African American Vernacular English

with a great literary critic Henry Louis Gates, Jr., with his major and influential book of African-American literature A Theory of African-American Literary Criticism: the Signifying Monkey. In the introduction, Gates illustrates that this book is an attempt “to identify the theory of the criticism, which is inscribed within the black vernacular tradition and that in turn informs the shape of the Afro-American literary tradition” (xix). He justifies the reason from writing the Signifying…

role in sustaining the community. Black values and life styles are strengthened within the American context when Black English is used. The black literary language not only shows love for life, but also the search and establishment of the self. This study entitled “Race and Gender as Themes in Selected Short Stories of Alice Walker” examines the dual afflictions of race and gender in the lives of African-American women and how Walker’s women overcome these afflictions and pursue their own…

My upbringing was different from most American kids because I 'm not just American, I 'm African American. More specifically I 'm Ivorian-American. Immigrating and assimilating into the American culture was a feat. Everything was significantly different from what I was used to in Abidjan. Suddenly, I was aware that I 'm different and even those who I thought were the same as me, weren 't. It wasn 't until I became older and grew to understood myself that I was able to make sense of it all. I…

Nigga is a colloquial term used in Black English Vernacular that began as an eye dialect form of the word nigger . Usage In practice, its use and meaning are heavily dependent on context. In addition to African Americans, other ethnic groups have adopted the term as part of their vernacular. There is conflicting popular opinion on whether there is any meaningful difference between nigga and nigger as a spoken term. Many people consider the terms to be equally pejorative, and the use of nigga…

of others or just for the sake of writing. Harlem renaissance poet, Langston Hughes, has a combination of both extremes featured in his poems. Hughes heavily encouraged art where African Americans told their stories instead of what they thought the white man wanted to hear. Hughes’ poetics is representing African Americans as they are; every flaw and victory included. His desire to be proud of who he is and promoting self-love in the black community stemmed from his childhood. He used poetry as…

Would you write an email to your professor the same way you would write a tweet? Would you speak to your boss the same way you speak to your friends? Would someone from Tennessee have the same vernacular as someone from South Boston? Code-switching is the changing of speech patterns both in writing and physical speaking depending on audience. One of the oldest examples of literary code-switching is in Paul Laurence Dunbar 's 1896 poetry collection Lyrics of Lowly life. Specifically Dunbar 's…

women is, “An African American female who has been exposed to many players, liars, manipulators and cheats that her original gentle loving, caring, nurturing , spirit has been diminished to a blackened heart, hard exterior and bitter disposition at times to the point of no recovery,” (urban dictionary 2017). This definition time and time again has diminished black women and their accomplishments to just being angry and bitter. This has also set forth a stereotype of African American Women and…

The “ n- word” is likely the most controversial word in the English language. In the episode of the popular sitcom Black-ish they tackle the seemly paradoxical rules surrounding this word. In the premiere episode of the 2nd season, the Johnson’s youngest son, Miles, raps Kanye West’s hit song, Gold Digger in the talent show. This rap. Like many others, includes the word, n**gga. The administrator’s are clearly disturbed by this, and due to the school’s zero- tolerance policy for hate speech, he…

Rachel L. Jones believes that there is a problem with children continuing their path while using Ebonics or Vernacular. She expresses her opinion in an article called What’s Wrong with Black English. But a linguist named William Labov, had once said “’It is the goal of most black Americans to acquire full control of the standard language without givin gup their own culture.’” (Jones 349.) Jones had gone to a school were “talking white” as they called it, was not acceptable by the other students.…

and the ability to produce knowledge—but there are times that African American students fail to gain this privilege because of the teachers’ perception of AAE (Delpit, 2002). In the educational system, teachers tend to correct more miscues that are dialectical in nature in reading casts when students are African Americans. The teachers also expect lower intelligence, academic achievement, and reading skills from their African American students as well. Students who showed lower rates and…