Avant Family/Los Angeles Links Chapter 2012 Cotillion/ Photo by Official Links Inc. Photographer

In August 2012, I began my journey from an affluent suburb of Los Angeles to a struggling neighborhood in Atlanta when I enrolled at Spelman College. I was just one of the few “too white” black girls in the neighborhood, often suspected to be a cop by residents in the neighborhood because of my skin color and use of “proper” English. I had never known that as an African-American, I was expected to constantly use specific vocabulary with other African-Americans.

This specific dialect of English I learned to slip in-and-out of is called “Ebonics,” or black slang. It helped hide my suburban roots while walking through the worst parts of the neighborhood.

In 1975 social psychologist, Robert Williams, defined Ebonics as, “…Linguistic and paralinguistic features, which on a concentric continuum represent the communicative competence of the West African, Caribbean, and United States slave descendant of African origin." 

I was never directly told to change the way I spoke with people of different races or socioeconomic backgrounds, but I quickly learned to imitate my successful, black parents, family and friends.

As a young African-American individual from a predominately white suburb, you quickly learn that your presence disrupts social norms because you fail to represent an image. There is an expectation for black professionals to serve as representatives for their entire race in the classroom or workplace, and then to switch into the vernacular at home. Because for some of us, the vernacular is more comfortable than what we call “the King’s English.” However, most African-Americans from predominately white communities are not exposed to “Ebonics” until they make black friends in college.

My experience in Georgia compelled me to look at whether socioeconomic differences among black college students form a “black social gap.” This past week I set out to see if African-Americans in South Los Angeles are aware of the separation that exists in black America, and if their knowledge is based on their own race, class or cultural context prior to college. The included interviews are with USC and other college students, since my focus is on how the socioeconomic divide in black America affects young African-Americans on college campuses.

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This social gap between the black communities really isn’t just a USC issue; it’s a nationwide issue. Taja Marshall, a sophomore at Pierce College, explained

“I went to Taft High School, graduated in 08’ and because I was dark-skinned and I was light-skinned they called me white girl because of the way I speak,” said Marshall. "One girl said I needed to remember that I was black and that they were stealing from my house to basically say be blacker, be more hood."

Although these students do not attend the same university, both women described similar experiences in noticing how their skin color and language resulted in a kind of social ostracism.

However, black male students did not agree with ostracizing black women for neglecting the use of the vernacular.

USC Junior Michael Allen said he cares “more about someone who can speak in any avenue, any type of culture. Slang limits you if you can't slip out of it. The way you speak defines whether you are viewed as a professional or not."

Another black male, who asked to remain anonymous, agreed when he told me, “If you can't integrate, if you 'aren't about that life, then you can't be friends with black guys. And it breaks my heart because I see guys who are faking- why is it so hard to be an open man?"

This struggle I experience with my own double consciousness was the main reason why I left Spelman College last year. I do not regret attending a historically black college, because I was exposed to the beauty and ugliness that makes black culture. But the socioeconomic divide, a divide rooted in the house and field of 17th century plantations, led to the rejection that I still feel.

For me, there are two worlds: one in which almost everyone is a black lawyer, doctor or business owner, and marries someone of the same race, who is, at least, upper-middle class, but can “still hang” with black people at casual events. And the other world, the world in which I was raised, because where there are white people, there are more educational opportunities. Private school, uniforms, homes with butler staircases, Juicy sweat pants and teachers calling you by the name of the other black girl in the grade.

I believe the only way to end this divide that exists in the black community is to stop segregating ourselves. Why do we still have separate Greek life? Why do we still have separate Welcome Weeks here at USC? Why do we have so many separate social structures? We must stop ostracizing African-Americans who refuse to separate themselves, those who, too, have friends and jobs and lives that are fully integrated into parts of society that are affiliated with more than just Black America.

Why do educated African-Americans feel a need to “fake it” everyday?

Reach Maya Richard-Craven here.