African American Vernacular English Essay

Language, though primarily used as a means of communication, can be used to form community-like bonds with additions to and evolutions of different regional, cultural, racial, etc., vernaculars. What is one community’s “how are you?” is another’s “what’s good?” or “‘sup?” Those terms are understood and accepted almost unilaterally in their respective communities, but beyond those borders, they may or may not be. The push to broaden mandating “proper English pronunciation” is a direct attack on those communities that do not fall in the narrow definition of those whose community is deemed “correct” by mainstream society. When this is enforced, its roots are usually found in racism/white supremacy. Judgment for using colloquialisms found mostly in the black community (African American Vernacular English, or AAVE, as it is called) is commonly paired with a white person’s latent racism — despite that white person perhaps thinking his or her

It is because the United States has such a diverse population that its language has evolved to be so different to its European and Australian counterparts. To end that spread of diversity influence would be to homogenize the population. What progress could be wrought of such a sameness in every individual living in a shared space? None. The very notion of stifling ideas and collaboration on a grand scale should terrify anyone who looks toward future progress, and indeed anyone who values the individuality and creativity this country likes to tout as “the American way.” The destruction of its blended cultures, even through things viewed as small or unimportant as destroying the way a sentence is structured or a word pronounced because it is dissimilar to the way one majority group has deemed as “proper,” should be of great concern to every citizen who values his or her continued American