A few days ago I was on twitter going through the tweets and I saw an article that was retweets called: "28 Urban Slangs Terms Every New Yorker Knows".
I read it, and with good intentions, I am writing this article in response.
I am from El Barrio New York, I am inner city, I am from the Hood.
And seeing the language- that I got slandered for- being glorified with 6.3K shares made me angry.
"It's notAxed,its "AHH-SS-KED".
"It's not "mineSS; ITS mi-NE".
"Can you talk correctly please?"
"Why are you saying deadass?"
And to be frank seeing my "slang" being glorified is equivalent for when whole foods starting to sell the Chopped-Cheese for 8 bucks. A glorified sandwich that high school students and late working adults would get because they didn't have the time to cook, funds to get the food to cook, or it was what they could afford with their five dollars until next paycheck.
As I am aware that the writer of the article is- in fact- a new yorker and is being proud the "new york tongue" but it was lost in the article the unfairness and the negativity that is seen when someone who is Black, Latina, with an accent, from these neighborhoods, caught talking like this.
I had to train myself to "talk white".
I had to learn that saying "mah N---a" is actually unacceptable outside of my hood because it's thrown left and right to friends and family.
That saying slang such as "coppin" as an alternative to what I'm really saying, makes kids who are from higher economic class than myself wrinkle their noses and make them go "huh?" ( In reference to the definition the author had used: to "cop" does not mean to buy some random bag of chips, it is mainly used to "cop a dime" or a small bag of weed).
In my first article, I wrote about my experience being blessed to go away for college and coming back to CitiBikes lined up on the gates of the projects and a 7/11 open in front of a public school. What I failed to talk about there was the linguistic gentrification that is also happening within my culture.
White High-middle, and rich class yuppies moving into my "broke down" neighborhood and not only wanting to live this glorified struggle of being a minority, they do so much to even speak the same way I'm being told to correct. These are same words that I need to change about myself while news platform repost and share for popularity.
It's kind of a hypocrisy right?
As I applaud you, fellow author who is from New York, to hold high your culture of the words being spoken around you, bu don't forget it is the very culture we are raised in because we were not born into the safe, nonviolent, non-police paroling, non-graffitied hoods.
Here's a small list of words from the hood:
Finna
Jawn
sqaul
Brody
Bird
Fam
Shook
"got me F--ked up"
Dip
Faded
100
trap
Henney
"makin' it hot"
