“Saturday Night Live” Caught Heat After The Misuse And Appropriation of AAVE During A Skit

There is no question that Black culture heavily influences American/pop culture. There’s also no question that mainstream American culture steals from the culture mentioned above while attributing credit to something completely separate.  

On Saturday night, a skit performed on the long-running comedy sketch show Saturday Night Live (SNL) didn’t go over well with Black folks on social media. The routine was an ill-attempt at using African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) and ascribing it to Generation Z.

bestie’s gonna be okay, right? pic.twitter.com/fhT7DrQrIz

— Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl) May 9, 2021

Reactions from Twitter ranged from disgust to an all-out lesson on why AAVE existed in the first place. 

To all the people that wrote this damn skit pic.twitter.com/zokkkergRD

— ₩ØⱠ₣ⓋⒾ (@SWOOPDIZZY) May 9, 2021

yeah no, this is unacceptable. AAVE is NOT Gen Z slang, it’s NOT twitter slang, and it’s definitely a form of appropriation when used like this so thanks for mocking Black culture.

if a bunch of millennials can do the research, i know SNL can too ⬇️ https://t.co/Vm6hJvRWfU

— chyenne tatum ‎‎‎‎⍟ (@chyandblack) May 9, 2021

This feels very antiblack pic.twitter.com/819ed2SJ3y

— Bri The Best (@So_like_no) May 9, 2021

I’d consider this a form of Blackface. You can call it Gen Z all you want but y’all are only fooling these yt folks

— FREDDIE (@eastbayvicious) May 9, 2021

This is why black people (AA) want to gatekeep aave. Aave isn’t some funny internet language created by some teens on TikTok nor is it slang, it’s a whole dialect with its own rules. Black people have been literally speaking like this during slavery of course-

— My @ makes no sense (@MTimmitjr) May 9, 2021

So y’all wrote a script, acted out, rehearsed, and recorded this sketch, and still saw nothing wrong with it? pic.twitter.com/a6eYxePjlD

— Jammie ;; {} (@jammiemulti) May 9, 2021

AAVE is a creolized version of American English created by enslaved Africans brought to the Western Hemisphere. 

“Creolization is a common process that results from lots of people who speak different languages needing a common means to communicate and mixing their languages together to make one,” The Messenger reported.

Although academia criticizes AAVE, it is a viable and flowing language that continues to expand even after its inception over 500 years ago. 

In 2018, The Atlantic reported that “most speakers of African-American English do learn to code-switch naturally.”

Ultimately, the preservation of AAVE revolves around gatekeeping Blackness. And skits like those portrayed on SNL should be dragged.