Do you "talk Black" enough?

[calvinchaos]

...this is a real funny topic that just now popped in my head & I realized I had never seen it come up. Have you ever had somebody give you the whole "why you don't talk Black?" speech? & not just one person in a room, everybody jumps on the bandwagon too.

When I was a kid, I lived in about 7 different States & I was spelling bee champ & a grammar whiz from school to school. After a while I said fuck it, because I got sick of people who ended up getting decent jobs anyway, rolling on the floor laughing at me for "talking proper". I wish I hadn't excelled in grammar & spelling in school in the first place, since you obviously don't need it & I didn't need the aggravation. Look who just got out of the office of President of The United States. I rest my case.

We got a gang of stupid hangups that nobody bothers to mention this one, but I don't see what's the big deal, why people act so damned childish about it. I do take advantage of the fact that people think I shoudn't know how to talk & that let's me throw the rules out the window whenever I'm lazy or in a rush. I realize that a lot of the start of "Ebonics" comes from our ancestors being taught how to speak English by porky pig ass slave owners & passing it down, but living in cities like a lot of us do, I think there must be more people than I realize who learned other dialects & have dealt with discrimination for "talkin' all proper & shit".

Basically if Simon Cowell & Pierce Brosnan could get through a convo w/ you on the first try, then you probably heard that bullshit at least once somewhere.

[Ash Elle Aye]

I used to catch shit for how I speak back in high school b/c my classmates didnt think I was hood enough. Ironically, people here at my college think I'm country/ghetto.....go figure. lol

[nkyinkyin]

calvinchaos said:

Haha...no matter how much time goes by it's still always the same shocked feeling that I get when I read responses on AP. Out of every web community I ever posted in, the deepest thinkers are in this community. It's too bad the AP community zine collab idea never works out...and no I ain't gonna try & do it a 3rd time :P

My personal accent is so damn mixed up, that even though it's more the inflections & pronunciation in my case when I "code switch"...nobody can ever tell where I'm from. For a while folks kept on asking if I was from Memphis, but that was cause I bumped 3-6 and Project Pat every day for a year. I picked up whoever's accent I hear the most often, like nkyinkyin said lol. I should just most somewhere where I like the regional accent, like Boston. Nah...I know one that would get on folks nerves even better...New Jersey!

*cracks up* aw, you had bring jersey into it. that's true, though, that north jersey nasal accent makes everybody crazy. the worst part is that it's associated with spoiled princesses who are originally from new york and think they're the shit. *rolls eyes* honestly though, i think most of nj speaks like....hmm...oh, like kevin smith--pretty much all the guys in mall rats.

[Ghettopunkrocker]

Wow, similar thing happened when I used to crank a lot of dancehall and some people thought I was from the islands. Nowadays, people think I'm either from NY or LA. Go figure.

calvinchaos said:

Haha...no matter how much time goes by it's still always the same shocked feeling that I get when I read responses on AP. Out of every web community I ever posted in, the deepest thinkers are in this community. It's too bad the AP community zine collab idea never works out...and no I ain't gonna try & do it a 3rd time :P

My personal accent is so damn mixed up, that even though it's more the inflections & pronunciation in my case when I "code switch"...nobody can ever tell where I'm from. For a while folks kept on asking if I was from Memphis, but that was cause I bumped 3-6 and Project Pat every day for a year. I picked up whoever's accent I hear the most often, like nkyinkyin said lol. I should just most somewhere where I like the regional accent, like Boston. Nah...I know one that would get on folks nerves even better...New Jersey!

[Jay]

I never put thought into the way I speak. I was raised by my parents, both English majors from Baaaston, and both have strong Liberian and Japanese accents. Somehow I ended up fine. I got a ton of shit for it in middle and highschool; but now that i'm college and real-job aged it's been nothing but helpful. I get random compliments from strangers, and teachers used to compliment my parents on my clear and grammatically correct speech. I never even noticed that I was talking "white" or "proper", I just speak naturally.


I do however have terrible habits like ending every sentence in "man" and starting everything with "so". Also I say "right" and "like" way too much, refer to men as "dudes", women as "broads", and countless other things that make me sound like a NorCal skate brah.




It really bothers me that my little sister is on some gangsta shit right now, and talks a certain way around her black friends, and a COMPLETELY different way around her white. She even changes the pitch.

[Nurse Rita]

Funny thing is, I never spoke 'proper' english (at least not until I reached college), but nobody could tell because they were blown away with the fact I pronounced words so well.
I never got hassled alot for it, but then again, I have this thing where I do not like to talk unless I absolutely, positively have to. Eh, it makes me happy.

[Seven]

Ha ha! Nice thread. My fave is when cats tell you that you're "articulate" which really means: when I first saw you I assumed that you would have serious trouble putting a sentence together and now I'm really shocked that a negroid is able to express ideas and feelings in such a fluent manner.

That's why I save my poop in little zip lock bags instead of using the toilet; to throw at motherfuckers like that! Jyeah!!!

peace & blood

-7-

[V]

I am always paranoid here in college that I don't speak well enough.

The funny thing is people in the Bronx would occasionally say I talk like a white person, but then when I got to college everyone wants to know where I'm from becaus I have such a strong NY accent. I don't get it but whatever. It's all stupid to me.

[CapCityBlack512]

Yea... I was raised by an English teacher for a mother who always encouraged proper speech. My father as well but he passed on to me a few country speech patterns. I grew up speaking "standard English" and caught hell for it growing up in the deep south in South Carolina, and spoke NOTHING like most other black folks I grew up with. Folks were quick to point out that I talked "proper" or more commonly.... "like a whiteboy". For a while growing up I tried to hide it, but years later I realized it was pointless. After living a while in a mostly Hispanic area of Texas, accents of my friends rubbed off on me as well. My brother and I were once told by a cousin "y'all talk like Mexicans" which made me laugh.

Since living back in Texas and living in a mostly Hispanic area for awhile my speech is a little mix of everything. I always pronouce the -er's on the ends of words, I tend to cut off -ing's though. I have some tendencies though that are a mix of a lot of things. I speak largely standard "proper" English now, but often use a few country words and phrases (my over-use of the word "folks" haha) and some phrases that would be considered Ebonics. I also pronounce Spanish words like a native speaker and I use a lot of words and phrases that would be considered "white" by black popular culture.

It's crazy though how folks trip on on dialects. I'm grateful that I speak the way I do. What's interesting is when I meet other black folks around other black people who speak one way, and then when its just me talking to them... they magically speak standard English and seem to do so comfortably and almost relieved to be doing so with me. It makes me wonder how many young black people are running around fighting a natural pattern of speech to them (which just happens to be different from that of other black people) and speaking that way just because they feel that its the only way they will be accepted by other black people.

[Brianne.]

yep. i always get the "acting white" shiz.

[LesYpersound]

Vengence begets Vengence said:

I hate Slang and Ebonics, makes me sick. I find it sickening when you try to correct a black person who doesn't speak correct English and they call you the uppity nigger.

Who are you to "correct" them or anyone?

[Obsidian]

You know. People should feel free to talk however they want to talk.

What's weird is after coming back to an English speaking country from places where Englsh isn't the first language and everyone knows several languages, I find it weird that people get so hung up on different dialects of English. We all speak English and understand one another. I wish people would cut the bullshit.

It's bullshit when people feel they have to talk"proper English" or rather White man's English; and it's bullshit for others to correct them. Yes, you are uppity for correcting someone's way of speaking. That's the most uppity f uppity bougie negroness. I love things like ebonics and different sorts of slang because they are not bred out of ignorance or laziness, they are bred from other languages (no one hates on Cajun cause its bred from French, a white language). Slang in the Black community represents languages that our ancestors knew but now all that remains is a way of speaking a new language - English.

I speak in whatever style I want to whether it be America, British, Bermudian, Canadian, "Black", Southern, whatever catches my fancy or whatever I find randomly coming out of my mouth, to people's bewilderment. I forget this weirds people out (here as well as abroad), but it's my voice box I should do whatever I want with it dammit to you and I will speka loudly and proudly whatever is on my mind. If you admire the way I speak, it sure as hell better be about what I'm saying rather than "oh you are so well spoken". I encourage Blacks who grew up "well spoken" to embrace more slang and different language styles and stop fearing and start loving the abuse of the English language. It deserves to be abused, don't you agree? Fuck proper English. :D:D:D:D

LesYpersound said:

Vengence begets Vengence said:

I hate Slang and Ebonics, makes me sick. I find it sickening when you try to correct a black person who doesn't speak correct English and they call you the uppity nigger.

Who are you to "correct" them or anyone?

[Death is Drunk]

^^^English is the most "abused" language. That's why English is one of the most difficult languages to learn (which isn't difficult to believe since one word can mean many things).