The Switch: Code-Switching and its Effects on African Americans in America

Abstract

This study’s goal is to understand how prevalent these biases and stereotypes surrounding AAVE can be, and how these shape the social, political, and educational views of African Americans inter-racially and intra-racially. It also looks at how this reality that many African Americans face dictates how they navigate the society around them, and identifies the ways code-switching parallels itself to material inequalities that can cause physical, economical, and emotional harm. Beyond this, understanding how the constant cultural pressure to behave in ways that one does not agree with can cause a strong cognitive dissonance that can be extremely stressful, It molds and shapes the minds of our youth, contorts the vision of people of color to believe themselves to be less than and leaves lasting damages on the psyche.