Don't Be a Rachel Jeantel
This blog post written by a Black woman, "Don't Be a Rachel Jeantel," advocates for the importance/necessity of being able to code-switch when speaking with and interacting with white authority figures. It's an extremely interesting (but frustrating) blog post that criticizes Rachel Jeantel for a number of qualities that the writer perceived to harm Rachel's credibility/public image; mainly in terms of her apparent inability to be understood because of her native AAL. It follows in the same linguistic vein as many of the critical comments that the Rickford/King paper presented (with the added layer of being from a Black woman). As such, I would just like to note that the post contains many microaggressions towards Rachel. [Published on 07-04-2013]