Dumbing Down?

I will be the first to admit that I am completely, without a question, guilty of this. I am very refined, professional, and almost bourgeois when I am at work. I laugh and smile at the corny jokes, I wear the “uniform”… muted colored, casual, yet preppy, not-quite-so dressed up look, and I put that high … almost squeaky, inflection in my words that gives an essence of pertness and vigor. All this “fakeness” helps me to fit in at work … a world where I am successful and coveted for my experience and knowledge. When I am around my friends, I chill a bit more. There is more slouch in my posture, more slang in my vocabulary, and in general, just a bit more ruggedness in my overall demeanor. I bump my music as onlookers bob their heads, I speak with the vernacular of the streets, even though I fight to stay current with the ever-changing, and even more confusing slang of the week. No matter which situation I’m faced with, I struggle to fit in … always on the edge of being discovered and portrayed as the fraud that I am. The little mixed-breed mulatto … searching for acceptance.

Back to the discussion … Cora Daniels asked that young lady in her audience where she felt more comfortable … at work or at home. Without so much as a blink of her eye, the young lady stated “At home.”

“Than that is who you should be,” Cora proclaimed. That simple … but was it really? That made me begin to take a long hard look at my life and who I am … what defines me or what is it that I allow to define me?

Looking at my life and who I am as a person, I can say that I definitely think I speak proper. I articulate my thoughts and pronounce my words. I use proper noun-verb agreement and actually understand what a past predicate and present participle is as well as how and when to use them. To my friends, I am speaking “white.” I never quite understood what that meant ... to me, it is simply speaking proper English. I also try to behave in a manner in which I would like to be treated. I speak and smile when I pass somebody. I hold the door for people and I read … a lot. Some people (mainly my black friends) call that speaking or acting “White.” I call it simply being proper, polite, educated, and friendly.