California Group Advocates for ‘Black English’ in Multilingual Education

A coalition of organizations in California is advocating for the inclusion of Black English, specifically African American Vernacular English (AAVE), within the state’s existing multilingual education programs. The group, known as Black Californians United for Early Care and Education (BlackECE), argues that recognizing and valuing Black English is crucial for language justice and affirming the cultural identity of Black children.

Challenging Language Hierarchies

BlackECE, a partnership comprising organizations like Californians Together, Catalyst California, and Early Edge, aims to dismantle what they describe as harmful language hierarchies. Their work centers on affirming Black English as a legitimate, rule-governed linguistic system with deep roots in Black history, culture, and community. The coalition’s policy framework includes a 10-point plan that also touches upon reparations.

Ashley Williams, a co-founder of BlackECE, shared her personal motivation for the initiative. She recounted experiencing teasing as a child for “talking white” and expressed a desire to prevent Black children from feeling shame or embarrassment about their natural way of speaking. “I don’t want my son to walk into any room and feel like his voice is not valued or his perspective can’t be heard because he’s not saying it in one way or the other,” Williams told PBS. “But with that comes a lot of shame and embarrassment because you’re being constantly corrected when you’re still in a moment when you’re just learning language.”

Understanding Black English and AAVE

The term “Black English” is a broad descriptor for the linguistic patterns used by many African Americans. African American Vernacular English (AAVE) is its most commonly recognized form. Experts describe AAVE as a systematic dialect with distinct phonological, syntactical, and lexical features. These can include simplifying word-final consonant clusters, using the invariant ‘be’ to indicate habitual actions (e.g., “She be working”), and employing multiple negations.

BlackECE emphasizes that AAVE is not merely slang or incorrect English but a distinct dialect. They provide examples such as “They happy” and “bes’ friend” to illustrate its grammatical structure. The coalition asserts that current multilingual education initiatives often overlook Black children who are native speakers of AAVE, thereby missing an opportunity to leverage their linguistic backgrounds for educational benefit.

Xigrid Soto-Boykin, an early childhood language expert at Arizona State University, highlighted this oversight in a conversation with PBS. “We talk about multilinguals, but we don’t include Black children who may be African-American English speakers,” Soto-Boykin stated. “We completely miss this subgroup of children that could also benefit from their language backgrounds to be sustained, but also to be leveraged for their own learning.”

California’s Multilingual Education Landscape

California, a state with a significant population of children who speak a language other than English at home, launched the “Promoting Equitable Early Learning and Care For Dual Language Learners” program in 2020. This initiative established biliteracy as a state goal and actively promotes multilingual proficiency from early childhood onward. The program represents a notable shift from an “English only” stance to one that recognizes bilingualism as a valuable asset.

BlackECE seeks to integrate “Black English” into this existing framework. Williams recounted her own experiences with linguistic prejudice, noting how family members teased her for “talking white” and how teachers’ insistence on “proper English” made her feel insecure. She believes the core issue is about affirming identity and culture.

“Really at the heart of this, it’s about affirming our identity and our culture and our humanity and not having to perform as something you’re not just to be accepted in a room,” Williams explained. “We know that with being deemed multilingual learners, there’s resources, there’s supports, there’s teacher training. And we’re saying, ‘Yes, and we belong in that conversation too.’” The group believes that acknowledging and supporting Black English speakers within the multilingual education system will provide them with necessary resources and teacher training, ensuring they are not excluded from these benefits.