Code-switching: Survival For Black People

In a white world, black people need to understand African American Vernacular English (AAVE) and “proper English” to succeed

Photo by Maatla Seetelo on Unsplash

It isn’t uncommon to start a new job and realize one of two things, you are the only black person there or you can count the other black people on one hand. You quickly surmise that fitting in will mean adjusting to the way others around you talk.

Instead of saying ‘wassup’ you switch to ‘how are you’ and a hard day at work changes from ‘this place been whack and corny’ to ‘today was a challenging work environment’. Black people know that fitting in with your white coworkers means switching from African American Vernacular English (AAVE) to “proper English”. In a white world, code switching is a necessary adaption for black people.

Code-switching is the process of shifting from one linguistic code to another, depending on the social or conversational setting. For black people, this means having the ability to switch from AAVE to “proper English” whenever it is deemed appropriate.

For example, you could be at work talking with your fellow black coworker and code-switch the moment you notice a white coworker come in. The conversation changes from saying something like ‘I been bought AirPods’ to…