In today’s society, it is evident that situations for Black individuals, being social would be intolerable and extremely difficult. Code-switching, by definition, “involves adjusting one’s style of speech, appearance, behaviour, and expression in ways that will optimize the comfort of others.” (McCluney et al.). Anyone can perform code-switching, but Black individuals use it more frequently than any other group. As portrayed in the novel The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, Starr Carter uses code-switching to fit in a social group of people, to mitigate stereotypical thoughts and assumptions of others, and to avoid mistreatment from white cops. Clearly, code-switching is a vital skill that is essential for Black individuals to master in order to …show more content…
As noted by Chavarria (2020), code-switching can signal shared identities, values, and experiences that can lead to feelings of belonging within a particular social group. For instance, in The Hate U Give, Starr code-switches to fit in with her African American friends and family in Garden Heights by using African Vernacular English (AVE). Starr presents herself as a different person when at Garden Heights and Williamson: “Williamson Starr doesn't use slang—if a rapper would say it, she doesn't say it, even if her white friends do. Slang makes them cool. Slang makes her “hood.” Williamson Starr holds her tongue when people piss her off so nobody will think she's the “angry black girl.” [...] Basically, Williamson Starr doesn't give anyone a reason to call her ghetto. (Thomas, …show more content…
Maverick is speaking from first-hand experience and only wants his children to be safe. He advises Starr to use “big words” and “proper English” when talking to white cops, even though they use a different dialect at home. Effectively, Maverick uses code-switching as a way to suppress systemic bias within the mind of white cops to ensure safety. By code-switching their language and behaviour, Black individuals can significantly reduce the risk of being victims of police mistreatment stemming from stereotypical thoughts and biases within white
In the novel, Ellie does not have many friends, so she tends to code switch between Jeremiah and her family. Jeremiah often uses code switching to attempt to connect with each person between his multiple relationships. In chapter 5, Jeremiah is talking to his teammates about life, basketball, etc., but he is using different words than he usually does with Ellie or with his parents. For example, one of his teammates goes, “Get my game on like you, I’ll be amped-know what i’m saying,” (Woodson 62).
Young’s definition of code switching is a transition or deliberate changing of a certain style of language use to another. In the article, Young argues that the traditional unspoken bias towards code switching that is expected at school and/or in the workplace, is discriminatory
Code-switching and camaflouging our identities is one way of coping with society, but as Tupac once said “We was asking with the Panthers, We was asking with them, you know, the Civil Rights Movement. We was asking. Now those people who were asking, they are all dead and in jail, so what do you think we are going to do?” - Tupac Shakur. Tupac’s message is clear- it is time to stand up and speak
Dr. Maya Angelou once said, “Good done anywhere is good done everywhere.” Social advocacy is important today, for society to thrive tomorrow. The Hate U Give, written by Angie Thomas explores social activism. The novelThis story follows a black teenage girl named Starr, who is a witness to her friend Khalil’s murder, tensions rise between the community and the police, as many speculate that the incident was racially motivated. As Starr, her friends, and family fight for justice, issues arise that shift the belief of the incident, and of Khalil.
The novel's protagonist, Starr, navigates between her predominantly black neighborhood and her predominantly white private school, highlighting the challenges of code-switching and the tension between these two worlds. In addition, the success of "The Hate U Give" has helped to pave the way for other black authors and stories to be recognized in the publishing industry. The book's popularity and critic’s acclaim demonstrate that stories by and about people of colour can have broad appeal and make a significant impact on the cultural
On the other hand, the code-switching that Thomas was induced to, causing him to feel confusion about his real identity. Code-switching by Thomas, creates a progressive way to capture Thomas’s identity changes because he was analyzing focusedly onto its problems. For Thomas, it was common to code-switch depending on each occasion, since he had perceived the aspect of academic language and the dialect acquired for his race. When people switch from two types of languages or dialects often, it
It was once believed that the languages that the Africans spoke varied drastically from region to region but in reality they were “local variations of a deeper-lying structural similarity” (Herkovits 79). This similarity allowed communicating in the New World to be easier than if the languages were all completely linguistically independent, “whether Negro speech employs English or French or Spanish or Portuguese vocabulary, the identical constructions found over all the New World can only be regarded as a reflection of the underlying similarities in grammar and idiom, which, in turn, are common to the West African Sudanese tongues” (80). Language then became an important part of African American culture, whether it be a “secret” language used to help slaves escape, or to tell stories and folklore to children to encourage and motivate them, or express African proverbs from generation to generation. There has been many times when other races seem not to understand what African Americans are saying because of the slang terms we create that then become popular terms, most recently has been the phrases “on fleek” and “twerking”, to name a few examples. Being proficient in verbal arts was prized in Africa and now a value has been placed on verbal expression in today’s culture through riddles and through preaching and teaching (Williams
Racial asciption is defined in the book as the operations that act as the backdrop to social interactions. People feel the need to categorize a person into a certain race, inorder to try to predict what to expect from strange situations or strangers. At Metro2 Skin color was the primarcy determinant used by teachers and other students to determine what race they believed aanother student was as well as physical characteristics, followed by the language they spoke. However other ellements also layed a role in dracial atribution of the student, including their Name, culture, and socioleconomic staus. The racially coded space in school referes to the places and ways in which stdents of different races hang ut and interact with other students.
In the book “The Hate U Give” readers learn about the effects anti-black racism can have on people and their communities. Angie Thomas shows multiple stereotypes, prejudices, and discriminations in the book through the experiences of the protagonist Starr Carter. These experiences together have a big effect on Starr and the other characters in the book. The book shows lots of examples where Starr deals
We all code-switch. Whether it is changing our tone of voice depending on if we are inside or outside, to talking to our parents differently than our friends, every human experiences a form of code-switching. But can code-switching reach an extreme to where we lose ourselves? In the book The Hate You Give, by Angie Thomas, the black protagonist Starr experiences her good friend Khail get unrighteously shot by a white police officer. Starr lives in an all black poor and dangerous neighborhood called Garden Heights, while attending a privileged white school outside her neighborhood called Williamson, where she battles her two personalities while getting over her grief of Khails death.
In "The Hate U Give," Angie Thomas portrays diversity through a cast of characters from various ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. The book follows the story of Starr Carter, a sixteen-year-old black girl who witnesses the fatal shooting of her unarmed friend Khalil by a police officer. As Starr navigates the aftermath of the shooting, she must confront issues of race, identity, and justice. One of the ways that Thomas demonstrates diversity is through the characters' ethnic backgrounds.
2018, p.). Sue uses code switching in this scene because she came to the bar ready to break up with Aiden, but then she says, “Eugh, Brad, my stomach is all fluttery, and not the good kind like when you realize that you are the only one on the ballot for youth group treasurer. Maybe this isn’t the right time to break up with him” (Sue, 2018). She switches her speech repertoire, “sets of complex language styles, behaviors and skills in different situations” (O’Hair et al.
One of the most widespread forms of otherness in the modern world is racism. Due to a fear of consequences, oppressed groups must submit to society. Included in these groups is a character named "Starr Carter", a black teenager facing the gruesomeness of racism. In the novel "The Hate U Give", Angie Thomas uses symbolism and motifs to insinuate how significant othering is as it leads to further alienation, influencing everyone included. Early chapters of the story show Thomas using symbolism to demonstrate how status or race does not dismiss racism.
Starr code-switches as a means to discredit beliefs that certain characteristics are fixed and inborn to particular groups, including the implied notions that African Americans are more violent, unruly, and not safe to be around, ideas that are commonly portrayed through mainstream media. She also attempts to subvert the association of minority cultures with disorder, primitiveness, backwardness, and violence. Starr’s double consciousness risks the likelihood of her to express a unified identity, demonstrating a
Furthermore, this may lead to disruptive behavior as the teacher cannot demand good behavior from their learners and thus there will not be enough time to teach a certain subject if all the time spent is on trying to get their learners to work (Rodrigo: 2016). Another negative aspect of code-switching is miscommunication and misinterpreting what has been said. This could lead to a teacher being offensive to learners if a phrase or sentence is used incorrectly and thus diminishing the professional relationship between students and teachers. For example, a teacher might say a phrase in another language but a student could take the phrase out of context, which may cause many problems.