http://www.youtube.com/...
(In the video a caller complains that there are too many Black people calling in to the show.)
Here is an interesting question: how did this man know the callers were black? It was probably because of the way that they spoke. I doubt that any of the callers were speaking full on AAVE (African American Vernacular English) on a radio show (most black people today, speak a subdued version, and tone it down or "switch" when talking to people outside of the community.) But, most of us can still be identified as black by voice due to an accent.
There are some who hide it better than others. We surprise people when we show up in person "Oh didn't know you were black!" But, for me at least, totally hiding my race when I speak takes conscious effort. I can do it, but, more and more, I don't want to do it. As long as I'm speaking the grammar of standard English I don't think it should matter. **
When in the company of family and friends I speak in a more relaxed way. My grandmother speaks AAVE, no just in terms of accent, but in terms of grammar, word choice, and meaning. She has never had cause to "switch." Her voice, to me, is warm and wise. This is why I regard AAVE is the language of wisdom. My parent's generation switches all the time. When I was little they tried to keep me from hearing AAVE. They spoke in stilted grammatically perfect standard English at all times. It was not just standard English, but academic standard English. They thought that speaking that way was important since it showed that they were educated and it gave them a slim chance of not being painted with as many negative black stereotypes by white people. They wanted me to do the same.
I remember my mother saying to one of my uncles "Don't speak in that way in front of her. We want her to know proper English." -- but, my mother and father would never say something like that to grandma. And, from time to time, they would relax and speak to each other in AAVE when they thought I was not listening... So, I learned some AAVE, not enough to speak as beautifully as grandma, but enough that I sound like a black person. And as I got older that became more important to hole on to this since I realized that so many people thought that AAVE was just "gangsta' talk" or "ghetto speaking" that it was inferior and insufficient, that it was mentally stunting, and not worth remembering. Like the man in that video they didn't want to hear our black voices, no matter what we had to say.
Even the mild accent, carries a stigma in the minds of some people. I can't fix this. But, I can hold on to what little I know of AAVE, avoid bleaching my way of speaking and deliver my calculus lessons to my students with hints of some of the same tones my grandmother used to share her wisdom with me. AAVE can be a language of wisdom where important ideas are conveyed. It's not the full vernacular that I speak, but I will keep the accent-- it's as old as any other American way of speaking it's just as useful, and I will prove it by using it.
I say "ax" instead of "ask" (unless I think about it.) And after reading a news article about how the way that black people say that word was being used for linguistic profiling I briefly became self-conscious. I didn't want to sound "ignorant" --but, then it hit me why is such a small thing a hallmark of ignorance when no one would say the way white people from Boston say "park the car" is a hallmark of ignorance? It's just a hallmark of being from Boston. But, "sounding black" is the same thing as sounding ignorant to some people.
A colleague of mine sounds like the streets of Brooklyn when he opens his mouth, he's an amazing mathematician, another colleague, totally, talks like a valley girl, for sure. English is a beautiful and diverse language and I love all these variations that you can find in our country. And my Black-sounding voice can carry the language of mathematics just as well as any other way of speaking. I only 'ax' that you listen to what I'm saying, rather than have prejudices about how I say it.
**Don't get confused about this post, I think it is fair that everyone must learn to speak with certain grammar and within certain lose constraints for the workplace. AAVE has variations in sentence construction that I think are very lovely, but are best used in music, poetry, writing and at home-- mostly, so we can all communicate clearly to each other. That said, I don't want to see these variations "educated" out of existence. I don't agree with what my parents were trying to do. We still teach young people "that is wrong" -- rather than "that's wrong for writing an essay or for work."