It’s the Sociolinguistic Discrimination for Me
By Laura Fasulo
It only makes sense that as people evolve, so does language. The two go hand in hand. Language is the key component of life that distinguishes us from other creatures; language allows us to broaden our understanding and communicate complex ideas and emotions. However, as “boomers” would argue, language seems to be devolving. Take a look at the great works of literature from the likes of William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, and Jane Austen and compare them to the newer generation—our generation—and it becomes clear how one can argue that language has devolved. The long, intricately ornate language of centuries past is nowhere to be found when you listen to the conversation of the average Gen Zer—“zoomer,” some have coined.
Language seems to have taken a more lackadaisical, informal turn for the newer generations. But is this an example of the de-evolution of language? Or is it a perfect example of how language changes and evolves over time? Is the opinion that language has devolved a genuine critique of the laziness of the language or does it simply reinforce racist stereotypes? As I will demonstrate, “youth-speak” or “Gen Z talk” is intricately tied with African American Vernacular English (AAVE) and the slang developed by the Black queer community. Perhaps this critique of contemporary language isn’t even a critique of language at all, but a critique of those historically marginalized groups. When adults make fun of youth-speak and proclaim that youngsters “can’t speak English,” they are inadvertently reinforcing the belief that Black people can’t speak English.
As a Gen Zer myself, I have directly experienced how language has changed within my generation. I interact with people who engage in youth-speak and I have adopted youth-speak into my daily conversations. As someone who has boomer parents, I have also directly experienced negative comments and critiques over the slang I use—the way I talk—and I have been told numerous times that I don’t know how to talk. I always brushed it aside because that’s what old folks do; they like to bash the younger generation in any way to proclaim the superiority of their generation, their ways and their language. However, after learning about the different dialects and the prejudice that is involved when “nonstandard” English is critiqued, I’ve come to discover the racism and discrimination that is rooted in these critiques.
Rosina Lippi-Green’s work, especially her arguments made in the chapter, “The Standard Language Myth” from her book, English with an Accent: Language, Ideology and Discrimination in the United States, demonstrates the supremacist thought surrounding English and how, for centuries, minority groups have been discriminated against for fighting against the colonizing language that is standard English. Considering that youth-speak has adopted many aspects of AAVE and language from the Black queer community, both historically oppressed groups, I can’t help but think to what extent my parents’ complaints about youth-speak are derived from their complaints about the nonstandard English these groups use.
To explore this topic, I found several clips of people making fun of youth-speak. Primarily, I searched on YouTube for these clips given that it’s a popular platform used by people of all ages. This made it easy to discover content from both Gen Z and older creators. While searching, I specifically used key phrases like “Gen Z humor” and “How to speak Gen Z” to find videos with the content I was looking for. This content included TikToks of Gen Zers poking fun at the way they speak, as well as adults attempting to create satire around youth-speak. These videos contained plenty of examples of specific expressions and slang that are directly derived from AAVE and queer vernacular, making them great examples to analyze. With these videos, along with the accompanying literature, I will address my question of interest: to what extent are complaints about youth-speak being derived from complaints about nonstandard English?
To begin, I would like to focus on data that specifically adopts language from the Black queer community and drag cultures. AAVE heavily influenced queer language because of the Black folks that were the front runners of the queer liberation movement and ballroom scene in New York City. This specific variety of language originated in Harlem by those who already spoke AAVE (Tremeer 2021), so both dialects are closely associated.
The first piece of data I would like to focus on that provides examples of this Black queer language in action is a TikTok captioned, “Gen Z in 20 years as doctors,” created by a non-Black user who appears to be a Gen Zer. The man in the video used a variety of slang and acted out Gen Z stereotypes, such as being overly anxious and dumb, to poke fun at his generation. The video focused mostly on slang and included various words that Gen Z speakers have adopted, including “period,” “tea,” “queen,” “chile,” and “spicy.” By emphasizing this exaggerated use of these words in a setting where this type of language is not typically used—a doctor’s office—the video implies that the younger generation is aloof and unprofessional while tying that stereotype to language that is commonly associated with the Black queer community.
Although the video was not directly aimed at this community, using phrases from their language to mock its use as dumb and detached inadvertently reinforces the stereotype that this language and the community it comes from are unknowledgeable and unprofessional.
Another example of this Black queer language being adopted into youth-speak can be found in a YouTube video created by In the Know. In this video, actor Adam DeVine, a millennial, attempts to teach the audience Gen Z slang by offering his definitions for what he thinks various expressions mean, such as “sending me” and “and I oop.”
What sticks out in these videos is not only that white individuals are using this language, which can be viewed as the appropriation of a language that does not belong to them, but the fact that both videos are satirical. These videos make fun of zoomers’ language despite it not being theirs; the language belongs to those in the Black queer community. In his video, DeVine frequently complains that he doesn’t know what something means. When he is given their correct definitions, he proclaims demeaningly, “What?! Why?!” This confusion and belief that the language makes no sense undermines the people who created the language.
Next, I would like to move on to specific examples involving AAVE. AAVE has a rich history in the United States. Since the introduction of slaves to the New World, it has evolved—as most languages and dialects do—starting in the South and adapting to changes following the Great Migration. However, the most important thing to remember is that it is not a contemporary creation. Even though it has become more populat due to its integration into youth-speak, AAVE is not a product of the 21st century (Zenerations 2021). This is a major argument in James Baldwin’s work, “If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?” Baldwin describes the origins of Black English in the African diaspora and how it was a way for the enslaved groups being brought to America to not only communicate with one another, but to hold on to their heritage. Language served as a safety blanket for the newly enslaved Africans.
However, in recent years, AAVE has made its way into mainstream youth culture and is now the center of ridicule yet again with people mocking AAVE features in youth-speak. Two examples where AAVE and youth-speak are mocked come from two videos by evidently non-Gen Z creators. The first video comes from the YouTube channel, Sunday Cool Tees in which the main protagonist plays two characters, a millennial and a zoomer, and attempts to teach the audience “how to speak Gen Z.” The millennial character reads a regular sentence such as “It was a fun event,” and the Gen Z character would respond with the Gen Z equivalent of the sentence (i.e., “The fest was lit.”). Slang words and phrases were used frequently in the video, including “fam,” “lit,” “okurrr,” “finna,” “drip,” “clapped,” and “no cap.” “Okurrr” was the one term mentioned that is largely derived from the ballroom scene and drag culture, but most of the other words, such as “drip,” “finna,” and “fam,” all have origins in AAVE.
A second example of youth-speak being mocked can be found in “Gen Z Hospital,” an SNL sketch where a group of friends are at a hospital after their friend got into an accident. The doctor who attends to the group communicates through youth-speak. The purpose of this sketch is to—once again—make fun of youth-speak with the assumptions and stereotypes that Gen Zers don’t know how to talk and are hard to understand. Sound familiar? There were so many examples of Gen Z slang in this video: “bro,” “bruh,” “pressed,” “deadass,” “catch hands,” “on gang,” “y’all,” “pull up,” “real one,” “cuh,” “sis,” “it’s the ___ for me” among others. Each word and expression used in this skit has origins in AAVE. With the exception of three cast members, the rest of the cast in this sketch are white; all cast members were either millennials or Gen Xers.
It is evident that the content and purpose of these videos was to mock youth-speak. However, in mocking youth-speak, the people behind this content are essentially mocking AAVE, its users, and its creators. This idea is summed up perfectly by Hanna Smokoski in her dissertation on the subject of AAVE being mocked when she says that the “humorous subtext could not be interpreted without the interlocutor’s having access to stereotypes of Black people as lazy, uneducated, and likely criminals” (Smokoski 2016). Given that youth-speak is deeply intertwined with AAVE, when non-Gen Zers claim that our generation doesn’t know how to speak, it is because we are using language adopted from non-white, nonstandard English-speaking cultures, reinforcing the belief that the cultures who developed their languages don’t know how to speak properly.
As elaborated by Lippi-Green in “The Standard Language Myth,” the concept of the standard language ideology directly ties into these criticisms that young people don’t know how to speak. The notion that there is only one standard, proper way to speak—that any group that does not conform to this way of speaking is deemed uneducated—is tied exclusively to prejudice. There is no way to separate the two languages when the one group associated with standard English is the same group that has all the privileges and “created” the rules; those who deviate and speak nonstandard English are the marginalized.
When adults, specifically white, non-Gen Z adults critique forms of nonstandard speech, they are reinforcing this standard ideology. When adults insult Gen Zers and claim their English can’t be understood, it reflects the same attitudes these people hold towards AAVE. As pointed out in the Zeneration article, “When Black people use AAVE, they are often frowned at or ridiculed for their “bad English” or “bad grammar” by a racist society embedded in oppressive, anti-Black beliefs” (Zeneration 2021). Due to the ties between the two languages, the arguments are the same: Gen Zers are critiqued for adopting aspects of a demonized and oppressed culture and its language. These complaints reinforce linguistic racism and stereotypes and the belief in a linguistic hegemony.
The evolution of language is a natural part of the human experience. Language changes as cultures do. However, there is a substantial difference between the natural evolution of language and the colonization of one. Although Gen Zers may not intend to purposely appropriate Black language and Black queer culture when they say “bet,” “sis,” “okurrr,” “period,” “tea,” or “drip,” unfortunately, this is exactly what they are doing. One requires privilege to speak the language developed by an oppressed and marginalized group and face no real prejudice as a result. Furthermore, the constant mocking and criticism from adults only reinforce this prejudice. What makes it sting more is that those who ridicule and insult are the people in power; they crave this power and, therefore, assert their dominance through linguistic righteousness and supremacy. By claiming that those who speak nonstandard English are uneducated, those atop the linguistic hegemony are attempting to further colonize the language and discredit the groups that speak differently than they do. Whether intentional or not, these are the problems that arise. As the author of the Zeneration piece writes, “Question if your use or perceptions of AAVE as a non-Black person is embedded in racist, colonial thought and correct any negative implicit biases you may have.”
FALL 2024
Bibliography
Illustrations were done in collaboration with the New Media Artspace at Baruch College. The New Media Artspace is a teaching exhibition space in the Department of Fine and Performing Arts at Baruch College. Housed in the Newman Library, the New Media Artspace showcases curated experimental media and interdisciplinary artworks by international artists, students, alumni, and faculty. Special thanks to docent Anya Ballantyne for creating artwork for this piece.
Visit the New Media Artspace at http://www.newmediartspace.info/