Please answer to these students post: (200 word each)

Response post: You will review your peers’ application of their chosen concept. Based on the definition of the concept, do you agree with their analysis? Is there something missing you would like to add? You will then expand on their analysis by providing another example and explaining how this further illustrates the chosen concept. This example can be from your everyday life or from a news source or social media. Include your source.

Leah H.

In the clip, “Do you speak American?” it becomes evident that there is code switching. Steve Harvey was asked questions and his responses showed prime examples of code switching. When Steve Harvey was asked if he spoke American, his response was something like “I speak it good enough, there are variation of speaking American, there is not one set way because it is so diverse.” He brings up the example of saying the word “ain’t” and “don’t” instead of “isn’t” and “doesn’t.” This is an example of code switching because he goes back and fourth between American Language and African American English. Code switching is when you go back and fourth between two languages. Communication is key in our world and when you know the specific language being spoken, that does give you a form of power. Being able to understand each other and adapting to one anothers languages is what makes a powerful society because we are able to form relationships and fully get to know one another.

Ethan S.

The video “DYSA Ebonics controversy” reviews the anecdotal experience of a group of men who spent their childhood at MLK Jr. Elementary, where they – ironically – fell victim to discrimination, as well as their lawyer and the case he made to show said discrimination. Unfortunately, as children, those men fell victim to something called prestige language.

Prestige language is the notion that a certain vernacular, or style of vernacular, is inherently more powerful, kempt, or wealthy than the alternatives. Communication, and by extension language, is akin to blood in the culture of a society; without communication, there could be no community or shared culture. As such, language can be very revealing; in a culture that has roots engrained in histories of racism, it is easy to see leftover scars in language. As experienced by these men, and undoubtedly more, “Ebonics” isn’t the prestige language; not in the eyes of America, where clear racial divisions exist to this day. The more mainstream “American” English, or “proper” English, present in America would be America’s prestige language; with it comes inherent access to clear communication, education, wealth, power, and respect. By definition, when something implies privilege, access and power, it denies “competitors” the right to those exact same things.