by Roger Crain

Created on: June 23, 2010   Last Updated: June 24, 2010

The English Language have been much abused given the preponderance of the internet and text messaging.  It's like a type of bias has entered our psyches, unwittingly, and forced us to confirm our mode of communication to whatever the accepted norm is.  Indeed, black urban professionals are faced with a dilemma of communicating one way as corporate professionals and another way when it comes to talking to their buddies on the street.

Talking white has gotten a bad rap, especially when it comes to these upwardly mobile young professionals who think they have it all together.  They seem to think that as long as they are riding the crest of social mobility, they don't have to confirm to any acceptable standards of communication.

Not so.

Having a masterful command of the English Language goes back to our grammar school days.  We weren't born with silver spoons; or, in this case, silver tongues in our mouths.  It took unmitigated effort to make sure that we were using the right subject-verb agreement; and we weren't deliberately lopping off our "g's" everytime we spoke a word that ended in "ing".  Yet today younger blacks seem to be taking the crass of talking black to another level. 

For example, Hip-Hop has made it ultra-cool for these urban black teenagers to use slang at random.  A day don't go by when I hear younger blacks referring to themselves as "Dog" or calling each other "My Nigga".  Furthermore, this craze to reinvent themselves have infected other ethnicities or racial groups as well.

One thing about the phenomenon of Hip-Hop is that it knows how to effect change in the lives of urban youths:  Whether that change would be for the better or worse remain to be seen.  But for Pete's sake, try to use a little judgement if you want to be seen and not heard.

Yet, being heard is really the issue here:  It's about talking white as opposed to talking black and whether there is prejudice in accordance to the aforementioned modes of communication.  Therefore, whether we want to admit it to ourselves about our deficit when it comes to the English Language, it should behooves each one of us to use our beloved language as fittingly as we can.  And that requires that you practice it every day of the week.

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