AAVE Team Three 1

AAVE Peer Review Reflection

We took our feedback into serious consideration and fixed as much as we could while still

being in line with the definition prompt assigned to us. We appreciated all of the feedback given to

us by our peers and applied these changes:

Our peers suggested that we remove redundancy in our work, so we have taken the liberty

of removing some of the content in AAVE in Social Settings such as the second to last sentence in

the second paragraph to condense and clarify our position on the subject. We also combed through

our first draft and looked for any spelling or grammar errors that may affect the impact on the

information being given.

We have also included figure data in our graphics in order to draw the reader to our

examples, which helps contextualize the research we provide as well as give our work a more

organized aesthetic and streamlined experience. We applied these changes on pages two, five, six,

seven, and eight and even reference them within our paragraphs so the photos are not just “floating

in space.” With these added changes our readers will find our images to have a more established

credibility.

Another piece of feedback we applied to our final draft was adding subheadings into the

organization of the paper. We understood that our first draft was a lot of information all at once and

we believe the subheadings will divide our paper, guide our readers more efficiently, and provide

information.

The final piece of feedback we applied was fixing the works cited page. Our peers brought

up an excellent point that we had missed at least one source used in our paper that was not included

in the works cited page. We have fixed that error, as well as added the initials of the person who

found/ used said sources. We made sure our MLA citations that were used for paraphrasing and

direct quotations were correct and in line with the text.

 AAVE Team Three 2

African-American Vernacular English

By: Caleb LaCross, Adrian M. Gutierrez, Bella Benavidez, Christopher Hernandez, Vince Garcia

African American Vernacular English (AAVE) is a language spoken by the Black

community across the United States. It is not simply a dialect or variety of English, but its own

distinct language that has its own particular sets of grammatical, vocabulary, and accent features. It

is used as a form of communication and expression within Black communities, primarily by

working and middle-class African Americans. It is not seen as an acceptable analog to English due

to a history of racism and stigmatization, resulting in stifling acceptance in professional and

educational applications. AAVE has given African Americans a way to convey sentiments and

culture in a way unique to them and their experiences.

So What?
Why is it so important to recognize AAVE as a language and not just simply a dialect or

“slang?” The call for Black linguistic justice has come in the midst of the ever-growing Black Lives

Matter movement (“Another Statement”). African Americans now, more than ever, are taking back

the right to their own language because the community has had enough of the disrespect and blatant

white supremacy that is active in mainstream English (“Another Statement”). The idea of “Standard

English” stems from systematic white supremacy. It is a rule-governed language that is

implemented in academic, professional, and even social settings. When the Black community uses

words like, “finna” or traditionally incorrect phrases such as “imma be done,” in professional

settings, it is viewed as unprofessional, incorrect, lazy, etc. There is a negative perception of this

language simply because it does not fit into the standard that many have been conditioned to deem

as acceptable.
 AAVE Team Three 3

AAVE should be accepted in both academic and professional settings. According to the

article, “This Ain’t Another Statement! This is a Demand for Black Linguistic Justice!,” “socially

constructed terms like academic language and standard English are rooted in white supremacy,

whiteness, and anti-Blackness and contribute to anti-Black policies (e.g., English only) that are

codified and enacted to privilege white linguistic and cultural norms while deeming Black language

inferior.”

Many believe black students should not have to adhere to only Standard English because it

encourages code-switching, which means “to shift between languages, or between dialects or

registers of a language, within a discourse, esp. in response to a change in social context” (OED). In

the popular Netflix show, “Big Mouth,” (see fig.

1)fan favorite character, Devon, sings a song

about code switching in which the lyrics entail the

ways in which black people switch their

Figure 1: Big Mouth - The Code
Switching
personalities depending on the audience: “As a black kid, you gotta/ Song
Learn this handy trick of/
Source: Youtube
Social self-defense/ You gotta switch up your speak/ And give your manner a tweak/ Depending on

the audience...Cause when you're young and black/ You develop a knack/ For putting the world at

ease.” Members of the Black community have to switch their language and must develop this

“skill” in order to be deemed as non-threatening and successful in the real world. It is believed that,

because members of the white community do not need to minimize their culture, the Black

community should not have to do the same. Standard English and AAVE can and should coexist

across all social and professional contetxts.

 AAVE Team Three 4

History and Origin

African American Vernacular English or AAVE has had a rapid evolution. As AAVE has

continued to grow in importance, there have been many disputes about the origins of the language.

AAVE has been viewed as a “lesser version of English” for decades; many people equate it to being

illiterate or poorly educated in the English language (Speicher). There are those that believe the

origins of this language go as far back as the 17th or 18th century when Irish and British dialects

were being brought to the Atlantic seaboard (Bailey et al). Slaves that were brought to England

during the Atlantic Slave Trade were only able to interact with indentured servants, typically people

of the more rural areas of Britain. Slaves then picked up the language and adopted it in order to

assimilate to the new area.

However, Creolists argue that AAVE is a descendent of Creole American Southern regions.

Both origins have evidence to suggest which is correct, but linguists have still been unable to

resolve the issue. Anglicists have observed the usage of the perfective done (ex: My mama done

told me) within AAVE, which remain common usage in British regional dialects to this day (Bailey

et al). Creolists have observed that “the absence of be is conditioned by the type of predicate [part

of a sentence containing a verb that says something about the subject] that follows the copula [a

connecting word in a sentence]” (Bailey et al).

While the origins of AAVE remain disputed, it must be acknowledged that AAVE has had a

remarkable impact on the African American community within the past few decades, especially in

the past two years.

AAVE in Context
 AAVE Team Three 5

Education

While discussing and attempting to define something as historically significant and complex

as AAVE, it is critical to look at it through the social lens, particularly how it affects black people

in all facets of life, whether it is education, litigation, music, social media, or everyday interactions.

Because so much of the discourse and litigation regarding AAVE centers on its use in education

settings, this will be the primary focus of this example of AAVE in social contexts.

Ann Arbor Case

One of the first major cases of litigation involving AAVE and its influence in academia was

the Ann Arbor Black English Case in the late 1970’s. The case, also known as the Martin Luther

King Junior Elementary School children et al versus the Ann Arbor School District, was filed for

the parents and scholars who advocated that AAVE was “a distinct language with its own rules for

pronunciation, grammar, and syntax” (Harris et al.). Concerned parents became increasingly aware

of unfair, inherently flawed practices and procedures when it came to assessing their children and

why many of those who regularly used AAVE were placed in special education and remedial

education classes. The plaintiffs argued that their children were punished this way “because they

failed to take into account the language and cultural background” (Harris et al.). The defendants, on

the other hand, declared that these children spoke a dialect, not a language, and claimed that the

schools “were not legally responsible for the alleged detrimental effects upon the children’s failure

to learn to read and write” (Harris et al.).

The court eventually sided with the parents and scholars, ruling that the school district

violated the language barrier clause of the 1974 Equal Education Opportunity Act, which states that

no state can deny educational opportunity based on a child’s race, sex, or national origin. This

resulted in two mandates from the court: one was to develop proper procedures to identify AAVE
 AAVE Team Three 6

users, and the other was to develop methods of training teachers so they are able to have an accurate

awareness of AAVE that would allow them to help children transition to Standard American

English.

Implications

The Ann Arbor case had significant implications for the legitimacy of AAVE as a language

used by the Black community. Now that AAVE had been put in actual writing, long-held debates

concerning its legitimacy were reignited in a new way. Researchers and scholars alike began

challenging previously held, erroneous beliefs such as the deficit theory, which explores the idea

that negative environmental and parenting methods are largely the reason for poor language

development. Others advocate for the difference theory which places emphasis on the variation of

parenting, learning, and language environments of low income children and black children, while

acknowledging that these elements do not lead to deficient cognitive skills (Harris et al.). This, of

course, was only the beginning of a long, tumultuous road of challenging racist beliefs, ideals, and

systems rooted in racial supremacy.

 AAVE Team Three 7

Almost half a century later and the struggle for the legitimacy of AAVE continues on all

fronts. The article, “This Ain’t Another Statement!,” makes this abundantly clear in the wake of the

2020 protests that broke out in

support of police brutality

victims George Floyd and

Breonna Taylor (Figure 2).

With the racial tension that has

accumulated throughout the

Figure 2: Black Lives
Matter Protest (Pew
last decade, major movements such as Black Lives Matter are continuously advocating for reform
Research)
in all areas. Unfortunately, while headway was made through instances of litigation for AAVE,

groups like BLM are still forced to plead with lawmakers and schools to rethink how they approach

language and the systems, curriculums, and rules that are considered outdated and originating in

beliefs of racial superiority.

Dialects and Regional Usage

AAVE is not monolithic, that is to say, there is no one rigid standard that speakers abide by.

It has an ever-multiplying number of regional variations that share an indeterminate amount of

overlap with other communities and speakers (Jones). At one time AAVE only saw a wide presence

within major cities and their suburbs. Recently the use of AAVE in social media has been a primary

means of use and has caused AAVE to see a rapid surge in use across the United States.

Looking at data from the popular social media platform Twitter, it is possible to track these

dialects using the location and language found in “tweets” and how social media has affected the

growth and spread of AAVE across the country. The results paint a picture not unlike the spread of

“American English” in times past (Jones).

 AAVE Team Three 8

Comparing the usage of the word “Bruh” with “Cuh” you can see a much more widespread

adoption of “Bruh” within the northern part of the

country. “Cuh” and “Finnah” both have eluded usage in

places like Montana and Wyoming completely. To the

opposite effect, in the southeast part of the United

States, there is a large amount of overlap in the

language used. This data indicates the presence of

Figure 3: Language In Tweets by Location permutations between communities all across the

United States (Jones). In essence AAVE is not only its own language - but it has enough lingual

variation within communities across the United States to have its own regional dialects that inspire

changes within one another.

AAVE in Social Settings

AAVE (African American Vernacular English) has infiltrated the masses of America

through outlets such as social media and music and its influence is evident in everyday life. Because

of this, many people use AAVE without realizing its origin, which then muddles the line between

cultural appropriation and simply viewing it as slang.

 AAVE Team Three 9

Researching modern uses of AAVE leads almost exclusively to its use in social media such

as twitter as well as instagram which both go hand in hand in expressing how the use of AAVE is

not simply just “slang” but actually, a modulation of modern English, yet English nonetheless. The

differentiation of “proper” English and AAVE is not just deviations of

traditional methods of syntax in speech, but also exclusivity in how

one peer speaks to another; those who use it will understand each

other and others who frequent it in their language. Below are

examples regarding AAVE and its prevalence in mass media and

exclusivity in certain communities.

An example of AAVE used is in this tweet. The words

Figure 4: An example of
“why is he eating tho…?” in reference to the boyfriend in the tweet AAVE used in Twitter.
Source: Calvin_Mayanta
wearing his girlfriend’s heels and looking good in them (per the

responder’s tweet). AAVE has some words and phrases that are forms of exclusivity, including

intersectionality between LGBTQIA+ individuals who also use AAVE intentionally or

unintentionally.

Another aspect of research conducted was one question interviews with students around

California State University Fullerton (CSUF) who were more than happy to contribute to the

conversation of AAVE. Throughout the research, almost every single student except for one had no

idea of what AAVE actually was and that they may have been using it. Each interview had their

own unique dynamics; some students mentioning their own sexual identity and how that affects

their use of AAVE as well as the people they hang around with that contribute to their usage as

well.

One student in particular mentioned (with

her friend) that AAVE and that use of language is

 AAVE Team Three 10

a somewhat, “if you know, you know,” type of dialect. Another student felt that differentiating

cultures and socio-economic class also play a part in how much one person uses AAVE compared

to the next. There is also the notion that AAVE cannot or should not be used in the work

environment to avoid looking unprofessional and perhaps maybe even uneducated.

One interviewee mentioned that they believed that memes were central in allowing AAVE

to become socially accepted and used casually amongst

Figure 5: Interviews with students
peers and its use today. She mentioned that she at CSUF about AAVE

normally hears about new phrases and slang through its

use in reference to a television series (i.e. the popular HBO show, Euphoria) or in reference to a

specific celebrity, usually included in some type of gossip, all of which are spread through like

wildfire on platforms such as Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and Tik Tok.

Works Cited

BAILEY, GUY H. “African American English.” The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture:

Volume 5: Language, edited by MICHAEL MONTGOMERY and ELLEN JOHNSON,

University of North Carolina Press, 2007, pp. 29–35,

http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5149/9781469616629_montgomery.6. (BB)

Big Mouth- Code Switching - Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Onb3gdOH07Y. (CH)

Chesley, Paula. “You know what it is: learning words through listening to hip-hop.” PloS one

vol. 6,12 (2011): e28248. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0028248 (CL)

"code-switch, v." OED Online, Oxford University Press, December 2021,

 AAVE Team Three 11

www.oed.com/view/Entry/85793437. Accessed 28 February 2022. (CH)

Development, PodBean. “Black English Is Fire, Even in Class.” Black English Is Fire, Even in

Class, 22 Sept. 2021, https://ohiostateuniversityinspire.podbean.com/e/black-english-is-fire-

even-in-class/. (CL)

Florini S. Tweets, Tweeps, and Signifyin’: Communication and Cultural Performance on “Black

Twitter.” Television & New Media. 2014;15(3):223-237. doi:10.1177/1527476413480247.

(AG)

Harris, Yvette R., and Valarie M. Schroeder. “Language Deficits or Differences: What We

Know about African American Vernacular English in the 21st Century.” International

Education Studies, vol. 6, no. 4, 2013, doi:10.5539/ies.v6n4p194. (VG)

Indubitably [@cappincatbug]. “Tweet Message.” Twitter, 29 Jan. 2022. (AG)

(PDF) toward a Description of African American Vernacular …

Parker, Kim, et al. “Majorities Across Racial, Ethnic Groups Express Support for the Black Lives

Matter Movement.” Pew Research Center's Social & Demographic Trends Project, Pew

Research Center, 17 Dec. 2020, www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2020/06/12/amid-

protests-majorities-across-racial-and-ethnic-groups-express-support-for-the-black-lives-

matter-movement/. (VG/ CH)

Speicher, Barbara L., and Seane M. McMahon. “Some African-American Perspectives on Black

English Vernacular.” Language in Society 21, no. 3 (1992): 383–407.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/4168367. (BB)

“This Ain't Another Statement! This Is a Demand for Black Linguistic Justice!” Conference on

College Composition and Communication, 25 Aug. 2021,

https://cccc.ncte.org/cccc/demand-for-black-linguistic-justice. (BB, VG)