Lizzo slams white people for picking up African American Vernacular English (AAVE) and bashing Black people, the originators, for using it. She called for it to be gatekept.
The “About Damn Time” hitmaker stitched a white woman’s POV TikTok video of her declining a “fine man” because of his overuse of the saying “type shit.” In the video, the woman lip-synced to Baddies East’s Tesehki’s audio from Chrisean’s sister’s fight with Janet “Jay” LaCotorra.
“Bitch, speak English with your stupid ass.”
Lizzo popped up in a blue hoodie, suggesting AAVE gatekeeping needed to return.
“Why don’t we bring back gatekeeping?” Lizzo questioned. “So that AAVE is reserved for the people who created it and grew up speaking it. So that all these people that are now talking like Black people because they read words on the internet and don’t know the origin and don’t participate in the culture don’t overuse it and then things like this happen.”
Lizzo spoke on how the internet is throwing around the term “ganglish,” saying it was the new “thug.”
“Because ‘ganglish’ is definitely the new ‘thug,’” the “Special” singer stated. “When police would call someone a ‘thug’ but it’s really a Black person, which is the new hard ‘r’ N-word. I know so many people who have said ‘type s—t, type s—t’ their entire lives. I’ve heard them talk like that for years before it became trendy on the internet to say that.”
Lizzo proposed the possibility that AAVE would return to the Black community once the internet grew tired of it.
She then signed off by throwing in a “type s—t.”
Historically, white people have discredited AAVE as a form of English and viewed those who speak it (Black people) as “uneducated” or “unprofessional.”
But also, white people have colonized Black culture for years in numerous ways, like using AAVE for several reasons. Some do it to project this sense of “toughness” or to disassociate themselves from the majority.
You can’t run from who you are, baby.
And some adopt the language while harboring the same biased thoughts about Black people using AAVE.
The since-deleted video Lizzo stitched and a research paper from Suffolk University proved why gatekeeping is necessary with AAVE. White people will weaponize the heck out of it when they get the chance.
They wear anything associated with Black and hip-hop culture and “talk Black” because they think it’s cool, but the moment their Black peers remind them of their race and their privilege, feelings of animosity brew, and eventually Timmy will become opposed to Black culture.
The AAVE language he thought was excellent would seem “unprofessional” and “uneducated” to him.
That’s why gatekeeping for AAVE is needed. It’s a part of our roots and history, something other cultures may not understand.
