Nah We Straight Analysis

In the article, “Nah, We Straight” by Vershawn Ashanti Young, debates the importance of code-switching especially in today’s society. Young defines code-switching “as the use of more than one language or languages variety concurrently in conversation” (Young 149). Code-switching is changing your language, grammar or style, to appeal to a certain social group within society. I agree with Young because this is an issue, particularly in America because the code-switching can correlate to one’s race. Several races still speak in a certain dialect that is not considered proper with society. Young describes code-switching has the capabilities to “[produce] such racial and gender prejudice” and further create “linguistics confusion” (Young 163). It
I believe these teachings come from prior generations, rooted in the past of not educating everyone but a select few. So, I agree with Young, that we should start teaching our youth how to code mesh because it distances the confusion of code-switching and removes or eases the language barrier that will continue to be created for it. For example, in the television series, Key & Peele, in the first episode during the opening segment when the show is being introduced, the men explain how “on a daily basis, [they] have to adjust [their] blackness” to appeal to both white and black people (Key and Peele). If they speak to white citizens in a ‘black tone of voice’ they can be intimating, and when to speaking to black citizens in a ‘white tone of voice’ that can be attributed as being weak or not tough enough (Key and Peele). This is a prime illustration of code-switching, and the racial bias contributed to the language barrier. Key and Peele use rhetoric to make jokes by addressing the problems directing in a stereotypical way by making it so ridiculous that one could not think it is real, but are realistic problems that that race is being faced with, even on an everyday occurrence which can be enhanced by