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126. African-American Vernacular - What's Good English with E.K. Powell

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When you’re reconsidering your normal in terms of language, you’re often thinking about word choices, what you mean and how well those two match up. But you may not be thinking about it in terms of what’s socially acceptable to say, and more importantly, why?

Erica and India dig into what makes “good” English with E.K. Powell, creator of the What’s Good English TikTok account and YouTube channel. 

They go into the African American Vernacular English (AAVE) from its history to current perceptions and how negative perceptions can tie into appropriation.

In this article:

  • The origins of African American Vernacular English

  • The concise, expressive grammar of AAVE

  • Who gets a pass when they say words “wrong”

  • Why recognizing, celebrating and crediting AAVE is important

This article is based on a Pause On The Play podcast episode called African-American Vernacular - What's Good English with E.K. Powell

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Meet E.K. Powell

E.K. Powell is the creator of the What’s Good English TikTok account and YouTube channel. He describes his relationship with language as “a story of failure and redemption.” 

After a lackluster couple of years of learning Spanish in high school, he developed a love of learning and thinking about language in college. That love was rekindled two years ago during a European trip and he spent the pandemic learning Spanish, bringing him from “almost zero, like all the way to fluent.”

In the process of learning Spanish, E.K. encountered a number of people who had high levels of understanding of English, but who were confused by common English idioms and African American Vernacular English (AAVE).

Those experiences sent him “down the language learning community rabbit hole of YouTube,” and he noticed a gap in content from people “that look like me and sound like me,” that also wasn’t taking itself so seriously about pronunciation or perfect grammar.

What started with a list of idioms he wanted to do two or three-minute videos on grew into making videos about AAVE. He wanted that content to address both non-native English speakers who were confused by AAVE and “regular old native English speakers” who often fail to recognize AAVE as a vernacular worthy of respect in its own right.

Defining AAVE + Ebonics

E.K. explains that AAVE originated with enslaved African people being barred from using their native languages and being forced to speak English. 

“But they didn't teach us how to speak English properly…If you force me to, you know, learn English, but you don't teach me how to say things the way that you want me to say things, and you don't correct it over time, I am eventually going to speak English, but…it’s going to be an alternate version.” 

And what is perceived as bad grammar in standard American English may be good, nuanced grammar in AAVE.

He gives the example of the use of “be” as a verb, as in, “I be reading loads of books,” and the nuance it conveys about reading as a habitual action as opposed to the standard American English “I read a lot of books all of the time.” The meaning of the two sentences isn’t quite the same.

He says, “a lot of us are bilingual with standard English and African-American Vernacular, you know, we know that there are right ways and wrong ways to say things.” 

Erica then asks, “Can you clarify the difference between AAVE and Ebonics?”

E.K. responds, “There’s a certain Black sound as well with the pronunciations of words.” He says though there is an overlap with Southern American, the sound isn’t a southern accent. Samuel L. Jackson and Matthew McConaughey don’t sound alike. 

But it is a specific, readily-recognizable sound, as in, he notes, when Obama code-switches for a Black audience. 

(To learn more about code-switching: Ep 115)

Seeing individuals that speak AAVE as bilingual

India asks what drew E.K. to frame Black Americans holding space for standard American and African American Vernacular English as being bilingual.

He responds that while linguists do argue whether AAVE is a dialect or a language, the line between the two is slim enough that whether you say bilingual or bidialectal, Black Americans are still holding space for both in their heads.

He compares AAVE and Standard American to Dutch and Afrikaans, Portuguese and Galatian, and Swedish, Dutch, and Norwegian as other closely related languages that are readily intelligible between or amongst each other but with a few key differences in spelling and grammatical construction.

For example, AAVE has verb tenses that standard American English does not, like a past tense for something that happened a while ago–“I been had these shoes”–as well as the habitual tense of “I be reading.” The habitual tense can also be used characteristically, as in “I be forgetting.” 

These expressive tenses and constructions don’t exist in standard American English, and in fact, take many more words to describe.

And yet, Erica says, when it comes to recognizing how precise and concise AAVE can be when standard American English speakers “can’t break it down and give it hard and fast rules, ‘Oh something’s wrong with it? Let’s just say it’s bad.’”

Racism in Language and Who Gets Judged

India asks E.K. about a recent video he posted on the differences between “ask” and “axe,” and who gets judged for their pronunciation or usage. He uses Arnold ​​Schwartzenegger’s accent as a primary example of who gets a pass for consistently mispronouncing words because of their accent. Whereas when Black people are made the butt of the joke, corrected, and judged for their pronunciation of words like “ask,” it’s not only prescriptivist and classist but also racist.

Culture Vultures and Gatekeeping

When Erica asks, “What’s the overarching impact or change that you hope to create?” E.K. says that aside from wanting more content creators who look like him working in the foreign language space and inspiring Black kids to learn languages, he wants people to know that AAVE is something to be respected.

“There’s a long history of people telling us that the way that we do things aren’t worth anything, you know. They told us jazz wasn’t worth nothing. They told us rock and roll wasn’t worth nothing.”

Erica agrees, “there is a historical pattern of labeling things as wrong so that they can be co-opted and profited from…It addresses the fact of how there's a lot of people that love to take AAVE and to step into it, to put it on as you know, a coat for today that they can hang back up in their closet when it’s convenient.”

At the same time, E.K. says he frequently gets comments on his TikTok posts from Black people to the effect of “Black people already understand this, you're supposed to be gatekeeping.”

But for E.K., part of celebrating the language is poking some fun at it. He also wants people to recognize AAVE as “different English,” not bad English when they encounter it.

Just Give Us Credit

Because Black culture and AAVE have been co-opted by mainstream culture for so long, “we would have to like, move to another planet and we would have to delete every single piece of media that we have ever created,” to be able to gatekeep Black culture.

So when he sees Gen Z using AAVE, he says, “it's just a bunch of kids imitating what they think is cool, which is exactly what we all did as kids.” 

The issue there, he says, is that Gen X and Millenial parents who judged their Black peers for using AAVE are now treating their kids using it as slang and Black culture and Black creators still aren’t getting the credit.

Guest Contact and Bio:

E.K. Powell is the owner and content creator of the What's Good English TikTok account and YouTube channel. He grew up in Peoria Illinois, graduated from Southern Illinois University, traveled the world, and developed a love for language and linguistics. Through his social media, he hopes to share his love of language learning and show that AAVE is a language to be respected. 

Resources:

Keep The Dialogue Going:

Concepts are better explored in community. Actions are more lasting when taken alongside other imperfect allies. Connect with a cohort of entrepreneurs and changemakers at the intersection of values and visibility. 

Join us at pauseontheplay.com/community