Stop Judging Us

BY

MISJUDGED: Youths who talk slang are often stereotyped


I am writing to follow up on the comment ‘time to drop the slang’ (Voice, March 3-9).

First off, not every young person talks or acts in the stereotypical way everyone thinks.

For example myself, I talk ‘slang’ and refer to my close friends as ‘bredrin’ or ‘fam’. But, does this mean I have no education or am lower than a person who speaks proper English?

Today’s youth talk and dress in a certain way because that’s how our generation choose to look and sound. No one cusses the ‘70s, when people used to have big afros and wear humungous collars, because that is how their generation was.

I think it’s disgusting how certain people stereotype us youth because we talk different.

It’s just another form of prejudice, not everyone knows how it affects people. Then you wonder why our generation goes out robbing people and choose not to receive a proper education - because they know people look down on them, so they think ‘why try?’

Maybe the older generation should start trying to encourage us instead of bringing us down! I say get to know a person before you judge them by the way they are talking to their peers, or because they are wearing a tracksuit and a hoodie!

Monique Watson, Aged 14

London

I see nothing wrong with the youth of today using slang- it's all part of the adolesence years. The problem starts when they start to emmerge and they can no longer construct sentences that a wider audience can comprehend.

@ K: What is talking intelligently?? is it not the content of what is being said that decides whether or not what was said is intelligent? Also who are we (the supposedly older ones) to say that becuase a young person uses phrases which we did not use means that what they have to say is any less intelligent than ours?


The only problem i have with it is when i have to spend time re-reading my cousin's emails and txts to get the gist of what is being said. But that's not a dig at her but at the gap in generation between us.

Have they lost it or do they refuse to adapt?

Would say its us being rebellious... wouldn't include myself in the category as I had a different upbringing and can speak the queens english when I need to but I have to admit that I prefer not to, theres that cross over that some don't make its that leap from being Afro-Carib to being ''British''. Its obvious that they've criminalized our culture even our accents mark against us finding work. Some don't think that they can be sucessful with their black selves in tact which is why they get into music and sports, no need to take on so much of the culture, they can be themselves there.

Cultural censorship. Theres an Irish film I've been trying to find, watched it a while ago, was brilliant it wasn't directly about it perhaps but it was about their experience today in light of their past history with the english so it drew parallels with our plight in that way, forget the name though. Anyway one of the main characters was always going on about the wrongs of capitalism its contradictions and so on as his dad was a successful landowner, he'd talk about it jokingly but this and that happens later in the film and he runs away and ends up in hospital after takign some drug or another the charcters dad talks with the local pastor as they were friends growing up and he says;

''They're ashamed of what we've become''

Was a really good film, will post about it in the entertainment room when I can remember what it was called.

I completely agree, as a 20 yr old black american i can tell you that a lot of my black friends don't understand the importance of what you stated.

Adapting and conforming is very important in professional and work settings.

Black lion..I think you've m,issed the point..its not that one shoud be ashamed of slang.. its about the inability of the young to adapt to other situations when the occassion calls for it... Its about intelligent young people sounding moronic and inarticulate when communicating their needs..

If you can't communicate outside of your immediate peer group I think you have a massive problem, especially if expect to remain living in the WEST...

Well is it any diffrent for youth today in talking slang/ ( which if we are honest in London is heavily Jamaican patois influenced) reflects a need/ to express yourself in terms according to your own culture. Alot of the slang nowaydays mind you is American influenced hence you have more youth per square mile using the N word than say 20 years ago. Ive got a cousin who would find it hard to communicate with a parrot and it annoys to me to listen to him as I can hardly understand what he's saying half the time. Thinking on my feet here I would say that the patois we spoke back in the day was more culturally centred and reflected the way our parents spoke routinely/ than this miss mash of American / Jamaican and it must be said exclusively British terms that have crept up over the years. There is no simple answer. Language is not static and I belive that the NEW World languages from the Caribbean are not static as new talk and terms spring up in Jamaica every year. The same spirit/ability has been taken up by London/black youth slang. Before you might of look "trash and ready" to go out now you look "boosh". Now for UK black youth something is "messy" is good and of high quality whereas the term "wicked" has been adopted by whites across the board now. Even your yuppie type.

But I think its a good point that the ability to distinguish when and when not to use these terms has vanished. Look at the trouble school teachers will tell you about text talk creeping into standard writing. They are having the same problem in Jamaica as well. I think globalisation has alot to answer for. Id bet that this problem is being faced all over the globe as Western culture takes a firm grip in urban centres. Lets not forget as well that when we were youths and talking patois white people used to say that we cant speak properly and provided proof of our intellectual abilities.

Another thing. The standard of teaching of the English language that many of us received 20-30 years ago is a diffrent league to what they are getting today.

Imo there is a massive problem in terms of slang with todays youth.

I was taught English in school so i speak English and not some butchered version of it.

I'll be honest, a lot of the time i don't understand what black youths are saying. :S

There is a big difference between my grandparents who were born and raised in Jamaica speaking in patois compared to some 18 yr old who is was born and raised in England.

Best to get out of these habits earlier rather than later, 'cause it will effect you once you leave school and enter the job market.

Thats what I am saying, we don't want our culture to be denigrated, many would rather live on the outskirts of society than ''sell'' themselves into some cultureless swamp and become ''british''. Until we can employ our own and ensure the survival of our values within that then the youth are going to refuse to take up on their oppressors culture when they can.

Be damned if they're going to get a job in a workplace where they cant be themselves and have to act like some David Lammy to get by... and its not just the language, language is tied in to the way one carries oneself, a persons mannerisms are dictated to by the use of language, change one you change the other.

Its our culture, our way of being, from babylon to our own countries thats facing oppression. Its why theres a culture of being, ''ghetto'' where in the carib we have the rastas culture of social resistance... probably why certain aspects of it (being 'ghetto') are so absurd, wearing their trousers so far down themselves and so on like the A.Americans used to literally take everything and turn it around, wear jackets inside out, caps backwards etc its not, ''I don't know where I'm going'' as Cress Welsing puts it its ''I'm not like you'' a need to recognize themselves as being separate from the caucasian standard rather than fall into being so.

Black Lion the non-conformist attitude is great if you create something constructive with it.

How many times have I been laughed at or called a 'sell-out' by my friends who phone me at work and do not recognise my voice. They should realise I would not talk to my parents or even my children in the same way I talk to them so why should i talk that way at work? At the same time, they call me a sell-out whilst they sit on their ass getting benefits from the 'oppressor'. Not realising that if i want to go on the holiday they can't afford my opressors have to pay me even when i'm lying on the beach!

My father has a thick jamaican accent, littered with patois, which i can barely understand when he is around his brothers, however, when he came down the school to confront my racist teachers they understood him perfectly. That accent comes out in me when i'm with my father, some of my friends wouldn't understand me if I spoke to them with it. Mr mother speaks a broken french patois, which she has taught us. This is our culture. We speak english in england around english people. Simple as. No different from the Welsh or Irish.

Being Ghetto is not a positive thing nor does it have anything to do with black culture. Whilst i don't describe myself as british or as having british values i certainly would not desribe myself as ghetto either! Slang is all good and well, so is fashion, but using it as an excuse not to work for the 'oppressor' is a cop-out. There is a time and a place for everything and if you are going to survive in the west you have to be smart.

You wouldn't expect your grandmother to turn up at church wearing batty riders and a mesh vest top, and she wouldn't expect you to turn up for a job interview with your jeans hanging off your ass and greeting the interviewer with "Wha gwan blud" THINK young brother.

nothing wrong with slang. i use it sometimes but not at work. so yes its all about what you bring to the table. my work mates voice is different from my friend voice aswell as my on the phone work voice. you learn to speak a certain way when your job involves talking over the phone.

if anything we the black community on the whole should look more at showing the youth how to be adaptable and professional for school and work and not just say no you cant talk that way etc. i remembe my cousins had whole different languages which could easiy be broken into slang
like y language , g langauge , giberish etc

Depends on what the job vacancy is, if we had jobs to offer our own there'd be nothing wrong with those people working in trades, in a western society they can't even do that 'wha gwan blood'' has to become, ''you alright mate/geezer'' which is acceptable where words like, ''safe'' isn't, it has to become, ''cheers''. If we had our own thing going on there'd be nothing wrong with our ''slang'' in the right setting.

Anyway, was attempting to give my opinion on the matter, personally had a different upbringing and can speak the queens english if need be, those elocution lessons don't wear off easy, but I can't say that I don't resent it, rather resent having to keep it up for too long for fear of becoming a, ''well spoken lad'' with all manner of white women drooling after me.

**shudders**