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Do you that that it's racist for a White teacher to "correct" a Black student speaking using AAVE?

If you don't know what AAVE is, it's basically the way African-Americans/Black Americans speak in their own communities, which is usually different than the way White Americans speak. "AAVE" stands for "African-American Vernacular English."

So anyway... back in 5th grade when I was 11, that elementary school I went to was almost 100% Black people with me being one of the very few White people, though even then half the teachers or so were still White.

But anyway, this White teacher I had in 5th grade from some reason was OBSESSED with fixing Black students speaking using AAVE. Like not even on the school assignments or anything, but the way they'd speak just in general, even at lunch or whatever.

At the time I thought this was funny. But looking back now... it seems kind of racist?

Like for example, this student had left a book on the table, and the teacher asked him why he has just put the book on the table after she asked everyone to clear their desks.

So he said, "That been there from earlier!"

And she was like, "WHAT? WHAT? What did you just say? The correct way to is it is 'it was already there from earlier!' NOT 'that been there from earlier!' Get it right!"

Or another example, at lunch, a student said, "These chicken fangers be so good!"

And she was like, "It's these chicken fingers are so good! Not whatever you just said!"

And like... the entire school was Black, so it's not like she was targeting the one Black kid or anything, but it seemed like she was disrespecting African-American culture. AAVE is part of their culture, so it felt like she was disrespecting that.

And like this was just regular, casual speech. Not formal assignments. On written assignments they all used formal "White people English" or whatever you wanna call it.

Their parents and their family also spoke the exact same way. So it's not like they made stuff up.

TL;DR Like not even on formal written assignments, just speaking casually. Like even during lunch.
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JestAJester · 31-35, M
No I don't think it is. Its possible the teacher was but theres a practical reason why a teacher might do something like that. I'll just call it 'slang' for now instead of AAVE because practically everyone has their own form of slang. Its fine under normal circumstances or within your community however there is an appropriate manner of speaking that we all should learn. What I am referring to is more or less intended in the workforce or professional fields. Look heres the thing. Its human nature to judge, no matter how hard we try we slip once in awhile and judge someone unfairly. Its a common assumption that those of whom cannot speak eloquently, and more specifically those that speak in either vile or in a nonsensical fashion are unintelligent or uneducated or unrefined. And quite often that is the case. There are exceptions of course. But this is a classroom we are talking about. It is the duty of teacher to educate their students and prepare them for life in the real world. (I would argue education is severely lacking but I digress) So its fine for those young men to speak in slang among their friends but when they enter the work force, that conduct simply will not fly. When you go into an interview for a job, the interviewer makes an assessment of your character and your education by your job experience, your education, your etiquette and your speech and determines whether or not you are good fit for the company and a valuable asset. It may not matter how intelligent and educated you are if you speak in unintelligible or worse vile language. You will be judged on the spot and it will impact your likeliness to be hired or to even be taken seriously. Same goes with how you dress and carry yourself.

Maybe that teacher approached this issue inappropriately I don't know I wasnt there but I believe the intention was that they need to practice practical and grammatically correct speech on a regular basis. If they don't become familiar with it as if its 2nd nature how will they be able to progress through life? There could lie infinite potential in the school being hindered by something as silly as slang.