a lot of where this particular energy comes from is rooted in colonial ideologies about 'proper grammar' and evidently so -policing Black people's verbatim, vernacular (AAVE), and inflections (because it is obvious what this teacher is doing in many of these cases) is racist. I find it BEYOND irrepressible when so-called western/European scholars/professors do this without reflecting about how bigoted they are.
This professor calling the words/statements on this list as 'gibberish,' and 'inappropriate' IS degrading and demonizing. And going so far as to say by using anything on this list in your speech you're somehow inferior as academics and as writers... the AUDACITY.
There is a HUGE difference between formal and informal writing -whether it be for a essay, or even an email versus tone policing people in their everyday speech in ways that reinforce racist prejudices about the language people are using. Because this isn't about a student starting their papers with "You ate that up!" without context, it's about what this teacher/Professor is HEARING in their classrooms whether through discussion or before or after classes... I just... a part from letting students express themselves -saying everyone has to speak like they're writing an academic paper is ridiculous nonsense.
Also the fact that she said it's "improper English" when all languages are made up of words -and the English language is just that -MADE UP OF WORDS -and based from a lot from cultures all around the world. Clearly she needs to do her own damn research.
In any case, seeing this boils my blood. Because I have SO much love for teachers who go over and above their roles, versus the slimy racist scum that end up in academic settings like this because people like her shouldn't be teaching.
Some people got a surprising result after taking an MIT dialect quiz. It was meant to guess what U.S. dialect the test taker spoke and the person's native language. As results started coming in, many Spanish speakers saw their English dialect had been marked as “U.S. Black Vernacular/Ebonics”
But what's the connection between speaking Spanish and U.S. Black Vernacular?
In the United States, dialects spoken by African Americans are sometimes referred to as Black English, African American Vernacular English, or even Ebonics. Though the terms have had different levels of popularity, having a specific name at all has given African Americans the ability to reclaim their language practices as a joyous part of their identity.
But much less common are terms and discussions about Blackness and Black language beyond English. If Black English dialects exist, are there also Black forms of other languages due to colonization? For example, are there Black Spanishes and Black Portugueses, too? Read more here.
Source: Are there Black dialects of Spanish? by Aris M. Clemons
Visit www.attawellsummer.com/forthosebefore to learn more about Black history.
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