Let me make this clear, there is no such thing as “talking white.” This phrase has been thrown around in the black community for far too long. When an African-American speaks proper English and sounds educated people refer to this as talking white.  How ignorant and degrading this is to the black community. Are we not educated? Do we not have the right to speak properly? Don’t get me wrong, a couple of “ain’ts” may have slipped from my mouth. It happens to everyone- of every race.

“We’re brainwashed to think,” says retired NBA player and current analyst on the program Inside the NBA Charles Barkley, “if you’re not a thug or an idiot, you’re not black enough.”

                                                                                                                                                                  “Think about what you’re saying,” says a young, African American woman in a video response to talking white. “In the same conversation you say ‘the white man’s bringing us down,’ but you don’t realize that you’re actually elevating this race by saying they’re the only ones allowed to speak as though they are educated, and that’s not right.”

Think of the flip side of this: what would talking black be considered?  Music, style, and language reflect a person, not a race.

“No matter what we look like, where we come from, what holidays we celebrate or how we express our faith and spirituality,” says AND Magazine supervisor, Christine Glover, “aren’t we all just people?”