I don’t believe that I talk differently at any given point than normal, for the most part... Until I do. What’s wrong with differentiating the way I talk when I’m chilled out from when I’m doing my professional thing? I am told I sound like a white girl, constantly. This begs the question: What does a white girl sound like in comparison to any other female?
To clarify, I'm not talking accents I'm talking grammar. At some point enunciation and proper grammar became synonymous with one race and all other races became pretenders. I don’t believe I’m pretending when I enunciate and speak in a formal manner in my work setting. Truthfully, when I’m relaxing with friends, I relax my speech because I can. When I’m speaking with someone I should be more proper with, for example a client, I am. It’s no different than the difference between wearing business attire to a meeting and shorts to the beach; you dress for the occasion.
Likewise you speak for the occasion. That’s not fake, its wisdom. So why do people of all races believe otherwise? I'll answer that question with a question: Did you know that there are different versions of English for different races? There is black English which can refer to Black Creole for blacks of Caribbean or British descent or English for African Americans. An example of black english, is "case quarter".
I know what is meant when someone asks if I have a "case quarter", but in a recent poll I learned that quite a few of my caucasian friends did not. The ones who did said they knew because of their "diverse circle of friends". The term is derived from the use of "case dollar" which was used in the old days when dollars were coins that could be broken into bits. Like so many things that can be true of African Americans, including our diet, a portion of our vocabulary is derived from our times in slavery.
Who did African slaves interact with most? Their overseer and other low level employees. People of little or no education. Even in times of slavery and civil movement, well spoken African Americans were told they sound "white". Why can't a well spoken minority simply sound like someone with a full and diverse vocabulary?
There are studies for most non-native English speaking nationalities, which sparks an interesting thought; mostly because I'm argumentative. Who says we should be speaking the Queen's English? Technically the native language of these America's has changed with the power shift over time. We speak the language of the power structure. My point is, for this great melting pot where everyone speaks there own variation from a Brooklyn butcher to a Maine fisherman to, yes, the homeboy, who is to say what's right or wrong?
The maze further continues as more and more people adopt African American vernacular as their "relax" language. Ya heard me? I mean, do you understand me? It is the cool thing to speak like your favorite hip hop star, especially because music is everywhere. Life moves to the sound of whatever is blaring through your Beats spiked in from your iPod. Thanks to crossover artists, there is no genre that can be owned by any one race; it's all up for grabs.
Ijs, who says what is correct when it's all an adaptation? The English language is ever evolving, generation to generation. We lol more than we laugh out loud. Every other sentence is hash-tagged for #importance. Our life and our language is a trending topic.
My point is simply that speech is not locked to race. Everyone speaks their English. Some English is more acceptable in different situations, but none of it is "wrong". Trill? Trill.
Absolutely BRILLIANT!!!!
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