Is the End of Code-Switching Nigh?

Writers weigh in on their cultural comms style

Adrienne Gibbs
Momentum

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Photo: Hinterhaus Productions/Getty Images

Talking White.

That’s what they called it back when I was a kid and that’s what they still call it now. Talking White meant avoiding the Black vernacular and cultural phrases stemming from spending three days a week in church and the remainder on my grandmother’s porch. Some people applauded that language. Others lambasted it. But all agreed that “talking White” was the best way to get and to keep a job no matter the race of the folks doing the hiring.

The ability to properly switch between White speak and Black speak, or to blend it together at will, is a superpower in the United States. Very few people can actually do this type of code-switching unless they are Black. And it’s not just about language. It’s also tone, inflection, modulation, and emphasis. For some it’s about hair, style of dress, and even their stance and walking gait. But lately it seems that a number of people are stepping forward to say they are tired of the switcheroo and plan to fully embrace their own cultural vernacular in all spaces — including at work.

This can only be a good thing in the fight to erase racism — showing up as your authentic self.

The Only Black Guy in the Office is a column written by an anonymous Black man who…

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Adrienne Gibbs
Momentum

Director of Content @Medium. Award-winning journalist. Featured in a Beyoncé reel. Before now? EBONY, Netflix, Sun-Times, Miami Herald, Boston Globe.