Saturday, March 18, 2017

Code-Switching Isn't About Programming

When I first saw the term, code-switching, I thought it must mean something to do with computer programming.  I had not heard it previously so I looked to know why I did not know it and  that's when I discovered computers have nothing to do with it.

Apparently code-switching came into the language in the Fifties but I had not encountered it previously although perhaps you have.  It means to 'pass' and exist within sociocultural norms other than your own.  It's similar to when a country bumpkin from Arkansas goes to the Goldman Sachs court and comes away with anything more than a job to sweep the floors.

In the Sixties, there was sometimes mixed report when a black person said he or she 'can pass' and of course it's mortifying that 'passing' should even matter but there was also some amusement at defeating this 'honkie' stupidity.  I never knew that was code-switching and write an editorial, if you like, on the displeasure that such a term is even necessary.

It still happens today but it reversed with a segment of the white society adopting many of the mannerisms of the black culture and that gave us switched code-switching for people more mixed up than trying those who sort M&Ms for a living and where the hell are the blue ones?

"If there were blue people, some asshole would hate them." - Redd Foxx


Ed:  you have a bit of an attitude this morning

I have a large attitude when I see Tillerson restricting news coverage of his visit to Korea to Fox, America's emerging state news channel.  It burns my ass when I see his abject failure to engage a multilateral solution to Worst Korean intransigence and instead goes with the drugstore cowboy approach.  We could have sent John Travolta and saved a large pile of money and hassle.

You've got to expect these lowbrow deviants are going to piss me off.  The trick is redirecting thought away from people with such low expectations.

Ed:  you're not too good at code-switching!

Why would anyone want to be good at it, mate?

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