I keep seeing a lot of ppl on my dash use aave when they’re upset and it’s like….y’all know you can express your anger and feelings without pulling out a blaccent right? you don’t need to be all “sis stop being a headass clown” or whatever the hell to express your anger. you can do it without emulating the way black people speak
I don’t think y’all realize how antiblack it is too. like I don’t think it goes over any black person’s head how y’all like to use aave and speak like black people just to express your feelings. especially when it comes to the fact that nonblacks emulating our speech most definitely feeds into the whole “angry black person” (and usually black woman) narrative. stop mocking our speech and using random phrases to express your anger.
For all non- native speakers who get their vocabulary from social media: it is okay to not know this as long as you stop doing it once you become aware. It took me seventeen years of studying english to come across this information (and I wouldn’t have if my college had decided to omit this particular piece) it’s never too late to learn something new!
This is not a criticism of anyone on tumblr, but just a bunch of ramblings on the way tumblr functions and how that affects us.
I’ve noticed that when posts about mental illness and chronic illness get reblogged and removed from the context of their original blog, they sort of take on a life of their own.
I had it happen to one of my own posts. Within the context of my own blog, where I talk daily about the realistic struggles of living with Dissociative Identity Disorder, my post was just me venting about one of those little minor struggles. But when that post got reblogged by hundreds of people and somehow spread outside of the DID community, it became a relatable post and people started reading this one single symptom of DID and reacting to it by saying, “I do this too, do I have DID?”
I experienced this the other way around a few days ago. I saw a post about hyperflexibility and EDS on my dash and immediately found it extremely relatable. I read the list of “Just EDS things” and thought to myself “Aren’t all those things normal? I experience all those things!” The next thing I knew, I was on Google looking up the Brighton Diagnostic Criteria. As it turns out, the things in that relatable post weren’t really symptoms or anything close to the diagnostic criteria for EDS. They were more like minor daily annoyances that someone with EDS might have, but typical people could theoretically experience too. Removed from the context of a blog about living with EDS, and viewed by someone who doesn’t know much about EDS, they gave me the wrong impression of what the symptoms of EDS looked like. This wasn’t OPs fault at all! It’s just sort of how tumblr works. Anyway, as it turns out I’m definitely not hypermobile.
Tumblr is chocked full of “relatable” content, and I think that’s one of the things that makes this place great. People crave connection and to feel less alone in their life experiences.
But I’m begging you, please be cautious about how you interact with “relatable” posts and memes about mental illness and chronic illness. Just because something seems to describe your experience, doesn’t mean that is the best description of your experience.
Relating really strongly to a post about dealing with a specific mental illness is not a sign that you have that mental illness. Many mental health symptoms overlap. While the OP could be experiencing that because they have bipolar, you could be experiencing it because you have PTSD.
Take relatable posts as a sign that you need help, not as a sign that you have that specific diagnosis.
Obviously the same holds true about physical illnesses too. I’m probably not hypermobile, but I should probably bring up my joint pain and fatigue with my doctor at my next appointment. The fact that I related so strongly to a post about living with a chronic illness is a good sign that I’m living with too much pain and I should talk to someone about it.
As a final word, I want to make it clear that this post is not anti-self-diagnosis. Please do not use it to exclude self-diagnosed people from support and recovery communities. People should be able to access support and recovery communities as they seek a proper diagnosis. Not everyone has the same access to care and treatment. This post is just a word of caution about applying labels to yourself based on finding content “relatable”.
[ID: tweet by god is the bottom @ frxgbxi that says:
“just saw a tweet calling AAVE ‘gen z language’ and idk who needs to hear this but in i know why the caged bird sings, published in 1969, maya angelou wrote ‘it’s be like that sometimes’ - you aren’t coming up with anything. you don’t own it. this language isn’t yours”
I keep seeing a lot of ppl on my dash use aave when they’re upset and it’s like….y’all know you can express your anger and feelings without pulling out a blaccent right? you don’t need to be all “sis stop being a headass clown” or whatever the hell to express your anger. you can do it without emulating the way black people speak
I don’t think y’all realize how antiblack it is too. like I don’t think it goes over any black person’s head how y’all like to use aave and speak like black people just to express your feelings. especially when it comes to the fact that nonblacks emulating our speech most definitely feeds into the whole “angry black person” (and usually black woman) narrative. stop mocking our speech and using random phrases to express your anger.
For all non- native speakers who get their vocabulary from social media: it is okay to not know this as long as you stop doing it once you become aware. It took me seventeen years of studying english to come across this information (and I wouldn’t have if my college had decided to omit this particular piece) it’s never too late to learn something new!
ok but for real pls stop taking global tragedies nd sticking them on a ‘why 2020 sucks’ post. y'all do this every fucking year. the years aren’t 'cursed’ the infrastructure of the world is just fucked stop trivializing current events so you can get 2k notes on your posts abt wishing 2020 was over
LGBT+ Natives are astonishing Lesbian Natives are magnificent Gay Natives are incredible Bisexual Natives are amazing Trans Natives are stunning Asexual Natives are wonderful Nonbinary Natives are breathtaking Queer Natives are outstanding
[ ID: A series of pink squares with white text that is outlined in very dark pink. The text corresponds to the phrases above. END ID. ]
