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,
00:21the way you might move your hands,
00:23the way you dress, all of that.
00:25Basically, I'll be talking to my homegirls like,
00:27yeah, girl, he did this, he did that, da-da-da-da-da,
00:30ah-ah-ah, all that good stuff.
00:31But then I'll come into work like,
00:32yes, Jim, absolutely, that's great, fantastic 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,
00:45to 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,
00:51it's just us trying to fit in, trying to belong,
00:55trying to, you know, seem 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
01:06that is reflective of our beautiful journey
01:09through the diaspora and all of the ways
01:12that we've managed to maintain a sense of culture
01:16and communication amongst one another.
01:18The problem that needs to be changed
01:20is the value that we assign to the way white people talk
01:25and the way that we devalue the way that black people talk.
01:28When we're in meetings with, you know, our coworkers
01:32or, you know, our managers or whatever it may be,
01:37we might speak in a way where we think
01:40that they would understand us better
01:41or 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
01:52in professional settings to use a quote-unquote white voice,
01:57a.k.a. code switch.
01:59As a black woman, I definitely do think
02:01code switching is imperative because a lot of times,
02:04unfortunately, our tone can be misread.
02:06We will say something in a manner that is bold to us,
02:10but it comes off as being aggressive.
02:11So we have to learn how to say things
02:14so 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, okay?
02:25My parents put me in an all-white private school,
02:28and 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,
02:36and I would talk to my friends in school
02:37in a completely different way.
02:39I code switch all the time, actually.
02:41Not so much at work.
02:42I like to think that I work at an amazing company
02:45that embraces me for all of the different versions of myself.
02:49So I don't think that I'm necessarily
02:52code switching as hard here.
02:54I code switch the most with, like, a bill collector call
02:58or, like, I'm on the phone with somebody's customer service,
03:01and I need them to do me a favor.
03:03I'm like, I was told by AppleCare, like, I will code switch all the way.
03:08And that's just what it is.
