TikTok 5: I wrote an essay.

Last week, I wrote an essay about TikTok and the colonization of AAVE. This paper argued that AAVE has been colonized through TikTok and how this has caused harm to black people in America. This paper was based off of the info I have been collecting in this blog and I think it turned out good. I plan to continue looking into this topic, but for now I want to talk about how the discussion went. 

In the class I wrote the essay for, we talked a bit about if white people using AAVE and it being co-opted would be a bad thing in a vacuum. I don’t think so, but I also think it’s more than just language being used. In a perfect world, Gen-Z increasingly using words that were once AAVE would be a natural progression of language and perhaps even a positive thing, but that is not the world we live in. The mislabeling of AAVE as something new and unique to Gen-Z is what I most have an issue with. Words that black people have been using for a long time are now being labeled Gen-Z slang, erasing the people that it came from and disempowering them linguistically. My main problem with it is threefold: AAVE being labeled Gen-Z slang takes away meaningful cultural language from black people, distorting and recontextualizing it; It reinforces the ideas of AAVE being a lesser way of speaking, which makes it harder for people who speak that way to be taken seriously; And it allows white people to profit off of black culture, taking without giving anything back.

We own nothing.

It hurts.

As a black person, it is frustrating. Personally, I have no problem solely with people using these words. I love the spreading and sharing of culture. However, all the harm that comes with this phenomenon must be acknowledged as well. In a perfect world, black culture could be shared with others without fear of harm, but once again, this is not the world we live in. I think that this is why so often, we are taught to protect our culture. We are taught to code-switch when we leave the house, we are taught to assimilate, we are taught to hold onto what little we have and yet still have it taken from us.

We own nothing.

It hurts.

There was a quote that really stuck with me from that article in the other post, “…right before I was ready to swipe out, I read, ‘Why do Blacks think they own everything?’” 

What a terrible thing to say. Black people don’t own anything. Some of us claim to own our language or our culture, but we do not. However, we are the originators of this vernacular, do we not own that fact? Apparently not. Apparently, AAVE is Gen-Z slang and there’s nothing we can do about that. Apparently wanting to be credited for creating the terminology and slang and dances and music and fashion that is oh so popular means that we are greedy and selfish and want to own everything.

We own nothing.

It hurts.

Time and time again we see black culture being used for the benefit of others and we are left behind with nothing. Does it not make sense for us to be protective of our culture then? Does it not make sense to be upset? Your words are no longer your words, your culture is no longer your culture, your existence is no longer your own, is it ok to hurt inside? Can we not own anything?

We own nothing.

And it hurts.

See you Wednesday.