The simple answer would be the histories of these two practices dictate both the connotations and denotations of these aesthetic styles. The only problem is history in itself does not always offer holistic interpretations of actions that take place in the present. Therefore a professor in a certain type of urban clothing can bring tensions to the perception of what we think a professor should wear. This action and tension becomes a political statement of resistance to normality. This is a normality that can reign true even if inversed.  The inverse being: a very intelligent man in urban wear and a very ignorant man in professional wear.

Through this inverse we find nuance. There is also the nuance of the same professor living in both worlds. That is to say that there can be one person that wears baggy cloths when going to a family reunion and wear a shirt and tie when presenting a lecture in a college classroom. The difficulty of stereotyping and the process of code switching are both included in this nuance.

Stereotypes are so dangerous because the presumptions we make are not only many times wrong, but also potentially detrimental to the individual that we place those judgments onto.

Chad Nilep from University of Colorado defines Code Switching as a practice of parties in discourse to signal changes in context by using alternate grammatical systems or subsystems, or codes. I will further Nilep’s definition and say that code switching is not only a linguistic activity, but it is also a social act. In the same way that clothing can mold our perception of people language does so in a very similar way.

So how do we keep these two things in context with behavior?

Well, its simple, stop judging people.

The nuance comes in when you leave the liberal paradigm behind and have to actually interact and ultimately survive in the world. This is when code-switching offers black youth an opportunity to have a comfort zone while simultaneously conforming to the real world.

One of my ten year old student who wants to be a lawyer said the following:

“I aint got nothing to do today”

I do not want to pretend that this sentence would be okay in every context. But I also want the student to know what spaces this would be appropriate to say and what spaces he would be judged for using that type of grammar.

I simply told him, if you were at your law firm you would probably say this:

“I do not have anything to do today”

And then I proceeded to explain the nuances of Ebonics and code switching. I went on to say how some spaces would consider certain words or clothing suitable and how other space will deem the same words/clothing unsuitable.

Ultimately, I want to live in a world where intelligence ratings will not be dictated by cultural and environmental surroundings. I want to live in a world where professors can wear baggy jeans and not be judged. I want to live in a world where young boys and girls don’t have to learn to code switch so they can get a job. Unfortunately, I do not see that world in the near future.