What Does Blaccent REALLY Mean? (Definitions & Comments From Various Online Sites)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post presents some definitions of the term "blaccent" from various online sources. 

This post also presents some history of the use of the term "blaccent" along with selected comments about that term.

The content of this post is presented for linguistic. historical, and socio-cultural purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.

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DEFINITIONS OF THE TERM "BLACCENT" AND SELECTED ONLINE COMMENTS ABOUT "BLACCENT"

These definitions and comments are presented in no particular order and are numbered for referencing purposes only. 

Source #1
From https://www.oed.com/dictionary/blaccent_n
"Originally and chiefly U.S.

1986–

A way of speaking that uses the pronunciation, cadences, or grammatical features of African American English; esp. one acquired or affected by a non-black person and now typically regarded as misleading, stereotypical, etc., or as a form of cultural appropriation.

1986

[Ezra] Pound was a superb mimic... He had an American cracker-barrel accent, an American Blackcent, he had cockney, he had bistro French.

San José Studies (San José State University Found.) Fall 7Citation details for San José Studies"...

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Source #2
From https://www.dictionary.com/e/slang/blaccent/
…."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.

EXAMPLES OF BLACCENT

yall do not chop your words up. yall do not combine yall words. yall do not have a "blaccent" so stop trying. you dont speak AAVE. we are not yall "fam" and yall do not greet eachother with "bitchhh" etc etc yall just dont. yall never have stop wave riding.

@bubzlightyear, February 2018."...
-snip-
Nora Lum is most commonly known by her stage name Awkwafina.

"AAVE" = African American Vernacular English

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Source #3
From https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/non-black-celebrities-olivia-rodrigo-blaccent-appropriation-135706807.html "When non-Black celebrities like Olivia Rodrigo speak with a 'blaccent,' is it appropriation? Experts explain." by Beth Greenfield, August 6, 2021 
..."What is a “blaccent”?

 [Deandre A ] Miles-Hercules [a doctoral student in linguistics at the University of California, Santa Barbara] says it is “a register of speech that appropriates features of what gets called African-American English, or Ebonics, often at a syntax or grammar level. It’s rarely appropriated by rhythm or intonation because those are the hardest to acquire.” So, when someone says something sounds “cringey” (as with Rodrigo), they add, “I think what they’re attuning to is a rhythm that sounds very foreign, or not native… It sounds just kind of off… They kind of throw in this word or grammar into what, otherwise, is like a white, relatively standard kind of accent… so cherry-picking individual features to sound cool.”

Lauren Michele Jackson, author of White Negroes: When Cornrows Were in Vogue & Other Thoughts on Cultural Appropriation, explained the blaccent in a 2018 Vulture essay that examined the speech of Awkwafina as well as her character Peik Lin.

“Sliding in and out of a grammar that speeds past certain consonants, utilizes the habitual ‘be,’ and takes on a twang with danks and struggles aplenty, Awkwafina has inspired the resurrection of that dreaded portmanteau reserved for non-Black people with Black voices, hardly seen since Iggy Azalea could claim song of the summer: blaccent,” she wrote. “Peik Lin’s flirtation with Black vernacular, along with the character’s general swagger, clinches the case, and another buzzword enters the frame: appropriation, a word that now commonly connotes knowing, cultural theft.”

When its usage is wrong, Jackson noted, it’s “a feeling, an informed suspicion better felt in the bones than cross-referenced with a grammarian, not because Black languages lack their own grammar, but because, so writes linguist J.L. Dillard in the landmark 1972 study Black English, ‘We could diagram Black English, but we would know no more about it afterward than we did before.’ Either you know, or you don’t.” Still, she pointed out, it’s complicated.

“A certain millennial cool-kid identity is already predicated on basic appropriations that get overlooked when every case becomes exemplary, instead of evidentiary,” she wrote. “It’s all very messy, and power makes it messy, but treating the blaccent as something authentically Black and stolen doesn’t make it any clearer.”

Even less clear, notes a Guardian story about Riley Keough’s character in the new film Zola, are Hollywood portrayals of characters with blaccents. “Literal blackface is (now) a very obvious form of racist appropriation, but when it comes to linguistics, it is more difficult to know where to draw the line,” explains the piece. “The two used to go hand-in-hand, but African-American Vernacular English, to give it its formal term, is constantly feeding into mainstream (aka historically white) language. It is often the place where the cool words come from – including ‘cool’ itself (flashback to In the Cut where Meg Ryan meets with a Black student to get the latest slang words hot off the street). Appropriation is often called out in music (e.g., Iggy Azalea) but in film it’s less clear cut.

[...]

The bottom-line problem: Economics

Sure, it’s messy. But because the problem is systemic, many point out that the biggest issue is that it leads the appropriators to profit off of language that can actually be disadvantageous for those to whom it’s native.

And that’s something that folks like Rodrigo appear to understand, as evidenced, Miles-Hercules says, by the fact that she understands when a blaccent brings “cool points” and when it’s “not appropriate to use,” such as on a recent trip to the White House to encourage youth vaccinations. So the excuse that someone didn’t know language is appropriated is “BS.”

“Ignorance related to that is abdication of responsibility,” Miles-Hercules adds. “Not only is it nonsense, I think it’s intentional, it’s cultural amnesia, and it’s part of how racism and white supremacy function — by forgetting things do have roots behind them.”

The point is, notes a piece in Babbel, “AAVE, when used by African-American people, is often associated with ‘undesirable’ parts of society like poverty, drugs, violence and gangs. But when corporations or white people use it, they are co-opting its ‘cool’ potential for their own gain — and giving nothing back to the community that created it.”"...

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Source #4
From https://www.theskimm.com/news/how-blaccents-appropriate-black-culture-and-why-theyve-flown-under-the-radar "How ‘Blaccents’ Appropriate Black Culture — And Why They’ve Flown Under the Radar for Decades", Skimm'd by Macy Alcido, Maria McCallen and Kamini Ramdeen-Chowdhury, February 11, 2022

"In February, actress and comedian Awkwafina responded to years of criticism about her use of African American Vernacular English (AAVE) and “blaccent” (aka Black accent) throughout her career. Her statement stirred up controversy with critics and Twitter users who called it a "non-apology." And questioned why she chose to drop it during Black History Month.

She’s not the first or only celebrity to be accused of appropriating Black culture (from Elvis Presley to the Kardashians and Olivia Rodrigo). But her response is starting a wave of re-education on the term blaccent. And the long history of appropriation vs appreciation of Black culture.

[...]

Defining Blaccent and Its Origins

We chatted with experts to get a deeper understanding of what blaccent is. Including Renée Blake — associate professor of linguistics at NYU, and an associate producer on the Emmy Award-winning “Talking Black in America.” She defined blaccent as: “the use of African American language by those outside of the community…it's looked at as an appropriation of the language. And to the advantage of those using it. It's then seen as a commodity for people outside of the community.” ...

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Source #5
From
"https://www.reddit.com/r/Fauxmoi/comments/slhcvz/awkwafina_defends_her_use_of_blaccent_and_then/ "Awkwafina Defends Her Use Of Blaccent"...
1. Sailorjupiter97, 2022
"The thing that blows me about her [Awkwafina] and other non Black ppl using AAVE is that they always sound the same. AAVE has different dialects and sounds completely different depending on where you’re from. Black Californians using AAVE sound different than New Yorkers using AAVE sound different than Texans using AAVE. Non Black ppl and Awkwafina all sound the exact same and all manage to be from different areas in the country. So it’s extremely weird. And idk the whole “i grew up around Black ppl” thing is weird to me bc I grew up around Asians and Mexicans (my school was mainly Asian/Mexican and so were my neighborhoods) who had accents and I didn’t pick up on that? Neither did my sisters or the Black kids at my school. So it’s a little odd to see that excuse especially since she’s from Forest Hills in NYC but whatever i’ll look past that. My whole thing is, to her thing about Asian ppl who immigrate to America having some sort of identity crisis, why don’t they just act like themselves or white ppl? Why is there some sort of memo to mimic Black ppl (while a lot stay racist to Black ppl at the same time)? And another thing, she dropped her “accent” as soon, as SOON as she got serious acting roles. So that’s even more clear she was using AAVE to mock and get in the door of being “funny”."... 

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2. crazysouthie, 2022
"Awkwafina could have just shown her commitment to this by saying she was going to use Nora Lum as her stage name from now on, apologising with no excuses and promising to financially help out Black art and artists. This overlong note was clearly written with the help of a white PR team who didn't know how to properly understand this conversation.

That being said even as someone who thinks that Awkwafina is in the wrong and completely mishandled this, I don't think this conversation is all that simple.

On Twitter, I see people mixing up blaccents, AAVE and Black slang. I saw some posts where Black Americans were telling Black Africans not to use Black slang. There's something extremely odd and parochial about this. Culture doesn't work this way (particularly with questions of power and American soft power).

Questions around the use of AAVE are also questions around culture, cultural appropriation and power. AAVE itself has multiple dialects and draws on both the culture of African-Americans and immigrant Africans and Carribeans like Black British English. I don't think social media is equipped to deal with the nuances of this conversation at all.

Awkwafina using a blaccent and employing minstrelsy for comedy has a long history in American cinema. It's a history that needs to be reckoned with but also it's endemic to comedy. Looney Tunes to shows like I love Lucy all relied on minstrelsy for comedy (certain ways of comedic exaggeration and more)."

Awkwafina is far from the only person who's profited from Black culture in Hollywood. The Kardashians, Ariana Grande and many more don't seem to attract a fraction of this kind of vitriol around appropriation. I think she has become the individual around whom the noose of a systemic problem in Hollywood has tightened as opposed to the studios and the ecosystems that reward people who are not Black in various ways".

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Source #6
From https://www.reddit.com/r/ThoughtWarriors/comments/snqjn2/lets_talk_about_the_blaccent/
1. FuzzyOptics, 2021
"People from other places who don't know American history intimately are not going to understand cultural appropriation from Black Americans. Even people born here with general education in our history are going to tend to not really be sensitive to this.

It's not just about appropriation, but also appropriation for profit, while also coinciding with systematic racism that can often make it easier for Whites to profit from Black culture. I don't think that combination of factors is going to be present in the experiences of most people.

Asian American kids who are into hip hop culture who speak in a way that is influenced and informed by AAVE do so in a way they think is about cultural appreciation and affinity. Even Japanese kids who get brown tans and kink their hair are doing it in a way they think is positive and about appreciation.

But when Awkwafina does it not just as personal expression but as part of an entertainment persona, then it becomes more problematic. Reminds people of the times when White performers were able to adopt Black culture for personal profit and become bigger and more mainstream than a Black performer could, by virtue of being White.

[...]

Am totally with you on how we need to come together and not tear each other apart. As an Asian American, I find it really disappointing when I talk to some Asian Americans who embrace the model minority myth and who buy into racist perceptions of Black Americans and do not see what the Black Civil Rights struggle brought to all people of color, and how we have benefited from that. And how, at the least, we need to be anti-racist, not co-opted as pawns within systematic racism."

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2. littlepanadera, 2021
"Nora’s normal speaking voice sounds like this https://youtu.be/3O4rihvfX2g Her blaccent is nowhere to be found. She pulls it out when it’s convenient. As another person mentioned, she’s from a predominantly white and Asian part of Queens. Idk why so many people want to give her a pass on talking in an exaggerated caricature of a dialect that isn’t hers."

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3. erossalvatore, 2021
"She grew up in Forest Hills, a neighborhood that’s 2.5% Black. She did not grow up in an area where she could’ve possibly picked up the “blaccent” she performs as Awkafina. We’re dragging the right person for the right reasons.

Sincerely, A Black person from the Bronx, the birthplace of hip hop"
-snip-
"Forest Hills is a mostly residential neighborhood in the central portion of the borough of Queens in New York City." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_Hills,_Queens


"The Bronx (/brɒŋks/) is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New York City borough of Queens, across the East River. The Bronx has a land area of 42 square miles (109 km2) and a population of 1,472,654 in the 2020 census.[1] If each borough were ranked as a city, the Bronx would rank as the ninth-most-populous in the U.S. Of the five boroughs, it has the fourth-largest area, fourth-highest population, and third-highest population density.[4] It is the only borough of New York City not primarily on an island. With a population that is 54.8% Hispanic as of 2020, it is the only majority-Hispanic county in the Northeastern United States and the fourth-most-populous nationwide." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bronx

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4. theswagsauce, 2021
"Louder!!! In 2019 and 2020, white and Asian people in Forest Hills were fighting like hell against integration plans in order to keep Black kids out of their neighborhood public schools. And I’m supposed to believe she was reared in the heart of Blackness thus she has a Blaccent that doesn’t even sound like folks from Queensbridge or Jamaica??? 😭🥴"
-snip-
"Queensbridge Houses, also known simply as Queensbridge or QB, is a public housing development in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens, New York City. Owned by the New York City Housing Authority, the development contains 96 buildings and 3,142 units accommodating approximately 7,000 people in two separate complexes (North and South).[1] The complex opened in 1939[2] and is the largest housing project in North America.[3]" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queensbridge_Houses

"Jamaica is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. It is mainly composed of a large commercial and retail area, though part of the neighborhood is also residential" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaica,_Queens

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5. theswagsauce, 2021
"No, we’ve got the right one. As a Black NYC native, Black people have different accents borough to borough and she doesn’t sound like any of us."

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6. MarcTurntables, 2021
"Exactly this. She sounds like she’s clowning on kids she’s heard somewhere someplace.

 No one but some White people thought she sounded authentic."

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7. [deleted], 2021
"lets not pretend there isnt a trend of Asain ppl jacking off black culture..KPOP but thats for another day. lets also not pretend there isnt a caricature of a black women that white gays and other cultures love to do. if you listen awkwafinas early rap/videos you know she wasnt doing a NYC accent and im from brooklyn so its a bunch of bullsh-t*.your very specific scenario is also not awkwafinas like yall are jumping through hoops writing stories to justify something she very clearly did" …
-snip-
*This word is fully spelled out in this comment.

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Source #7
From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mXaccYFKRQ "What Is Blaccent And Why Do People Keep Using It?", published by PBS Origins, Apr 11, 2022
1.@crystalxchi8576, 2022
"@VOLCAL  and for your information, blaccent is just English spoken with an African American accent. That accent was formed when black people were trying to adapt and has a strong African origin. Of course they didn't come off the boats speaking blaccent, it was formed as they switched from their native African languages to English. Let that sink in your pea sized brain."

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2. @eoincampbell1584, 2022
"@harami_teri_maki  Under every video I've seen about this topic there is always a few comments from white people who grew up in majority black neighborhoods and so speak in AAVE because that's how the people around them were speaking when they were growing up. That's the kind of thing I mean by cultural osmosis and how it can be separate from harmful appropriation."

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3. @lovinavargas-carriedo2698, 2022
"I work with an 80% black population at work. I'm mixed Latina and rarely use spanglish. I've been there five years and the only think keeping black vernacular out of my vocabulary has been the fear of appropriating and offending someone. Today was the day when I had unintentionally used black vernacular because it's been absorbed  into my language use due to proximity, same way that I say anything else that a friend or family member would say frequently. So it's pretty cool that this video popped up as I was thinking about how I had absorbed language.

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4. @bannedonmoya3761, 2022
"As a Black linguist, I can say that there are definitely people who speak using AAVE or accents which have their origins in regional Black communities that have developed this manner of speach through cultural osmosis. However, because these accents are stigmatized, most of them are essentially in the same boat as their black counterparts when it comes to how their speech is perceived. The famous people in this video all appropriated their accents in order to make their co-opting of what had been known as primarily black art/ music/ styling etc. seem more believeable and less like theft to their fanbases. Until VERY RECENTLY in our media it seemed that it was fine for a person to look, dress, and sound black as long as they did so as a wealthy, non-black person."

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5. @axelbruv, 2022
"What's exploitative about changing your accent as a fashion statement? Would love to know. Imitation is the highest form of flattery, and the influence of black people on culture is plain to see and hear. Music, dance, speech etc. We have a similar phenomenon in the UK. It's called "Multicultural London English" now, although that's a misnomer because it originated from Jamaican Patois, and is not related to the true London dialect (although MLE did start in London). However, it is multicultural. What started off as an accent black people started to use in around the 90's (correct me if I'm wrong) is now used by people of all races. The accent is rapidly replacing regional accents across the UK."

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6. @eoincampbell1584, 2022
"@axelbruv  I'm specifically trying to say that it isn't always exploitative, and sometimes is just natural cultural exchange. But I also recognize that it can be exploitative when a person takes on elements of these dialects temporarily for a joke or as a fashion statement while people who actually speak that dialect every day are discriminated against for it.

Elements of AAVE and MLE are often considered "wrong" grammar and a person speaking in those dialects will be denied opportunities by those who feel that it is a sign they are uneducated or criminal due to stereotypes.

When wealthy white people take on elements of black culture to seem cool without really being educated on it that can feel unnatural and gross, that is when I would call it exploitative appropriation.

At the far end of this is straight up minstrelsy, but there's a lot of grey area in between. There are a lot of things that aren't quite exploitative but still come off as gauche like when a white person gets dreadlocks or when celebrities get extreme tanning to visually seem black. It's important to listen to various perspectives on a topic as nuanced as this and acknowledge both that there is a certain amount of natural cultural exchange and that certain instances are exploitative."

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7. @allaboutthemurzic, 2023
"The way you speak has nothing to do with skin color

Accent isn’t a genetic trait, you learn to speak a certain way based on what you’re around, different environments and regions have different dialects

Now certain stereotypes do exist of ethnicities and if someone is making a caricature or mockery of a certain ethnicity then yes it’s a problem but people trying to set rules of how you should speak based on color is bullsh-t*
-snip-
*This word is fully spelled out in this comment.

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8. @NSUVid, 2023
"Agreed, I was hoping for a more nuanced approach to this. What's ironic is "takes" like these inadvertently make black folks feel ashamed of our real cultural components like regional accents and AAVE. It is probably the reason the host of this video dons skillful whiteccent. The irony."

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9.@eoincampbell1584, 2023
"@The Lifetime Channel It is absolutely real yes, some people put on a blaccent in a mocking or ignorant way.

But there's also instances where someone picks up AAVE growing up purely because of their neighborhood/school, or instances of potentially non-harmful cultural exchange like when a word like woke comes into popular usage because of its useful meaning and rhetorical power (though since it has also been co-opted by the right in definitely harmful ways).

It's just not clear cut enough that you can 100% of the time say "that person is white so should not be using AAVE" both because of the complexities of language and the complexities of race itself, which is socially constructed and not always immediately identifiable based on appearance alone.

My issue was not the video's overall message, I think for the most part having people be more conscious of what ways they might be misappropriating cultures they are not a part of is a good thing. I just wish the video went more in depth on some of these nuances of the issue."

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10. @eoincampbell1584, 2022
" @ddneq677  I just want to make clear that I'm not saying I want to see a linguist's take instead of [this video's host Professor] Danielle Bainbridge's or because I think a linguist would be more qualified or less biased or anything like that. And I'm definitely not saying "listen to some person in the comments who claims to be a linguist instead of her".

I think this is a good video and I respect Danielle's own expertise on the topic.

I just think that the topic would be even better covered by having that extra linguistic perspective, or even from sociological & psychological perspectives, from other black academics. I'm not denying that academics can have biases, but to me the main way to check that is to have a variety of academics from different fields involved in this kind of thing. To me that could only strengthen the video and provide more insight into a topic which I feel if often over-simplified in online discourse.

As just one example of that fine line I reference and how there are nuanced grey areas worth exploring here, take the word woke. It originates from AAVE, and became popular in part because of how useful a word it is in political activism. It strikes at the heart of current American politics where to be a republican you need to be actually ignorant or willfully ignorant about a lot of the things going on in the world. Maybe some people feel that even the initial widespread use of the word outside of the black community was an instance of negative appropriation of vernacular. But I know that there are black activists who saw the popularization of the word back then as a positive thing that aligned with the growing BLM movement.

Then cut to now when the American right has co-opted the word to purposefully try and dilute its meaning and use it the same way they've been using the words "left", "liberal", and "socialist" for years to basically just mean "stuff we don't like". That's an obviously negative appropriation that I feel is very different from how it was (and is still) used in liberal and leftist spaces.

Personally from my (non expert) knowledge of history and language I think that individual words being used outside of their original context is unavoidable and not always negative. Whereas the purposeful misuse of words or the use of "blaccent" is where I would see something as negative appropriation that can and should be stopped. But I'd like to know your opinion."
-snip-
*"BLM" = Black Lives Matter 

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11. @ddneq677, 2022
"@eoincampbell1584  just like blatant racism isn't the only form of it, blatant cultural theft isn't the only form of it. It seems like you're arguing that non blatant forms of it are somehow ok and harmless and that's a questionable stance. Like why even try to defend it in any form. Woke became a popular thing in the Black community in relation to the Black struggle. It was a Black thing. Just like w so many other things that are a Black thing, the rest of y'all just took it and ran w it because it was (stolen) popular/catchy and because of how entitled non Black ppl are to Black culture w/o even realizing it. That's the nuance you're not seeing it from. It's so easy to take from Black culture and call it pop culture to get away w it. You're not Black so it's not easy for you to see just how deep rooted anti blackness is and how normalized it is to wear Black culture like a costume and call it an "exchange" when Black ppl aren't getting anything out of it. I do believe there are and know of non black ppl who not ONLY grew up in proximity to Black ppl, but they actively date Black people, have an almost entirely Black friendship group, their parents are friends with the Black parents, they frequent Black events, they're involved in the culture, they've witnessed the Black struggles up close and personal, they've watched how anti blackness has impacted their close ones that are Black. They're way more nuanced about what's offensive to do as a non black person. Those non black ppl are the exceptions not the majority at all. Those are the examples of absorbing culture due to proximity. Everyone else is just entitled and/or ignorantly taking and it's very easy as a Black person to notice the difference. Think about why Black people gatekeeping our own culture makes so many non black ppl feel like they're losing something or being denied something their entitled to. Instead of thinking about when/how it's okay to take Black culture, question instead why so much of Black culture makes it into popular culture more than culture from any other race. Think about the parasitic nature society has on minorities. We don't even get to tell yall to stop stealing from us w/o backlash."

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12. @eoincampbell1584
"@ddneq677  I can understand your perspective, and I have absolutely seen what you've described where any amount of reasonable gatekeeping of culture is met with a complete lack of understanding from white people. Though I'm not from the US so I don't see the exact same thing that the US seems to have where black culture is put down while simultaneously being central to what is popular.

I find it difficult though to think that any instance of someone using a word that originates from AAVE is an act of theft. That's not how we treat any other dialect in the world, and while AAVE definitely has a unique history from other dialects I'm not sure that changes the fact that some amount of "exchange" (you're right that it's not quite the right word, I'm using it for lack of a better one) is unavoidable.

If everyone outside of the US black community truly didn't use any word originating from AAVE then how would that actually work? When we need to refer to a word that we know we shouldn't use we would usually shorten it to just the letter like with "f-word". But I think it'd be impractical to have to develop a system of euphemisms for the entire dialect, not to mention it'd be treating the dialect with I feel an undue amount of taboo. Is there any context where you would feel it would be reasonable to freely use words, such as an academic one?"

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13. @ddneq677, 2022
"@eoincampbell1584  "I find it difficult though to think that any instance of someone using a word that originates from aave is an act of theft." Yeah that's the problem. Y'all don't wanna see it as theft even though it is. Understand appreciating a culture vs appropriating it. 

 "That's not how we treat any other dialect in the world-" sure it is. If a Black American, especially one well known, started speaking in a fake Asian accent, not even knowing the language or much about the culture, and dressing in clothes and styles unique to that culture, it would be an outrage. But because of anti blackness, people don't consider it theft when ppl are doing the exact same thing to Black culture.

"I'm not sure that changes the fact that some amount of 'exchange' (you're right that it's not quite the right word, I'm using it for lack of a better one)" Theft. Theft is the better term because it's accurate. And you're right, it is unavoidable. That just shows how bad the problem is.

"If everyone outside of the US black community truly didn't use any word originating from aave then how would that actually work?" Are you telling me you have no culture of your own? Are you telling me there's no possible way you can speak without using aave? That you cant make up your own slang? That you're unable to be original? That you cannot picture a way of expressing yourself without grabbing something that doesn't belong to you? That you have no identity of your own? Because that's what that sounds like. Just like I can express myself without stealing from Asian culture, y'all can do the same with Black culture."

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14. @allaboutthemurzic, 2022
"The way you speak has nothing to do with skin color

Accent isn’t a genetic trait, you learn to speak a certain way based on what you’re around, different environments and regions have different dialects

Now certain stereotypes do exist of ethnicities and if someone is making a caricature or mockery of a certain ethnicity then yes it’s a problem but people trying to set rules of how you should speak based on color is bullsh-t*"
-snip-
*This word is fully spelled out in this comment.

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15. @Du-Masses, 2022
"This reminds me of the awesome James Baldwin article “if Black English isn’t a language, then tell me what is?” He explained the development and spread of African American English through the analysis of French throughout their colonies…absolutely fascinating and should be taught in schools (of course some thick heads would call it critical race theory and through a childish tantrum but we need to proceed anyway)"

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16. @TheJollyJokerDancer, 2022
"Technically, that would be a dialect, though."

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17. @johnconnor210, 2022
"Forgot to mention hip hop. Hip Hop has had a big cultural impact on young Americans for the last 30+ yrs or so. That's why we see alot more people of this generation speaking in a tone more associated with how some black people speak. To certain extent it can be considerd a complement as to say the greatest form of flattery is imitation. But at the same time some people take it too far which makes them disingenuous. I believe the coolest thing anybody can do is be yourself. Don't try and be something you're not."

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18. @vmvm949, 2022
"old news Black americans define youth culture ww* and whats cool

but the thing is non black people gets praised for that, and black people are just seen as ratchet if they do the same"
-snip-
*"WW"=world wide

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19. @dee78xx90, 2022
"And nearly every recent movie has at least one black character that speaks in an exaggerated blaccent and the producers and writers do that on purpose saying it's to reduce racism but it's actually racist to create characters with that black stereotype. If they really wanted to reduce racism they should've made it more natural. They do the same with Asian actors too giving them only stereotypical roles."

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20. @graceross4888, 2022
"This was a great video. As someone who is not American nor a native english speaker there is a lot of background for the words and accents the internet uses. But I have a question, why does english seems to only use blaccent as the internet 'slang'? In all languages we have internet slang, and it seems to follow the same rules, shortening sentences, comedic timing and so... I would love to know if this is a coincidence or how it does connect to an international scale".

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21. @drilonkennedy-gorne2049, 2022
"I really appreciate you mentioning AAVE and its effects on internet lingo. I've been saying this for the better part of two years now: AAVE and Queer slang have both been instrumental in shaping how we speak online, yet both groups from which the respective speech patterns originate from are bashed, while those in more privileged positions are celebrated for stealing those same patterns. It would be interesting to do a full academic article on how this has happened and why, but I think a good starting point is to acknowledge the power imbalance and the double standard."

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22. @Sophie_Pea, 2022
"Yeah, every time I think of it it reminds me of that sh-t* they tried to pull in airplane and how they had that white woman “translate” blaccent (or “jive” as they called it). That was so messed up"
-snip-
*This word is fully spelled out in this comment.
-snip-
Click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXSLcYQHqFQ for the movie clip entitled "Airplane! - Jive Scene with Translatio", published by Osama A, May 28, 2012

"Two guys on the plane speaking in Jive with translation. A funny scene from the 1980's movie Airplane! starring Leslie Nielsen." [video summary]

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23. @user-ir1lu1ei4n, 2022
"No such thing as talking white"

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24. @chichichichichichiOwO, 2022
"@user-ir1lu1ei4n  good, because there's no such thing as talking black. It's racist to even think that "All black people sound the same!" "

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25. @adreonnaharris7867, 2022
"@user-ir1lu1ei4n  when did I say it was???"

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26.@YouAREyoubeYou, 2022
"AAVE is actually a DIALECT. With grammatical consistencies. It’s not just words like queen, slay, fo real, be, cappin’, ain’t, and the like."

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27. @winxclubstellamusa, 2022
"Slang is one thing and faking a blaccent is something else. The latter is wrong and fake, the former is humorous."

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28. @melindasaddler559,2022
..."Black English is based on stereotypes, in my opinion. All black people dont use it. Ebonics was developed in the 80s in schools in order to help black students "compete" because a lot were not doing well in English classes. As a black person, find it to offensive. Because my elders taught me in order to compete should not use slang. But that is just me."

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29. @fredmoltisanti114, 2022
"@melindasaddler559  Black English doesnt exist.

Its Vernacular American.

WtF is black english?"

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30. @melindasaddler559,2022
"@fredmoltisanti114  Ebonics, African American Vernacular English, Black English, Whatever people want to call it. It is insulting. People get offended when they see people using it because it is not flattering. So, to label that a cultural language is is offensive in my eyes. Some people use it and that is their choice."

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31. @melindasaddler559, 2022
"@fredmoltisanti114  I'm not bashing subcultures I'm just stating that every black person is not alike. Therefore every black person does not adopt that subculture. We have different personalities wear different styles of clothes. But, what is represented in the media is a certain type of black person that the world sees and is inspired by. So, I'm not European but the stereotype of all Italians riding Vespas or all French people wearing Berets may not be true but that is represented to me. So I hope you went understand my offense because black people are not a monolith. That is a white supremacist viewpoint..."

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32. @iloveeatingshat, 2022
"I think the reason Blaccent is so popular is because black artists such as Doja Cat, Nicki, etc are so popular for all races.  It’s kinda just in our mind because black slang is in the music we hear and we listen to."

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33. @waggabutt4655, 2022
"This is America and America has always entertained itself with everything cool. From the blues to Miles to Rock to hiphop and all things black, everyone mimics us. And everyone knows it."

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34. @jadonhung, 2022
"finally someone brings this up, i always see ppl talking this way everyday esp teens adopt this accent out of fitting in"

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35. @KazukiP, 2022
"I found this really interesting. I think one thing I would’ve loved to see you go more in depth with is when does culture appropriation just become cultural-fusion and how do we ensure that our ever evolving language(s) and things like you mentioned such as Internet culture can pick up terms, jokes and sayings from cultures/languages in a way that brings people together and embraces and integrates one another’s cultures into mainstream and daily life rather than misuse, mock and objectify.

For example, there seem to be many white people in the comments saying that as they grew up around mostly black people, they naturally have a “blaccent” and it’s not something that can be helped. I think the same could technically be said for internet culture and the rising popularity of AAVE. If your friend constantly says a word, there’s a strong chance you’ll start using that word or phrase and it might come to you naturally.

Again, really interesting video, would’ve loved if it was longer though."

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36.@LadyAstarionAncunin, 2022
"Cultural appropriation is done with intention without true understanding or value of a culture. A fusion is moreso an Asian person who grows up in the hood with all black friends and ends up using AAVE."

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37. @KazukiP, 2022
"@LadyAstarionAncunin  Precisely, however I think the big debate comes from what some people consider appropriation, I think you could say it can be unintentional but can also be with ignorance, then you have to consider in what ways someone is or isn’t being ignorant about it and that’s where things get a bit complicated I think."

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38. @adreonnaharris7867, 2022
"@LadyAstarionAncunin  why do yall always have to mention growing up in the hood when mentioning black ppl that part wasn't needed and cultural appropriation doesn't aways have to be done with the intent on doing so"

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39. @kittea0203,2022
"this is what ive been thinking too, i mean we cant ignore that language and dialect isnt just existing irl - it's also existing online. people will naturally adapt to their environments and so it is very understandable that when AAVE is misused by non black people, it might be the only thing they are used to when having an online presence, an adaptation to their environment. of course this video has a lot of validity in what it's saying but i feel as if i have lots of questions that i wish were answered. also im not black in the slightest and so i hope this doesn't seem like im trying to speak over black people with my, well, not opinion but, theory, it's just a little thing im unsure of and wish was taken into consideration in this video so i can understand better."
-snip-
"irl" = in real life

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40. @9BeetleBones6, 2022
"This is an interesting video, but I wanted to add a slightly alternative perspective. I work in public schools in an urban/suburban transition area and am in my early 20s.

You see a lot of non-black kids speaking in so-called „blaccent,“ especially (but not exclusively) with peers. This is the accent of the musicians, cultural leaders, and heroes they identify with.

I myself grew up in almost exclusively black and Hispanic boxing gyms as the only white person and it definitely changed the way I speak. When does Adoption and appropriation just become the dominant culture?"

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41. @g.3521, 2022
"At what point does it go from being a blaccent to just an early 2000 era accent if everyone starts to incorporate normally over time without realizing it? People who try to incorporate it without it being natural are annoying, but if we tried to prevent the incorporation of regional mannerisms into language, English wouldn't even exist"

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42. @matthewjanney2399, 2022
"I feel like class should be brought in here....cause there's , I'd say, a difference I've noticed between middle class and up white influencer kids using the kinda language and people who kinda just grew up in poorer neighborhoods which were mixed and grew up with a lot of black people/culture around and in their life"

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43. @oqeufh, 2022
"As someone that grew up with English as a second language and has an English accent that is all over the place you do need to keep in mind that your surroundings influence a lot the way you speak and most people don't even realise it. I find myself saying words in all sorts of different accents because my English teachers were from all over the UK, US and even Australia. But I feel like for me my most prominent accent is probably the US one because I do consume a lot of US media. I feel like it is only natural that you will end up picking up the accent you hear the most and if you're a fan of Hip Hop, for example, or has lived in circumstances where you were surrounded by a lot of African American pop culture or neighbourhoods or whatever, you can't expect them not to pick up something here and there."

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44. @ruan13o, 2022
"This topic needs hours of discourse to explain the nuances so this is not addressed in the video. But the examples highlighted are not the same as your life example. People don't have an issue with you gaining an accent because you were surrounded by a culture/accent. They have an issue when it appears put on in order to gain commercial success or fame. That's when it doesn't appear genuine."

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45. @arsjae5115, 2022
"99% percent of slang now comes from black communities and while it’s fun to use, I think being respectful of its origins is important"

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46. @christinajohnson1730, 2022
"It’s important to be mindful as to why people Might be “picking up” those accents. It’s different if the person has grown up around it and therefore has assimilated into the culture. It’s another thing if the person hasn’t and just does it when they are around their black friends or associates to seem cooler  or more “urban” if you will to be accepted, then when they’re back in white society they flip back. Get what I mean? just be yourself. You don’t need to “act hood” around black people esp when that’s not what we are. So yes it definitely can be offensive.I am black myself and I can see right through that bs. 💀 it’s like reverse “code switching”."

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47. @houseofbl1914, 2022
"I can I my speak for myself, but personally a lot of my use of AAVE does come from the internet, memes and black celebrities/creators. I don’t use it to mock anyone or to be funny, but the way I speak has been shaped by the things I was and still am exposed to on the internet.

Using a few phrases because you saw them on the internet or because you follow black creators who speak that way it’s ok, but full out mocking AAVE and using it to be funny is not, in the case of AAVE intention matters."

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48. @joonzville, 2022
"YES! THIS!! I don’t think the issue is the use of elements of American Black culture, at least not in the last few decades, It’s that BlackAmericans don’t get credit for how much they’ve influenced American and world culture but they often get disrespected for expressing their own culture while us EuroAmericans (and others) get "street cred" for using it! I grew up in the 50s-60s, so lived through the movements that finally gave some acknowledgement of the positive effect and contributions of black culture to American culture. Not nearly enough, but society has progressed on this issue since blacks had to have segregated radio stations. We still have a ways to go, though. (one of the most cringe-worthy things I remember from my early years was Pat Boone’s cover of Little Richard’s song "Tutti Frutti" [shudder] because it was "verbotten" for us Euro-white kids to listen to Black music!)"

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49. @alyssacubed333, 2022
"I find that lots of slang words that originated from blaccent has now become ingrained in gen z slang"

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50. @megabeetlejuicer96, 2022
"Ive noticed a lot of people on twitter using slang like aint or something like that. Im not american so this could just be an american thing, but every quirky relatable viral tweet has that type of talking"

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51. @okie3924,2022
"All of the suddene everyone on TikTok sounds like they're from the deep south lol. I know what you're saying"

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52. @lauraaraujo157, 2022
"Amazing video! Honestly, for me sometimes is quite difficult to see the difference between black accent and internet slangs because english is not my first language; I learned it  mostly on the internet, watching movies, tv shows and even youtube channels in english, so this misuse of the aave on the media made me adopt this kind of accent. Now I’m very worried about my english, but I’ll try to pay more attention in the words I use."

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53.@Markynava777, 2022
"I've always said that black culture (the music, the way of speaking and acting) is thought of as cool by the youth. Pop culture is very heavily influenced by black culture. A lot of youth, no matter the race, try to emulate black culture, because they think it's cool. I used to work at schools, and I would say, most of the kids listened to rap, and used alot of words created by black culture. They would often call each other the n word as a term of endearment. They would use it in place of the word friend or buddy or even person. Very interesting to see how much black culture influences pop and youth culture."

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54.@jacksavard8192, 2022
"As a caucasian 17 year old yes we think black culture and black people are cool af"

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55.@SCHRODINGERS_WHORE, 2022
"As long as you aren't putting down black ppl for doing it. It's cool. No n words tho, that's foul."

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56. @laabitres, 2022
"Man its interesting how a black person can do something and it can be deemed as not "important" but a white person does the same thing with a blaccent and it goes viral........Im glad you guys are talking about this and im happy this show is back."

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57. @lalalakia, 2022
"I know this much...my culture, my community, my people are NOT internet culture or some cool jacket you can put on or take off. Love how white people clamor to use AAVE but can't be found to be actively anti-black and dismantle racism. I hope y'all keep this "I wanna talk how I talk/it's just who I hang out with" energy when you get those Fortune 500 gigs in middle age, not just in your current youth. Let me know how that works out."

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58. @katrinaolsen2444, 2022
"According to Professor Thomas Sowell (He’s a professor at Stanford and has been a professor at other prestigious universities. He’s 90 years old, from Harlem, and he’s Black) the “Blaccent” was how poor Whites talked in the South. The “I be, you be , he be,” was originally how the poor White people in the west of England spoke. These people were the Whites who came to the Appalachians. And other parts of the South. Into the 1990s you could apparently hear commercials in that part of England, where that was used. Dr. Thomas Sowell contends that because people from different tribes, with different languages were all mixed together; the people who were enslaved completely lost their own culture. And they adopted the culture of poor Whites. Having charismatic and at times boisterous religious services was originally part of poor White culture. He also said that during the Northern migration of Black people to Chicago etc, White owned businesses preferred to hire Black people as opposed to poor Whites who migrated from the South. Because poor Whites were considered the absolute worst."

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59. @dannyspelman1468, 2022
"Before the age of heavy Internet use, 20 - 25 years ago, it used to irritate the absolute F*** out of me that all of my younger brothers wanted to be black. We grew up in Ireland FFS! We're whiter than white! Never got oppressed by police or anything but all of a sudden, it was "F*** the police, y'all!" It was pathetic! Nothing against black people but that just wasn't us. It was so poser-ish! It happened all over the suburbs. OF IRELAND!

The whole hip hop / rap / R 'n' B thing became really popular around then but I never really took to that sound. I always just liked heavy rock but three of my younger brothers started to speak like this and use all of the mannerisms. Also, they started smoking weed and acting all Snoop Doggy Dre-ish. It wasn't only them but I think this thing started from their age group upwards. I knew other people that acted that way also. It tended to generally affect people who liked smoking weed. Look at post 1994 Jay and Silent Bob for an example of the behaviour. The song Pretty Fly For a White Guy also comes to mind as Offspring were also aware of these types."
-snip-
This is the way this comment is written in that discussion thread.

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60. @The_A.S.T.R._Ark, 2022
"I’m personally fine with people using aave but anyone who decides to rebrand it as “internet lingo” or “gen z speak” deserves to have a gallon of dust stuck in their eye.

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61. @ryanfitzalan8634, 2022
"The penultimate linguistic question on this topic has always been: where does "Cultural Appropriation"  end, and " Cultural Diffusion" begin?."

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62. @thrif-teaannie7128, 2022
"I grew up in a predominately black neighborhood and I spoke with a blaccent as a kid, I remember one day a teacher telling me and a fellow student to stop talking like we are black that it made us look stupid. It really hurt my feelings because I didn't understand what was wrong with how we where speaking. Although this teachers view on talking with a blaccent was from a negative stand point not a cultural appropriate stand point.I thought I just had a southern accent I didn't know it was a blaccent."

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63. @tedb5792, 2022
"No cap I honestly grew up thinking that all of this was because black people are inherently cool and white people are jealous. I still think this. So what is the difference between emulation which is meant out admiration and what she is talking about?"
-snip-
"No cap" = "No lie" 

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64. @7919AEM, 2022
"Okay, so I have too many contradicting points of view here. While I understand the history blackface, I do believe that African-Americans should learn to differentiate non-blacks wanting to appropriate black culture from people being influenced by black culture in a MULTICULTURAL country such as the United States. I am a huge defender if Chuck Berry as the real King of Rock and Roll, but to say that Elvis was appropriating black culture is absolutely absurd. There is a thin line between the Southern country accent of whites and blacks…….non-blacks with a Country accent often sound just like black people sometimes. I also think that literally demanding for non-blacks to stop singing hiphop because they sound black is borderline racist. How would a hiphop song sound with a white guy sounding accent like Canadian Justin Bieber? Also, I for sure do not believe that non-black actors/comedians should capitalize from using a black accent…….but then again folks…..it is called comedy! And not to boost the egos of Afroncentrics, but yes, Hiphop and it’s derivative Reggaetón reign supreme in the world and you have no right to demand non-blacks to not listen to it or love it. We need to learn the difference between cultural appropriation and cultural appropriation. And by the way, let me give y’all a great example of cultural appropriation; cultural appropriation is the radical ideology of countless idiots with huge platforms that reach millions of African Americans telling them that Black people are the “real” Native Americans and the great Native American nation of the Olmecs who inhabited southern Mexico were really black. Now that’s a load bullsch-t* and a perfect example of Cultural Appropriation."
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*This word is fully spelled out in this comment.

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65. @internet_is_trash9587, 2022
"As someone from the south, I'd say a lot of 'blaccent' is actually 'southern.' As far as terms go, the youth lives off of social media, so I wonder how much of these terms are popular because in originated in the black  culture or the social media black culture that then is appropriated by the main stream, thus making it mainstream culture, and no longer appropriation. It's only appropriation if only the original culture has cultivated it throughout generations. Internet language is fad language."

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66. @r4vnclaw, 2022
"i think that people have to understand the difference between a someone who grew up around people who spoke standard american english with a standard american dialect who use aave to sound cool and trendy (which makes me uncomfortable/ makes me cringe) and someone who grew up in an area where aave is the common way to speak because for those individuals it’s simply how they talk and how they’ve always spoken which in my opinion is understandable. i grew up around both forms of speech so i sound like a mixture of both it just depends on the person, who they are around and where they’re from."

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67. f4iryth964, 2022
"@GZQ9  i think when we say people are using a accent or are trying too hard, its not just some random person using aave. its the way some people use it. theres people that grow up in suburban neighborhoods that arent surrounded by people that speak aave, ans therefore never grew up using it and we can TELL. we can tell when someones forcing it and when someones just speaking how they usually do. aave has actual grammar and actual “rules” theres things you say and dont say that make sense. so when someone is talking with an accent and theyre making zero sense, and say sh-t* like “gonna finna” and “that speech was bussin” were gonna know someones just trying to use aave for show, and thinking its just cool slang. its disrespectful. ESPECIALLY when they use aave and claim its “just how they talk” but when theyre in a professional setting or in a dangerous situation all of a sudden they wanna speak “proper”. the people that just look at someone non black and assume theyre faking it are dense and ridiculous."

-snip-
*This word is fully spelled out in this comment.

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68. @chichichichichichiOwO, 2022
"@r4vnclaw  I'm talking about blaccent. I'm agreeing with you and saying that blaccent completely disregards the fact that people sound different depending on where they life. It's also quite racist to say all black people sound a like and especially what they are saying is the "blaccent"."

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69. @chichichichichichiOwO, 2022
"@entityofthestars  this accent is NOT race base at ALL. Its racist to say this too"

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70. @entityofthestars, 2022
"@chichichichichichiOwO

a BLACCENT is a "BLACK ACCENT".

how you finna sit here n tell me about my OWN sh-t*?? THEN call me racist?? 😐"
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*This word is fully spelled out in this comment.

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71. @entityofthestars, 2022
"@chichichichichichiOwO 

BLACK ACCENT or BLACCENT is literally what this video is about.

also no, it's not racist to say my OWN race, has a specific way of speakin or pronouncing things. AAVE is a literal example of this because they are words n phrases MADE BY US, with some, if not all of it, HAVING SPECIFIC PRONUNCIATIONS."

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72. @chichichichichichiOwO
"@entityofthestars  I remember a time when people would get upset when people said "this entire group of people sound like this". those were good times, it's when we actually knew what racism was. yet nowadays people are going so far left they circled back to the right and are now unknowingly bigots. It also used to be a time when people knew that not only can any race be racist but that you can be racist to your own race, after all, there was even a black guy that was in the kkk. Because of this bullsh-t*, my entire state is now not only still being made fun of by Hollywood but now we are told we are trying to "speak black" or "yall are racists for sounding black". The blacks where I live speak vastly different than you I'm 100% sure and I know for a fact that this whole "sounding black" has caused even more racism to grow especially towards my friends who are supposed "not speaking black enough". There is a difference between hood talk and attributing an accent to an entire race despite all of them living in different cultures which is what yall are doing and it's f—king* racist as hell. Hood talk is hood talk, it's not black talk, it's how people who live in the hood talk like. and you know who can live in the hood? LITERALLY ANYONE."
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*These words are fully spelled out in this comment.

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73. @entityofthestars, 2022
"@chichichichichichiOwO 

i'm not saying you can't be racist to your own race nor am i denyin that you can?

ALSO, i acknowledged the fact that anyone can have a blaccent n use aave because of where they grew up. my og comment was sayin that you can TELL WHEN PEOPLE FORCE IT N WHEN THEY DON'T. 😐"

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74.@entityofthestars, 2022
" @chichichichichichiOwO 

i'm not gonna sit here and explain to you my own culture and how aave isn't just "hood talk". you called me racist for a literal fact, that we have specific ways of speakin. and i'm f—king* aware that NOT ALL OF US TALK LIKE THAT, but yk** who INVENTED most of the "slang" used in "hood talk"? BLACK PEOPLE. THIS GOES BACK YEARS.
-snip-
*This word is fully spelled out in this comment.

**“yk” = you know

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75. @entityofthestars, 2022
"@chichichichichichiOwO 

back to me apparently bein racist to my own race. if you were to ask many of us, A LOT of us would definitely say that we have specific speech patterns and dialects. this also isn't a generalization as it's literally factual. you know who populates most hoods? BLACK PEOPLE, THAT IS STATISTICALLY TRUE.

the hood is an example of cultures mixin no matter the race, but it's important to note where a lot of it comes from, which would be black folk."

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76. @xiayu6098, 2022
"@chichichichichichiOwO  no one said all black people sound like that but in America the accent started with black people and u will mostly hear it in prodminantly black areas that’s the correlation sure their may be white people or other races who will also live in the area and pick it but it started with black people you will see most black people speak in that way"

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77. @xiayu6098, 2022
"@chichichichichichiOwO  it’s not racist to acknowledge who it started with just like Asian sometimes have similar accents when they go from speaking their language to English black people will have that but it’s more like speaking Australian English in America cause many black countries speak English they just do it differently yet when people think of countries that speak English it’s only ever Australia Britain and America there is slang we made or brought from our own countries that ends up being used and that’s what makes up the black it’s racist to act like it didn’t start somewhere and popularize it while also belittling anyone who speaks that way."

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78. @xiayu6098, 2022
"@chichichichichichiOwO  but uk* who prodominantly lives in the hood BLACK PEOPLE the only reason it’s harming anyone is because people have popularized it and made it seem like some cool feature to have when it’s just a simple accent it’s still a black accent u can’t take that way as that’s where it started from if u aren’t black yourself u shouldn’t even be speaking on all of that I’m black too and I don’t have a strong blaccent but I’ve heard so many black ppl around me speak that way you have to understand these accents aren’t even simply American but a lot of the lingo also comes from being from black countries and speaking the English from those countries"
-snip-
*“uk”= you know

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79. @Hakajin, 2022
"For me it's a little complicated, because... My mom's side of the family speaks with what many would call a "country" accent, and... I don't have as much of it now, but I used to have it, and still use it sometimes. At least some of that accent does derive from AAVE, or at least has elements in common with it. For example, the phrase, "Looks like it's done finished raining." "Done finished" expresses not only tense but mood in how it expresses not merely that the action was in the past, but the finality of it (actually, it reminds me of a Japanese construction that serves the same function, in which case it's standard: -shimau/-chau). As for "ain't," if it was good enough for Shakespeare it's good enough for me. It's not much of a jump from there to like, using "stay" as a habitual verb. Of course, I don't know if you'd truly call that "Blaccent," but... It seems to me that to avoid using such constructions is to dismiss them as "incorrect" or otherwise not worth speaking; on the contrary, I think they're wonderful and that they communicate something that "standard" English does not. If I tend to speak country in contexts where I'm trying to use humor or sound more relatable... I mean, there's a lot going on there: a rejection of the "correct way of speaking" does express some class solidarity, I think, because both AAVE and country are denigrated by those in power. To speak that way is to mark myself as working class and to reject the values of those who privilege standardized language. Although that's not the only context I use it in: I also use it in more academic contexts to express the fact that it is not wrong or uneducated, simply a different way of speaking. I'm VERY in favor of using my own voice in academic writing rather than "academic speak," and... While I get that imitation is mockery, and while I DO think we should talk about the origins of these ways of speaking and how they function... Somehow it just doesn't seem right to me that the solution should be not to use them at all."

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80. @ThatGuyDownInThe, 2022
"bro exactly the same, I'm half white half mexican and can play both roles, spent most time around the black homies back in the day. It's cool to have seen both sides, both sides could use improving lololol"

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81. @mackjay8072, 2023
"@Dennis-nc3vw  I hear you but I don't think its true peoples pick up how they speak from their parentsor peers. People put on and take off styles of talking depending on the situation their in. People put on blaccents in order to look cool in a situation or to some people."

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82. @paralyzedCELLS, 2023
"I grew up in nyc. I just thought it was normal all my life until my young adult hood when we moved to the Midwest where I had to adapt a more proper English. 😅

Now with the social media I think it’s funny that youth uses New York lingo without any knowledge of where it came from in these small Midwest towns/cities for example deadass or got me mad tight. 😂 it’s hilarious to hear."

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83. @myleslong5584, 2023
"Move to the Southern United States and I will almost GUARANTEE that you will be saying  “y’all” within your first year there. When in Rome…"

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84. @SteveSilverActor, 2023
"As a white actor, I played a character from Mississippi in a period piece, and I found that the white MS dialect was very similar to AAVE. The Black actors I worked with confirmed that they shared a lot of similarities, but were still distinct. AAVE itself is also not universal and is quite different depending on the region in which it is spoken."

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85. @filippofittipaldi8050, 2023
"To a large degree, I believe blaccent and cultural appropriation are a natural evolution of mainstream culture. Virtually everyone likes tacos, Lasangna, animie, and Motown. Saying "cool" to express a positive feeling, and describing someone as a "bad ass" let's everyone know this person is extremely adapt at a skill. What I don't find positive is ascribing someone's accent (AAE, southern, pidgin, etc...) as a sign of lesser intelligence. Equally disturbing is someone who has a mainstream accent being assumed to be more intelligent than he or she is. I'm more interested in the person's real intelligence and intent than something superficial like accent."

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86. @DMMA0726, 2023
"It's quite fascinating being young but having seen decades go by in which your culture has been appropriated on so many fronts: music, communication, fashion, even body types and features (I can't find a freaking lip gloss without plumping crap in it anymore). Which I'd celebrate as cultural exchange except it exists in a vacuum. People sing songs, but then still refuse to engage with or date people outside their race. They speak in AAVE, but don't acknowledge black history. They get butt implants but shame people suffering from inequality. Those are the issues, it's  more than simply "white people using AAVE =- bad" "

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87. @ayanasumner7489, 2023
"That was pretty interesting, but I have to say, it was kind of strange for me to listen to a black woman w/o a “blaccent” speak about how non-black people with one are engaging in problematic behavior. I found it confusing. I am black and I speak like her, so I don’t feel like I have ownership over the blaccent, per se. Do I code switch with it for humor or context, I do. But I feel like our whole generation does (I’m in her generation), and the one under us definitely does.

Black girls who speak like we do are told we “sound white,” and I find that offensive because I think it implies I should have a blaccent, and I don’t “sound how I should.” Being that I find that offensive, I make sure I never do that to someone else. I don’t think she should be saying how other people should sound when they speak…does that make sense?

Because if a white woman made this same video about her (and me), I would feel like THAT is suuuuuper problematic.

We all speak like Americans, I think.🤷🏾‍♀️ Awkwafina is American. She speaks like an American millennial. Right?

Maybe the contexts for the time periods are different, so I guess I’m just using the context of today.

Thoughts?"

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