00:00Do you code switch?
00:01We break down what code switching is.
00:03Code switching is the switching or alternate uses
00:07of different languages or linguistics in conversation.
00:10So code switching is more than just a voice, too.
00:13We code switch with our hair.
00:15We code switch with the kinds of conversations
00:18that we choose to have in certain settings.
00:20The way you present yourself, the way you
00:22might move your hands, the way you dress, all of that.
00:25Basically, I'll be talking to my homegirls like, yeah, girl,
00:28he did this, he did that, da-da-da-da-da, ah-ah-ah,
00:30all that good stuff.
00:31But then I'll come into work like, yes, Jim, absolutely.
00:33That's great.
00:34Fantastic idea.
00:35I think that's wonderful.
00:36Black people are really resilient and ingenious in that way
00:39where we can deploy all kind of different tactics
00:43to achieve a certain social mobility, to keep ourselves safe.
00:46I mean, I'm definitely code switching
00:48when the police will be over.
00:49I feel that when we code switch, it's just
00:52us trying to fit in, trying to belong, trying to, you know,
00:57seem or be deemed appropriate in their eyes.
01:01The problem is not with the way Black people talk.
01:04Black people can and do speak in a way that is reflective
01:07of our beautiful journey through the diaspora and all of the ways
01:12that we've managed to maintain a sense of culture and communication
01:17amongst one another.
01:18The problem that needs to be changed is the value that we assign
01:23to the way white people talk and the way that we devalue the way
01:27that Black people talk.
01:28When we're in meetings with, you know, our coworkers or, you know,
01:34our managers or whatever it may be, we might speak in a way where we think
01:40that they would understand us better or a way where we feel like that speaking
01:46is going to get us ahead in life.
01:48Intelligence is often linked to whiteness.
01:51So Black people are often encouraged in professional settings to use a quote
01:56unquote white voice, AKA code switch.
01:59As a Black woman, I definitely do think code switching is imperative because a lot
02:03of times, unfortunately, our tone can be misread.
02:06We will say something in a manner that is bold to us, but it comes off as being aggressive.
02:11So we have to learn how to say things so that they're easily recepted
02:15by the people that we're talking to.
02:17I learned how to code switch at a very young age.
02:20I've been code switching.
02:21Let me see.
02:22I was born in 93.
02:23I've probably been code switching since like 96.
02:25Okay.
02:25My parents put me in an all white private school and that is just all that I knew.
02:31I would talk to my friends one way.
02:32I would talk to my parents one way.
02:34I would talk to my church groups one way and I would talk to my friends in school
02:37in a completely different way.
02:39I code switch all the time actually, not so much at work.
02:42I like to think that I work at an amazing company that embraces me for all of the different
02:47versions of myself.
02:49So I don't think that I'm necessarily code switching as hard here.
02:54I code switch the most with like a bill collector call or like I'm on the phone with somebody's
03:00customer service and I need them to do me a favor.
03:03I'm like, I was told by Apple care, like I will code switch all the way.
03:08And that's just what it is.
03:09I say.
03:10Okay.
