How Code-Switching Causes More Harm Than Good
By: Allison Gaines
Tags: BlackLivesMatter, Mental Health, Equality, Race, Code Switching

How Code-Switching Causes More Harm Than Good

Let’s talk about how we feel impacted by switching it up

When you see a chameleon, you may notice it possesses a unique ability. It can use camouflage, concealing itself in plain sight. These reptiles adapt their appearance for self-protection. Similarly, people assimilate into a variety of social circumstances. When social environments require strict codes of behavior, we often feel that assimilation benefits us — changing ourselves to fit in at school, work, and informal spaces. However, we do not make changes for the same reasons. Black people and other minorities often make changes to avoid prejudice, which causes more harm than good.

Changing the way you speak, particularly in the face of discrimination, can take a mental toll (Retta, 2019).

While it is perfectly normal to modify your behavior, it can harm your health when that transition happens under duress. Within America, Black people experience intense pressure to assimilate because of a resounding rejection of Black culture in the mainstream. White people incentivize compliance by providing better educational and professional opportunities to Black people who successfully adopt Europeanized behaviors. They also use negative reinforcement by engaging in microaggressions to curve nonconformist behavior. When white people laugh at a minority’s speech, fashion, or lifestyle, they ensure that this behavior will be less likely to occur in white-dominated spaces.

Some white people are only beginning to understand “the talk” that Black parents must have with their children. Our parents try to prepare us for a world that views us as a threat. However, there is another kind of “talk” that Black parents must give. They have to teach their children how to assimilate when around white people. As a child, I felt joy in my heart when my father proudly told me, “You speak the King’s English.” I knew that he discouraged my siblings and me from using the word “ain’t.” He did not want us to use African American Vernacular English (AAVE) because he wanted to protect us from ridicule.

Black children know that they must assimilate, but they must do so because their culture is considered inferior. Like a chameleon, Black people change their behavior as a form of self-defense. It is through demonstrating proficient use of American Standard English that Black people feel welcome in white spaces. It is their way of letting white people know that they understand American Standard English, attempting to counter stereotypes that Black people are intellectually inferior.

No matter the situation, it is clear that a person who must present different versions of themselves in different environments will be faced with feelings of stress, confusion, frustration, or even inferiority. These feelings can affect that person’s mental health (Adikwu, 2020).

When we see a chameleon change its hues, we often revel at the beauty. Nevertheless, we rarely consider that fear that motivates this behavior. Similarly, white people may admire a Black person’s ability to assimilate without understanding why they feel the need to do so. Given the discrimination that Black people and other minorities experience, code-switching is an extra burden to bear.

Code-switching, when it happens out of obligation, does more harm than good. When Black people and other minorities associate making changes with compliance to white people’s expectations, it normalizes systematic racism. As long as society treats European culture as the standard, we will live in a society that justifies discrimination. If we want to live in a more inclusive community, it must begin by accepting linguistic diversity in professional and educational settings.