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The legacy of racism in America has been nothing short of horrific for Black people. Slavery, Jim Crow, mass incarceration, amongst a myriad of oppressive institutions that explicitly target Black people, tell the tale of two Americas: one in which citizens are free to pursue inalienable rights under the basis of freedom and justice, and another fraught with separation, inequality and hyperfocus on external differences. Given the current and historical context of racism in America, I don’t have to tell you which America Black people live in.
Blackness in America encompasses an unparalleled sense of invisibility, not invisibility in the literal sense per se, but in being the antithesis of whiteness and nothing more than a collection of preconceived notions generated by the dominant white society.
Nearly everything Black at its core, or customary amongst Black people, is deemed inferior by the broader white culture. Our names — DaQuan, Laquisha, Demonte — are colloquially referred to as “ghetto.” The way we wear our hair, in box-braids, cornrows, Afros, or locs, is inherently considered unprofessional. Even the way we naturally speak — African American Vernacular (AAVE) — is stigmatized. A mere utterance of AAVE could be career suicide in most professional and educational spheres. This deeply rooted bigotry is often internalized by many professional Black people, which leads to code-switching as a means of survival.
Dicitionary.com defines code-switching as “the modifying of one’s speech, behavior, appearance, etc., to adapt to different sociocultural norms.” However, this definition is too general. Code-switching for Black people isn’t simply “modifying” anything. For Black people, it involves a complete suppression of cultural identity.
I’ve seen Black people take their voice up several octaves to appear non-threatening, use words they would never use in the company of other Black folks (like “super” or “awesome”) and gesticulate around office rooms in the most demeaning ways possible, all in the name of not being invisible. That is, to be seen as an individual rather than an assortment of stereotypes. Black people deserve to not be invisible and develop their own identities. It is up to Black people in predominantly white spaces to not code-switch, as it will show Black people coming behind them that they don’t have to be invisible to exist amongst white people.
When Black people code-switch in white spaces, it undermines Black pride — as well as Black progress. Code-switching subtly conveys to Black people that Black culture is inferior and has no place in the world beyond the shadows of obscurity and indigence.
Not only is code-switching demeaning, it’s also exhausting. Accepting your Blackness — the way you walk, how you talk and look — is the ultimate form of self-care. And self-care should come before acceptance, always. What good is acceptance if you don’t accept yourself?
