Growing up in a predominantly black neighborhood, I never experienced others judging me for speaking in ebonics. However, I remember this one situation that happened to me when I was younger, by my own older brother. I was speaking casually, using ebonics, and he proceeded to tell me, “Stop speaking ghetto.” Do I blame him for this type of behavior?
No, because, often times, black people are conditioned to believe that speaking this way isn’t “proper”, hence why many start to think that using ebonics is, “ghetto”. And, to be completely honest, I began to feel that same way as well. Tan stated, “I was ashamed of her English. I believed that her English reflected the quality of what she had to say that is, because she expressed them imperfectly her thoughts were imperfect.”
Similarly, I felt embarrassed when I heard other black people using ebonics in “professional” settings, in fear that they seemed uneducated in the eyes of others.
The reason I felt that they were judging them was because, when I was in places that were majority white, I felt their eyes on me when I spoke in AAVE. It was very uncomfortable for me to experience, so I developed a thinking that it was wrong to use it unless speaking with close individuals.
However, I removed that fear from my mind and heart, because I realized that AAVE, ebonics, the blaccent, is a form of expression. The only reason why non-black people find it “ghetto” is because it makes them uneasy. It is a language that has its own properties and functions, which is why us black people can easily tell when someone is using it wrong.
This type of English is apart of the black culture and experience; deeming it ghetto or unprofessional is erasing our way of life.
This is deep. You could think about writing about this in your essay. There’s so much here– like– what is wrong with a “ghetto” anyway? Is it someone’s fault that they ended up living there? Why is ebonics equated with the ghetto?