At home, my parents stressed that we speak proper English, get good grades, and be ourselves. These of course were the main expectations from your average military parent home. Growing up, my black card has always been up in the air for numerous of reasons. For one, I would anunciate every word, I was the biggest MGMT and Vampire Weekend fan, I was always an A honor student and I was so eager to learn how to skateboard. Funny right? All those that I listed above made people believe I wasn’t the ideal black person. And they wouldn’t hesitate to harass me about it either. I spent years dealing with the teasing, thinking I was the problem, when really I wasn’t. I guess you could say I was always the Carlton Banks, Issa Rae, or Childish Gambino in my school. I never wanted to switch the way I spoke either, but I wanted to further understand why it was a problem to everyone else.
I’m sure many black youth have heard this negative narrative before. When I’m being victimized about how I speak, I begin to ask “What does it mean to talk white?” “Is talking intelligent with proper noun, verb agreement and little to no slang talking white?” Even now, I still don’t understand how this negative stigma came about.
I believe when people say things like “you act white” or “you talk white”, it’s because they’ve never met different black people before. They’re probably used to people speaking in the manner they do. What people don’t understand is that when you say things like ¨talking white¨, you’re showing ignorance, and belittling. It’s problematic that even in the black community, we find it hard to accept that not all black people are expected to act the same. We shouldn’t think that we have to limit ourselves to what society deems us as.
We aren’t all from urban neighborhoods, we don’t all talk in Ebonics, and we don’t all listen to the same music. One thing I’ve learned is that blackness has no limits. There isn’t a law or routine we have to follow or certificate we receive by acting a certain way. We come from a variety of backgrounds and lifestyles. There’s nothing wrong if you speak in a specific vernacular, and there’s nothing wrong for those who don’t either. If you’re one of the awkward, different, HAIM-loving, out-of-the-norm kids at your school or in your group of friends, please embrace it! Not everyone can be as awesome as you. As time progresses, more people will accept the fact that not everyone from a certain demographic is expected to act the same.
-HCxo!