"You're like a White-Black Girl!": Code-switching

If you do not know what code-switching is, let me educate you for a moment. As a black woman growing up in a predominantly white town? 99.5% of the time you code-switch. Meaning, the way I talk with my friends is NOT the same as I would talk at a job interview. This is a very popular method among the black community, more so among black women. Harvard Business Review states, “For black people and other racial minorities, downplaying membership in a stigmatized racial group helps increase perceptions of professionalism and the likelihood of being hired.” This may also apply in other aspects. Being told that you are different from the other black girls because you speak articulately. It is weird how it is both negative and positive.

Actress Golden Brooks spoke up about this in an interview. She stated, “‘Code switching’, she says, was also a big part of her childhood. I would go to these private schools and assimilate and then when I got back to my block I would be more the neighborhood girl. I learned quickly to navigate both worlds. It was what gave me the knowledge to build my character on Girlfriends.” Her character on Girlfriends would be a prime example of code-switching. Maya Wilkes, who Golden Brooks played, was a lawyer’s assistant and a teenage mother. She would speak “properly” when needed, and other times would be herself. Brooks went further on how acting directors would ask her to “sass it up” or basically be the stereotypical black woman.

Sometimes you have to do what is needed. Many black women have spoken up about how they really could not be themselves while having certain jobs. Such as news anchors, CEOS, political figures, etc. The text states, “We found that black employees with high career aspirations for leadership and promotion opportunities actively avoided conforming to black stereotypes to a higher degree than those with low career aspirations.” You can not be loud or talk back because you would be seen as unfit, or well ghetto. Are you diminishing your character for your job or is it just a time and place for everything? A question that will forever have many different answers.

Sources:

https://hbr.org/2019/11/the-costs-of-codeswitching

https://afro.com/girlfriends-actress-talks-code-switching-and-her-new-role-in-i-am-the-night/

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