Tee Noir, May 28, 2020
**** DEFINITION OF "BLACCENT" From https://www.dictionary.com/e/slang/blaccent/ [retrieved August 28, 2021]
[blak-sent]
WHAT DOES BLACCENT MEAN?
Blaccent, a blend of black and accent, is the imitation of
Black English by non-black people.
WHERE DOES BLACCENT COME FROM?
The Outline
There are a lot of ways a non-black person can put on a blaccent,
or a black accent. These include using slang (yaaaas queen is a frequent
offender, taken from black queer culture) and speaking with a speech quality
reminiscent of Black English.
Early evidence for the term blaccent comes in 2003 on internet forums to refer to black speech in general. It was used again in 2009 to talk about the way President Obama was perceived to code-switch into Black (vs. Standard) English when speaking to black audiences.
By 2010, however, blaccent began to more specifically refer to when non-black people tried to speak Black English—whether for clout or coin.
Entertainers, especially female rappers and singers, have
been notably accused of adopting a blaccent throughout the 2010s.
Examples include Iggy Azalea in 2015, Bhad Bhabie in 2017, and Ariana Grande in
late 2018. Actress and rapper Nora Lum was also charged with using a blaccent
in the hit 2018 romantic comedy, Crazy Rich Asians."
These criticisms helped bring blaccent into more
mainstream discussions of cultural appropriation."
****
ADDITIONAL DEFINITIONS OF "BLACCENT"
blaccent
A distinctive manner of speech, pitch or tone particular to
African American urban inner city youth.
Sean tried to immerse himself in WASP-y country club
culture, but his blaccent gave him away every time."
by Reetu November 09, 2006
A manner of speaking indicative of the stereotypical African
American (or someone trying sound as such).
Not to be confused with slang, the blaccent is identified by
the way words are prounounced...not the words themselves.
Me: I called customer service and the African American gentleman was very helpful.
Friend: How do you know he was African American?
Me: He spoke with a blaccent."
by SKiTz The Gemini October 04, 2007
—used for "fixing to" in informal speech and in
representations of such speech
"I'm finna do the biggest show of my life," he
[Lil Nas X] joked before going on stage.
— Trisha Ahmed and Saeed Ahmed
First Known Use of finna
1985, in the meaning defined above” **** Excerpt #2 From https://www.dictionary.com/browse/finna "Finna:
a phonetic spelling representing the African American
Vernacular English variant of fixing to, a phrase commonly used in
Southern U.S. dialects to mark the immediate future while indicating
preparation or planning already in progress:
Oh, no, she finna break his heart!
ORIGIN OF FINNA
First recorded in 1985–90"
I honestly thought it was just a cute and funny internet slang. I am kinda cringing now because I used to always say things like 'chile' and 'periodt'. Thanks for this video!" ** Reply 2, Chloe ! "saame." ** Reply 3. Rare Nature Girl "How can yall all be American live in the same country and think that how another group of people’s slang ( who are from the same country) is an Internet slang? I’m not American and I never thought AAVE is an Internet slang... I’m asking because this is super confusing to me" ** Reply 4. steff "@Rare Nature Girl I'm not American either. So the only times I have heard AAVE is through the internet." ** Reply 5. John Tilapia "Woooooooooooooow. Just wow. So youve never been around actual black people?" ** Reply 6. steff "@John Tilapia Barely. I've seen a few in person but that's practically nothing. My country has different culturea and races but there's barely any actual black people." ** Reply 7. Tsuki Selene "@John Tilapia black people =/= African Americans. I never met with an African American in real life, but I live in Africa, hence I never heard AAVE in real life" -snip- "black people =/= African Americans" means "Black people doesn't equal "African Americans" (since there are other populations of Black people besides African Americans) ** Reply 8. morganfreemanwannabe, 2021 "I'm so glad to see that I'm not alone in noticing this. I've tried to point out the prevalence of AAVE in environments like Instagram / Tik Tok by a predominantly white user base, to some of my friends, and they've been like, "what are you talking about?" And I'm like, "dude, it's so obvious, it's like 50% of Gen z and even many millennials are randomly putting on a blaccent and adopting AAVE for its "coolness". I mean, I of course have no issue with a blaccent and a blaccent and AAVE certainly have their own inherent appeals, but at the point that it's so put on and contrived, it starts to bother me. Like my brother (25 years old) over the last few years just gradually started using a blaccent and using more and more AAVE and I'm like, "bro, I've known you your entire life. Our household accent was detached midwestern, we're about as white as it gets- wtf are you doing? Lol"
** 9. Diana R " "people love it for parody but hate it when it's authentic" -
oh my god you hit the NAIL on the HEAD" ** 10. tiffanyferg "So many great points! Non-Black people have been ignorant about using AAVE for so long, I’m glad to see these conversations being brought to the mainstream. I wish everyone would learn and acknowledge the history / origins of these terms — so much of what people consider “internet culture” is really Black culture. I took an intro to LGBTQ+ class, watched Paris is Burning, and realized so much of the popular terms these days came from Black drag queens and ballroom culture. The more you know!! (Also thank you for mentioning me, that’s so sweet 🥺💛)"
** Reply 14. ana cambursano "HA so so true" ** Reply 15. R "Straight Black women have been "appropriating" the ballroom/gay culture since the 70s the fact is that it was gay before it was black but go off" ** Reply 16. Naczely Franco "@R
ballroom was started by Black and Latino lgbt youth tho. so im not sure what point youre making here. They had originally started as integrated scenes but racism that ran rampant in the lgbt community in the 1920s alienated black and latino lgbt youth. the ballroom culture we know today has black and latino lgbt origins so its not fair to say it was "gay before black". ** Reply 17. Introvertsan "@R more like they got most lingo from black women and carried it to ballroom then it spread as people shared it with their community plus made some of their own words" ** Reply 18. Tee Noir "@rr You really shoulda fact checked this before you commented just to save us all the secondhand embarrassment. This is so incorrect. :/" ** Reply 19. Sofi ONCE "@R people of color were the people IN ballroom culture, stop trying to white washing history..." ** Reply 20. Memphis Hoe "rr you’re making out like gay and black only exist separately 🤦🏽♂️🤦🏽♂️. Ballroom culture was founded by BLACK people." ** Reply 21. Michael G "YES. A LOT more gay men should be called for this very thing. I have PLENTY of friends who resort to a "sassy black woman" caricature when they are playfully arguing or being confronted.
Even had a co-worker who identified as gay that I was (work) friends with. He would talk with his normal voice at 90% of the time until it came to being playfully confronted and he took as a chance to be funny, saying such timless racist remarks such as, "Oh hell to the no-no".
Imagine my face becoming numb and emotionless.
** Reply 22. Dante Ferrise "Michael G right but that is different than words the lgbt community has taken on as part of their culture like...slay, Sis, shade, tea, mawmaw, boots, (tongue pops), okurr, hiyee and byeeee, girl gurl girrrrl. You may take offense to it but to most gay people they just see it as part of their community. This whole debate is like the chicken or the egg. Does where something came from matter more than where it went and molded into? Because if that is the case then we what should all be stuck in the past and never grow or expand as human beings? I MEAN IT ISNT THAT SERIOUS IN THE GRAND SCHEME OF THINGS. Plus people are always going to be offensive but it is up to you whether you choose to be offended or not because as sad it may be we choose to be offended we choose to let things bother us or we choose to not let things get under our skin and not let it have a negative impact on us. It is the ways of human life...the sooner people open their eyes and accept that the sooner we can move on from this time of picking every little detail of every person who has ever existed in the public eye apart and I don’t know focus on things that actually matter like ALL BLACK LIVES (I said all because people in all communities but especially the black community like to ignore black gay and trans people being killed), burning thee entire prison industrial complex to ground, and putting a stop to all of the divides in our country and start working together for once. That would be great."
** Reply 23. David Miguel Grado "You took the words out of my typing fingers it’s extra annoying yet they’re the most racist ones but looooooove to flaunt their “inner black woman” with their other gay white friends or girlfriends" **26. Liz Fritz "My mom uses AAVE with her black students and says she is “speaking their language”. She uses it to be “credible” with them and connect.
I have been trying so hard to find a video explaining why it’s inappropriate because she won’t listen to me. This video is definitely gonna help 🙏" ** Reply 27. Tee Noir "Oh wow I'm glad my video could help! There are dozens of other ways to connect with and build trust with her Black students. I hope she can find them 😊" ** Reply 28. Roro "This would make me feel so uncomfortable and disrespected I really hope you had that talk with her. As a black student when I see teachers do this it feels more like mocking then trying to understand us...." ** Reply 29. Tay for a Day "I had a teacher who did that, even before I became ‘woke’ and stuff, I was always uncomfortable. It makes us feel like you’re making fun of us or trying to ‘get down on our level’. Tell her even if she thinks no one notices, we all notice and people are probably talking about her behind her back" ** Reply 30. alyssa eatsass "absolutely haTe when a teacher does this near me or towards me. The uncomfortable levels in the room 📈" ** Reply 31. Aurora Rosa "Tay for a Day I literally hate this too. Especially because I live in the U.K. and have a welsh accent so literally speak nothing like a stereotypical black American so when someone does use that accent and vocabulary with me it’s like wtf I literally don’t even speak anything like that so why are you speaking like that to me 🤨🤔" ** Reply 32. KD "I had a teacher like that and we all hated his guts. We dreaded going to his class. The most annoying thing is a lot of us would be speaking standard English and he's like "you finna pass this test if you keep grinding" 🙄" ** Reply 33. Akane1313 "I hope it helps her understand. My black teachers didn’t use aave in class so I certainly wouldn’t have liked hearing it from my white teachers. I’m sure she didn’t speak that way during her job interview and for a teacher, a classroom is still a professional setting and using aave with her black students can come off as talking down to them. As though they can’t understand if she speaks standard English." ** Reply 34. Are Are "absolutely the worst way to try and connect with students. i always felt uncomfortable and embarrassed for the teacher when they did this"
** Reply 35. skellagyook "And would seem even more offensive, in my opinion, if she insists on speaking AAVE to a black student who doesn't speak AAVE (i.e. who speaks standard English, or something else)." ** Reply 36. Aurora Rosa "Bayboy 925 but my point is I’m not American so when people use the accent that this person in the video is talking about whilst I am in the U.K. and they are British and know that I am also British it can be annoying because I literately speak with a welsh accent not a stereotypical black American accent, so skin colour 'should’ have nothing to do with it if I and the person who uses it live in the U.K. I’m not talking about them doing a stereotypical “black British voice” it’s literally an American one that they do" ** Reply 37. Sleipnirseight "Damn. I mean, letting her read the responses to your comment alone should convince her. Cringe as hell"
** Reply 38. Reynaldo Abadia "As a black student that has had several teachers try and do the same thing, I can guarantee it only creates more of a divide/disconnect. We can tell when the expression isn’t authentic" ** Reply 39. Diara Morris Bowen "OMG please tell your mom she's gotta stop. Hopefully she'll understand that it's not a good idea. Young people, black or otherwise, can smell inauthenticity a mile away. I would even assume the students think she's corny, not "cool" or relatable at all, and depending on the age of the kids, even offended by it".
** Reply 40. KD " @Leoleonpd As someone who speaks in AAVE and who had the same experience. YES. It's strange.
We can tell when you don't speak it naturally. It's like being a British person, speaking in a British accent with British terms, and an American start putting on a fake-ass British accent to fit in within.
"oh why yes. That is funny. By the way, would you like a spot of tea?" See how stupid that would sound?" ** Reply 41. deetleskeet "Liz Fritz Thank you for trying. We actually find that condescending and actually make fun of the people who do this. We don’t take them seriously at all. More than likely, these same students are mocking her and laughing at her behind her back.
I’ve seen it million times. ** 42. 111 111 "If you guys don't see how problematic this is, imagine if a Non-POC used an Indian or Mexican or Chinese accent just to exemplify a negative trait for comedic effect."
** [Pancocojams Editor's Note: From #43 to #69, the commenters are mimicking and otherwise making fun of way that people who aren't familiar with AAVE misuse the word finna and other AAVE words.] 43. Vincent Gonzalez " "Do be finna gon slay" took me out.... I hate when people use AAVE incorrectly its like hearing nails on a chalkboard"
**
Reply 44. I’m bored, So I play subway surfers " “Sis do be finna gone slaaaay”
English is not my first language but that physically hurt"
** 45. Kat Blaque "Ok but sis DO go finna be slay!!!!!!" ** Reply 46. MJ’s Everything "Period!!!"
** Reply 48. Maryam X "I cringed so hard"
** Reply 49. Karma Justice "🥴" ** Reply 50. haunt "Austin Keefe she’s literally black—" -snip- "She" in this comment refers to the commenter Kat Blaque.
** Reply 51. Filtrations "Austin Keefe issa joke 💀" ** Reply 52. lawrencia "@haunt
not all black people grew up talking like that, so stopp!"
** Reply 53. iver "@lawrencia it's a joke"
** Reply 54. inita "This comment hurt my soul 😭😭😭
but Its really how some these white n nonblk folks be talking"
** Reply 55. haunt "SnugglexMSP she’s mocking how white people use AAVE"
** Reply 56. Meagan Hiller "This thread. “Sister went did go offff! For period!”
** Reply 57. Noot "I like the layering of humor here"
** Reply 58. lawrencia "@haunt lol but im white and i know thats not how they talk"
** Reply 59. CrimsonAngel "It's funny how half the replies didn't realize this was ajoke lol.
She was poking fun at how the non-black people who mockingly use AAVE for clout sound."
** Reply 60. Conrad "PERIODT!!!!!"
** Reply 61. H B "DarkEmoAngel Its literally being cited from the video 😐
they too busy arguing in the comments to be listening."
** Reply 62. Stoopid Crumpet "@Gothic Boy
10:08 they were quoting this part lmao"
** Reply 63. Lily "and that's on chile queen period 😌✨"
** Reply 64. Samantha Chevez "@lawrencia kat was making fun of how people misuse aave"
** Reply 65. Dolla Baby, 2021 "This comments still hold weight 😂😂😂
in tears chile"
** Reply 66. It's MK, 2021 " "Sis do be finna goin slay" GIRL PLZZZ- 😭✋
that doesn't even make sense. Y'all, if u don't know wut something means, don't say it."
** Reply 67. Zamani, 2021 " "sis do be finna gon slay" SENT MEEE.... But for real though, it irks me to go on social media and watch non-black creators make a profit off of what we were berated for!!" ** 68. XanThePoet "crazy thing is the “sis do be finna go and slay” example probably went over a lot of non-black people’s heads cause they genuinely don’t understand the structure of AAVE." ** Reply 69. G Jones " they don't understand that aave has grammar and you can't just say random words together" ** 70. Thais Carvalho
"Hey...
Would you mind explaining why that sentence is a subversion of AAVE?
Like... What it means and how it should actually be?
I'm a Brazilian who speaks English as a Foreign language,
I'm asking out of curiosity.
Thank you 😊" ** Reply 71. Thais Carvalho "(I mean... I understand the "do be" and the "gon slay". I don't get it the way it was used and why it's incorrect. Hahaha)"
** Reply 72. Vincent Gonzalez "@Thais Carvalho so in context Finna or Fonna depending on ones accent is the AAVE version of "going to" so adding gon or gonna after the use of finna is redundant. One correct way to use 8t would be to say "We're fonna get something to eat. You comin?" " ** Reply 73. pompompurin enjoyer "@Thais Carvalho "do be finna gon slay" let's break it down!
do be = "kinda"
finna = fixing to (=going to)
gon = going to
slay (self explanatory)
so they're basically saying "it kinda going to going to
slay" which doesnt make sense and is also so embarrassing LOL" ** Reply 74. Azizi Powell "@pompompurin enjoyer Here's another possible interpretation for that cringy incorrect example of African American VernacularEnglish:
do be = really is
finna = getting ready to
gon = going to
slay = https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=slay "killed it, succeeded in something amazing. [top definition on that page]
The words "do be" might be emphasized if this sentence were spoken. The word "gon" -which is an incorrect approximation of "gonna"- wouldn't be included in that sentence because it's redundant.
My guess is that the correct AAVE sentence would be "Sis Do Be finna to slay." and means something like "That Black woman Really is getting ready to impress [other people]."
Btw, I'm a 73 year old African American and I've never used either "fixin/g to" or "finna" and I don't think I've ever had a "blaccent". I believe that "fixin to" has been used by Black folks much more often in New Jersey and Pennsylvania where I've lived than the word "finna". Actually, the only time I heard the word "Finna" was from a young Black woman who I later learned was from the South. I don't recall ever hearing any non-Black folks using either "fixin to" or "finna".
Great video! I'm a new subscriber."
**** This concludes Part I of this two part pancocojams post entitled "What does "Blaccent" REALLY Mean?".
**** Thanks for visiting pancocojams Visitor comments are welcome.
There are a lot of comments in Tee Noir's The "Blaccent": Nonblack Creators' Key to Fame" vlog that I didn't include here.
ReplyDeleteI'm aware that the selected comment choices that I make for any of these pancocojams post are my choices and any other person would have different choices than me.
One sub-set of comments that I purposely didn't include in this discussion thread are those that referred to Black people or other non-White people "talking White".
I also didn't include any comments about blaccent and K-Pop singers.
I plan to focus on those subjects in subsequent separate pancocojams posts.
The links to those posts will include the blaccent tag (because at least some of the selected comments will be from Tee Noir's vlog.