Ask any Black person you know that works in a corporate setting if they can comfortably be themselves in the workplace. Usually, our hair is policed, our tone (of voice), hand gestures, facial expressions, our style and the language that we use. Subconsciously, we will alter our entire accent for the comfort of a white facility. Not to confuse sounding educated with faking the funk, but the idea of Ebonics being the opposite, “uneducated”, is just not it. The fact of the matter is, you can use Ebonics and not just sound, but be just as if not more educated than the people that down it. And now ladies and gentlemen, my ted talk:

What is code switching you might ask? It is the process of alternating between two or more languages in conversation. This type of code switching depends on the environment that you’re in and the level of comfort. Historically speaking, peoples of African descent have always spoken in code, rather it be in accent or complete language. We were groomed to believe that the WORDS ‘y’all’, ‘ain’t’ and ‘finna’ isn’t proper English (despite them putting these words in their dictionaries and attempting to mock the cultural impact of the language) but who decides what is proper English?? After all, no one in America still speaks the King’s English. We tend to base what we think is proper and good based on white ideologies, and this is where I dig beneath the surface and take you to a class unlike the ones your superiors have structured for you. Conditioning is so intense in this country that we have surrendered our power of language and given it to a system that we had to believe was more powerful than us, hence how they are powerful enough to tell us how to talk. Most of us have already internalized the “fact” that you have to speak a certain way depending on where you are especially because it has been institutionalized, and the only reason these standards were put on a pedestal is because we help put them there…confront them, unlearn them and take them off. This seems like a far fetched statement because it would require you to do a complete 180 in thinking, but that is where it starts. Fighting isn’t always physical; mental fighting is strong enough to break a 400 year chain.

It’s easier said (no pun) than done, and just like myself, some of you may be moved better through voice, pathos, or people who specialize in the area you’re looking into. Here is a video of a more in-depth look at code switching brought to you by ‘Between The Lines’ by HuffPost