Important things for non-black tumblr users:
not every trendy phrase you see on here is for you to use. in fact, lots of the words i see floating around on here are actually aave (african american vernacular english) and when you use it and you’re not black, that’s cultural appropriation
that includes “not about that life,” “bae,” “____ game too strong” and more. it also includes “swag,” but unfortunately i just know enough people will get angry about that and say they as non-black people don’t have to give it up and that’s disrespectful as hell but i’m just one person
honestly, when you use it, this comes with a looooong groan from me because you don’t have the background that lets a phrase like that have any meaning from you. it also acts to lessen the legitimacy of aave because it becomes a joke when non-black people use it, and black people honestly get all kinds of shit from, wow, everyone else, about how the way we speak is not “real English” and a lot of ableist stuff about our intelligence from it
so like, really, think long and hard about what’s better – you making a ‘joke’ using aave that gets some laughs from your non-black friends and pushes black achievements further into the ground, or being, i dunno, respectful? honestly, you’ll live. omitting a few words that don’t belong to you in the first place will not ruin your life.
i have no idea where most of the phrases i use come from but if you ever see me doing this inbox me so i can stop immediately
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