somafree:

pokipon:

somafree:

pokipon:

somafree:

siddharthasmama:

rubato:

(please note: this post does not apply to people who acquired aave as a native language; people who natively speak aave are subject to whatever their community deems is appropriate and I can’t speak to or for those individuals or their communities.  this post targets people who either speak standard english and appropriate some aave terms, or who don’t speak aave but appropriate/approximate it for whatever reason)

(1) 99% of the time we acquired standard english and can speak standard english; our ability to code-switch into the dominant, accepted standard as set by white supremacist norms is something that a lot of black folks who grew up speaking & currently speak aave don’t have the luxury of doing—which is doubly shitty when you consider (2)

(2) when non-black people use aave, we get all the positive associations (being cool, quirky, tough, masculine, snarky, etc.) and few/none of the negative associations (perceptions of “deviance”/”criminality”, perceptions of being less “classy”, perceptions of being “uncultured”/”uneducated”, etc. etc. etc.) that black folks who speak aave get

(3) black cultural productions, including language, are constantly stolen and blanched of meaning and origin without any sort of credit or respect for their original sources and to appropriate aave contributes to that theft

a short list of things I see frequently on my dash that are aave:

(1) “hey yo” and “yo”

(2) “basic” as an insult

(3) “pressed”

I frequently find that the new slang I hear about often has roots in aave.  basically, just be mindful of language—if you see a term that’s more commonly used by black bloggers than non-black bloggers, chances are it’s aave.  and if you’re not sure, some black bloggers are open to questions as to whether a term or phrase is aave, but don’t assume that people owe you their time and knowledge.

yes, this, because I am tired of non-Black POC thinking just because they are POC they get a pass; no, the double A’s in AAVE stand for ‘AFRICAN AMERICAN’. If you are not that, using our LANGUAGE (because it is a language) is appropriation and therefore disrespectful, ESPECIALLY if you’re anti-Black while doing so.

Here’s the wrinkle in this plan: Some AAVE is actually appropriated from other languages, itself.

For example, “Copacetic”/”Copasetic” is from the Yiddish/Hebrew, “Kol BiSeder,” or, “Everything is in order/going according to plan.”

Here’s another wrinkle: Many white people live in such overwhelmingly-white places that they don’t know they’re appropriating AAVE. You’d have to post an entire lexicon for some white people. Like when so many middle-school white kids bought Vanilla Ice’s *To The Extreme*, not realizing that there was even a hint of degrading minstrelsy involved in  Vanilla Ice’s act (we honestly thought, being the little kids we were, that hip-hop had just gone mainstream, like jazz had before it).

Here’s one more: The old-fashioned queeny gay community and the black community live and party together so much in the marginal professions and nightspots they were/are/have been, forced into, that it would seem really fakey and dishonest if really queeny gay white guys (especially, for instance, poor Irish ones, poor Cockney ones, and country-mouse queer boys) ***didn’t*** appropriate. The middle-class white girls sop up the lingo thinking they’re just talking “fierce” or “fabulous.”

Maybe more conversation about this instead of online ultimatums would help the issue. 

Who lied to you?

Where’s the lie there?

All the parts where you are clearly misinformed. Which is all the parts!

Ahhhhhh….

So… exactly how am I misinformed about my own experiences as an ignorant suburban white girl who once owned a copy of Vanilla Ice’s *To the Extreme* because she didn’t yet see how vilely racist it was…?

Here’s what you just said paraphrased back to you so maybe, just maybe, you can see how shitty you sound:

“Dear Black people, I’m going to keep doing something you’ve said hurts you because of all these reasons I’ve decided are somehow relevant and some more stuff I made up, and because I don’t actually understand what the word ‘appropriation’ means. Also, you should probably be nicer to me since I am a white person. Because I should be allowed to dictate the terms of how conversations about racism happen even though racism doesn’t affect me.”

^ that is some entitled bullshit right there.