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English Composition II

9 June 2023

Annotated Bibliography

The topic that I chose to focus on in this research paper is African American Vernacular

English (AAVE). The idea to write about something pertaining to the Black community in the

United States came about after a few conversations I had with my family about the issues that

African Americans face. My family is 90% Jamaican and most of us are immigrants who have

spent significant amounts of our childhoods and adolescent years in the Caribbean, as a result,

though many of our experiences overlap with Black people born in the states, we experience a

plethora of things that African American people do not and vice versa. In researching AAVE, I

wanted to learn more about the experiences of different aspects of a community that I find

myself a part of. I hope to cover AAVE’s use, history, and the stigmatization that the dialect still

carries with it today.

Agnew, Jelan. “Black Folk Mental Health: Generational Trauma, Traditions & Truth.” YouTube,

uploaded by TEDx Talks, 17 December 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=B1Bn9OWDqF0.

In this Ted Talk, therapist Jelan Agnew talks about mental health in the Black

community. In her speech she points out that Black people in the United States are

in a constant trauma response state. Black individuals in the United States need to

appear as professional and nonthreatening as possible at all times when they step
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out of the home because of the racism perpetrated by those outside of the

community, especially by those with institutional power. One such trauma

response is code-switching. Black people cannot speak to others of different races

in public with the same stigmatized dialect used in the home.

This Ted Talk is what inspired me to research AAVE. The mention of

code-switching made me think of AAVE, a dialect that I had heard about prior but

never truly delved deep into. The focus of this Ted Talk is not AAVE, and as such

it only has minor references to concepts connected to AAVE, such code-

switching, the practice that many African Americans have to employ due to the

stigmatization of AAVE. Despite this, it worked well as a good jumping point

from which I could generate ideas and begin my research.

Byrd O’Quinn, Camille. “The Impact of Linguistic Bias in Education.” YouTube, uploaded by

TEDx Talks, 16 April 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrTFJ5NlM1g&t=292s.

In her Ted Talk, assistant professor Camille Byrd O’Quinn talks about the

linguistic bias against AAVE in the classroom despite its merit as a distinct

dialect. She notes that the dialect, which was born from African linguistic rules

superimposed onto English, has its own syntax, grammar, etc., all of which line

up with those used in West African languages. Like the different dialects native to

different parts of the United States, AAVE is its own distinct dialect and deserves

to be accommodated in education.
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This Ted Talk solidified my choice to research AAVE, as it provided

baseline knowledge about the formation of the dialect as well as one of the

struggles that those who use AAVE face: the education system. Though she has

some statistics included in her speech, O’Quinn primarily speaks from personal

experience as a professor who has dealt with children using AAVE in the past, as

such the experiences she shares may not be universal to those experienced by

others in her field. All in all, though, her expertise on linguistics and the aspects of

AAVE that she touches on in her speech are useful pieces of information to look

at when researching AAVE.

Click on Detroit. “How code-switching impacts the Black community.” YouTube, uploaded by

Click on Detroit | Local 4 | WDIV, 24 February 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=ptn5hxOkZlw.

This Black History Month news broadcast hosted by reporter Kimberly Gill talks

about the impacts of code-switching on Black individuals in the United States.

Code-switching is the practice of changing the language or the aspects of one’s

language (such as dialect, tone, pitch, etc.) depending on the situation that one

finds themselves in. To illustrate these impacts, a handful of Black professionals

are interviewed about the effects that code-switching has on them. One individual

interviewed, psychology professor Myles Durkee, sheds some insights on the

psychological effects that code-switching has on Black individuals as well as the

effects that language has on how others perceive the speaker. It ends by pushing
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for more representation in higher divisions of different organizations, which will

allow Black individuals to be heard directly, thus, creating a more welcome space

for them in the workplace.

I chose to include this broadcast in my sources because not only do the

interviews with professionals who experience the effects of linguistic

discrimination act as primary sources for the research paper, the broadcast

provides insights on how code-switching affects Black individuals and proposes a

solution to easing the pressures that many Black individuals face in the working

world. It does not, however, explain how Black individuals are meant to get to

those positions of authority, especially when they are already looked down upon

in certain organizations. Its focus is also not directly on AAVE, rather it is on

code-switching, which is an aspect of many Black individuals’ experiences with

AAVE. Overall, though, it provides more insight into the psychological aspects of

code-switching and AAVE.

Florini, Sarah. “Tweets, Tweeps, and Signifyin’.” Television & New Media, vol. 15, no. 3,

2013, pp. 223–237, https://doi.org/10.1177/1527476413480247.

This article centers around the African American tradition of “Signifyin’”, which

is defined as a “genre of linguistic performance that allows for the communication

of multiple levels of meaning simultaneously, most frequently involving wordplay

and misdirection” (para. 4). This linguistic practice has been a part of Black

culture for generations, and it continues to be used by Black Americans today.

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This article focuses on that use in the online space of Black Twitter, wherein

signifyin’ is used to mark racial identity and community online.

This article demonstrates just how important AAVE, and other Black

linguistic practices are to the Black community today by hyper focusing on the

importance of one linguistic practice, specifically, the practice of signifyin’. This

article only really touches on a few examples of signifyin’ however, and it does

not extend its reach past the use of the practice on Twitter, making it hard to see

the full scope of how practices like these create community. Still, however, it

provides a prominent example of the cultural importance of Black linguistic

practices.

Koch, Lisa M., et al. “Attitudes toward Black English and Code Switching.” Journal of Black

Psychology, vol. 27, no. 1, 2001, pp. 29–42,

https://doi.org/10.1177/0095798401027001002.

This article examines the attitudes that Black Americans feel towards other Black

Americans who use AAVE, Standard English (SE), or both (those who code-

switch (CS)). To test this, Black individuals were assigned to listen to a tape of a

Black man using either AAVE, SE, or CS, then they were asked to rate the man’s

characteristics based on his method of speaking. It found that in most cases, Black

Americans thought most highly of SE, noting that those who spoke it appeared

more competent and amiable. Though AAVE provides community amongst Black
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individuals, most find that they must code-switch in order to climb up the social

and professional ladders.

This article provides insight on the nuanced view that African Americans

have about African American Vernacular English. The study provided a good way

to see how Black people generally see those who use different types of English,

however, the age range of participants selected could have been more diversified,

with some high school students and some older individuals (maybe professors)

also tested on the subject. Overall, the study provides a good visual of how the

stigmatization of AAVE affects the perceptions of Black individuals.

Marché, Patrick. “The Misappropriation of African-American English in Advertising.” Medium,

25 June 2020, https://medium.com/@patmarche2/the-misappropriation-of-african-

american-english-in-advertising-3e256cef5d13.

This article provides an opinion from a Black individual about how AAVE and Black

culture as a whole is used in marketing (ex. Figures 1 and 2 listed below). The author,

Patrick Marché, notes that throughout history, racist stereotypes and caricatures of Black

individuals have been used to sell products. In modern times, however, though viewed in

a more positive light, stereotypes and appropriation are still used when AAVE and other

Black cultural markers are used in these advertisements. Marché presses companies to

not only use Black culture as an aesthetic, but to push for more representation for Black

individuals.
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This article provides nuance into how AAVE is viewed and used by non-Black

individuals as well as an opinion from a Black individual on how these companies use

AAVE. The article does not really provide many statistics or examples, drawing upon

readers to use their own prior experiences as examples of how AAVE is used by

corporations in advertisements today. Despite this, however, it provides a jumping point

to flesh out how AAVE is used and viewed. It shows that, though the dialect is

stigmatized in formal situations, it can easily be made a fun aesthetic in more casual ones.

Figure 1
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Figure 2

Peterson, Elizabeth. Making Sense of “Bad English” An Introduction to Language Attitudes and

Ideologies. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, New York, NY, 2020, pp. 44–79.

The two chapters of this book that I have cited are chapters 4, “How ‘Bad

English’ works against us: Linguistic discrimination in the USA” and 5, “Why

does ‘Bad English’ still exist?”. Chapter 4 delves into the reasons behind

linguistic discrimination, such as associations between language and aptitude, as

well as where this discrimination is most apparent (ex. Legal system, school, the

workplace). Chapter 5 describes why “bad English” like AAVE still exists even

though there is so much stigmatization and discrimination surrounding it. It notes

that factors such as isolation (social or geographic) and identity play a large role

in the survival of “bad” dialects and languages.

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Chapter 4 of this book really fleshes out the views people have about

AAVE and other stigmatized languages and dialects by providing some reasons

behind the negative opinion of these languages as well as some examples of how

the discrimination takes effect. Chapter 5, then, shows why these languages and

dialects persist to the modern day despite the negative opinions and

discrimination surrounding the languages. Both provide a great deal of historical

and psychological context behind the developments of AAVE and other languages

like it. In that regard, these chapters do not have many notable drawbacks for

what they aim to achieve.

Smith, Ernie A. “The Historical Development of Ebonics.” Readings in African American

Language: Aspects, Features and Perspectives, vol. 2, Peter Lang AG, 2003, pp. 49–58.

This book chapter details the three main theories behind the linguistic

development of AAVE: the Creolist theory, the Transformationalist theory, and the

Ethnolinguistic theory. The Creolist theory states that the linguistic similarity

between different Caribbean, African American, and West African dialects is

evidence of a linguistic continuity in the dialects, however there is a discontinuity

in the deep structure on the dialects. The Transformationalist theory states that the

“deep structure” of Black and White English is essentially the same. There are

only surface level distinctions. The Ethnolinguistic theory is very similar to the

Creolist theory; however, the Ethnolinguistic theory disagrees with the idea of

discontinuity in the deep structure of the dialects. The chapter provides theories
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behind the development of AAVE with the theories acting as frameworks upon

which the speculation is placed.

This chapter provides more credibility to AAVE as a dialect. By studying

its origins as well as the linguistic features that it possesses and shares with other

dialects derived from African languages, this article cements AAVE’s position as a

dialect rather than just grammarless slang. Because of the speculative nature of

determining the origins of AAVE and other similar dialects, much of the

information provided in this article is not concrete. Still, the information provided

by the article validates AAVE as a dialect.

Smith, Shawn. “African American Ebonics: Discourse & Discursive Practice—a Chicago

Case Study of Historical Oppression.” Howard Journal of Communications, vol. 27, no.

4, 20 July 2016, pp. 311–327,

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10646175.2016.1197867?

scroll=top&needAccess=true&role=tab&aria-labelledby=full-article.

This article uses Chicago, a city with drastic amounts of social segregation, as an

example to show how isolation keeps dialects like AAVE stagnant and how that

isolation and stagnation keeps lower-income families in their economic position.

The article also provides the history behind that isolation and stagnation. Smith

then studies the dialects of Black individuals living in the different parts of

Chicago in order to display those links between dialect, isolation, and history.
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Smith in this article also provides context behind the development of

AAVE as we know it today, showing how social isolation keeps a language like it

stagnant. By basing his research in Chicago, Smith is able to see firsthand how

social segregation leads to the stagnation of AAVE and the socioeconomic status

of those who use it in Chicago. For what it is, this article hits all of the points that

it needs to and provides more nuance behind the experience of those who use

AAVE.

Trechter, Sara, and Bucholtz, Mary. “Introduction: White Noise: Bringing Language into

Whiteness Studies.” Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, vol. 11, no. 1, 2001, pp. 3–21,

https://doi.org/10.1525/jlin.2001.11.1.3.

This article is about the connections between language and identity. Its focus is

primarily placed upon the language and identity of White individuals. By

analyzing the history, culture, and identity of White individuals, this article

presents a deeper understanding of the idea of Whiteness.

This article, though it does not focus on AAVE and Black identities,

provides valuable insights into how culture, history and language contribute to the

identity of a race of people. Though the article focuses on whiteness, these same

markers are applicable to determining how influential language is to Black

individuals and Black culture. (2289 words)