Can Non-Black People Use AAVE? — The Black Explosion

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• African American Vernacular English, or predominantly referred to as “ebonics,” is a term popularized by the black community that often conjures a sense of familiarity and comfort amongst one another.

• the association of ebonics with criminality reiterates preconceived notions of inferiority cultivated by repetitive media misrepresentation and memorialized through government policy. This association is further exacerbated as it is often used to justify violence against black people and exemplifies how the use of ebonics to appear more intimidating influences public perception. In addition, the dissemination of ebonics as “fashionable” commonly emerges as white celebrities “discover” terms of black slang that predate their existence and are quickly deadened from overuse within the general public.

• non-black people who argue that AAVE is simply, “a cool way to speak” or that, “everyone talks like this” deny the significance of black language and its history of bridging socioeconomic gaps and fostering an identity within the black community

• Ebonics is recognized by the vast spectrum that is the African diaspora and is intrinsic to black culture regardless of economic or social boundaries

• when words and phrases coined by the black community are commercialized and misinterpreted by a largely white audience that refuses to acknowledge its origin, black language is being appropriated and that is not okay