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The Pros And Cons Of African American Vernacular English

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African American vernacular English has been frowned upon since its very beginning due to the oppressors thinking of it as “improper.” June Jordan thought the very same thing when she spoke up about it in Nobody Mean More to Me Than You and stated “...white standards of English persis, supreme and unquestioned, in these United States. Despite our multilingual population, and despite the deepening Black & white cleavage within that conglomerate, white standards control our official and popular judgements of verbal proficiency and correct, or incorrect, language skills, including speech.” That being said, standard English is found to be more appropriate to write a formal letter or article of great importance, than vernacular English because it will reach out to a greater audience and will be interpreted much better. There are pros and cons when it comes to whether or not one should speak in either vernacular or standard English with one of those being the location and environment are two major considerations. Sadly, that is what it has all come down to and it is noted by June Jordan “...as an endangered species...” meaning it is rather difficult to find people that speak vernacular English, nowadays, without conforming themselves to the oppressor’s ways. Her statement is agreeable in the sense that slaves were brought to the United States not knowing the language and were forced to learn, what they called, “the oppressor’s language.” They might have been stripped of their
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