Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Yeah, I wish all people got more accepting as adults but many don't.
Still, where are you that white adults are making comments that you're talking "too white?" I've been in predominantly white environments since 1968, and I've never ever heard a white person make that remark in my presence...and I've never spoken around whites with anything but standard English.
Well I'm a white person and really appreciate it when everyone tries to speak the same English words, sentences, and pronunciation as the anchor persons on TV. That means words are spoken clearly, distinctly, and using 'proper' grammar. This is the language that best represents us as a country. In fact, to go one step further, I expect it of people, unless they were not born in the US and are just learning the language. If you start to speak and some mish mash comes out it just means to me that you have not been properly exposed to good language and grammar, which is to your detriment, in the great scheme of things. Most people will associate that with either not caring, or not having yet experienced an educated environment.
Still, where are you that white adults are making comments that you're talking "too white?" I've been in predominantly white environments since 1968, and I've never ever heard a white person make that remark in my presence...and I've never spoken around whites with anything but standard English.
I live in St. Louis. While black people will be more direct about saying it, I've had white people speak to me in Ebonics (even though they won't talk that way to other white people). And this is even after hearing me speak with no slang whatsoever.
I dispute the claim that "most blacks" ridicule a black person speaking standard English. "Most black youth in the ghetto," maybe. "Most blacks," no. I work with young black people from north Dallas suburbs, and all of them speak standard English...at least in my presence. Do they "code switch" in the halls? Maybe...but heck, nearly everyone code switches when with good friends or family, especially in the South.
I grew up in New Orleans and the nerdy black guys at my school were ridiculed by other black males. Black females didn't as they realized those guys were probably going to do something positive with their lives.
I dispute the claim that "most blacks" ridicule a black person speaking standard English. "Most black youth in the ghetto," maybe. "Most blacks," no. I work with young black people from north Dallas suburbs, and all of them speak standard English...at least in my presence. Do they "code switch" in the halls? Maybe...but heck, nearly everyone code switches when with good friends or family, especially in the South.
YES to both the bolded.
1. It's about which people, black or white, you hang around... and,
2. People dropping a formal demeanor and picking up different speech patterns/a more causal stance/shared cultural signifiers when among friends is not a "black" thing. There are white southern people who get more "country/good ol' boy" when hanging with their friends as opposed to at work, bros who drink heavily and say dude alot more outside the office LOL, etc. It's perfectly normal, but black people can get self-concious about it because of the stigmas attached to damn near anything we do - some of them self-inflicted. LOL
I have had dozens of black coworkers at various jobs over the years that spoke proper English, I can't recall anyone ever judging them for not being black enough because they did not fit the stereotype, they were also not treated as if they were of less intelligence either.
I once taught in an all black high school and one of my students was a 15 year old girl who said when she was going to go to a basketball game or some other activity out in public, her mother would remind her not to act like an n-word. She assured me she knew what her mother meant because her mother had pointed out different behaviors by other people when they would be out and about. It was equivalent to my mother saying to me, when I was 15, to act like I had good sense or something similar.
Most blacks in Canada come from other Commonwealth countries like the Bahamas, Caribbean, and even Africa. They're a different "cat".
Amazing how Rihanna, Obama, Pointer, and whatzhisname can waltz right by the color (colour) barrier and take their place in America.
It's not "all about the USA" anymore. And it's not 1955 EITHER.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
They call me Mr. Tibbs
