Spectrum

Code-switching is the ability of a person to switch between languages or dialects to meet communication needs. It also is the alteration of clothes, hairstyles and music from one environment to another to be accepted. Code-switching is something that white culture demands of blacks. In short, to be acceptable and not “other”, the white establishment demands that African Americans shed some of their racial being to navigate a white world. Inclusion means becoming like whites in speech and mannerism. Many whites see a person’s blackness in looks and culture to be alien and “less than.” Therefore, African Americans are faced with code switching daily. What is an acceptable way of speaking, looking or acting among their family members and friends may not be acceptable to a predominant white culture or the “professional world” that still judges people by white criteria. “It is difficult situation. Black people are not allowed to be black people in white spaces without adapting to white ways of speaking, dres