DW2B

We all desire a place where we can be ourselves. Maybe not even ourselves, but something better. What if there was a place where we could have people look at us and only see what we wanted to see. Our strengths would be highlighted and our flaws would be disguised. Above all that, what if there was a place where we could enhance ourselves and give ourselves characteristics that we do not poses. There is one simple solution, the internet. There are thousands of social networking sites. One in particular is Blackplanet.com. This is a place where mostly persons of African American descent can come and meet other persons. The key principle about the site is you can show others browsing the site who you want them to see, whether or not it is really who you are. This allows many users to voice their opinions and express emotions and ways of means that they usually would not in the real world.
For example, I found that almost all of the users on Blackplanet.com dabbled in AAVE as well as rhetorical features. I found that many of the users used braggadocio and signifying when describing either themselves or just talking about things in general, “I be humble, down-to-earth, cool and collective brotha”, says one of the users from black planet. You can see in the users phrase AAVE features such as “be”. It looked as if the users were very comfortable using AAVE terminology which I usually don’t hear in a school setting or in most places. I did a course reading by Knadler entitled “E-racing”. His article supports that many people find it easy to go on the internet and use it as an outlet. It is a way to express who they are, as well as be who they want to be. Knadler writes that “ Rather than celebrating the e-space of their Web-based portfolios as utopias of alternative self-fashioning, many first-year Spelman students (who are all Black and female) re-constructed them as sites of what I call resistant memory where they might be seen, heard, and—most importantly—“felt.”’(Knadler 236) Knadler shows that African women can go on these social networking sites, such as Blackplanet.com, and have that freedom to express their individuality or be what they want people to see. When people go on Blackplanet.com or any other of these social networking sites they do not have to make excuse for who they are. They will no longer be judged. Knadler believed this. Knadler shows that finally many black women finally feel they have a place where they can speak AAVE or how they want and will not have that prejudice or discrimination placed on them, “finding the ideal community where she no longer has to explain or apologize for her “Blackness” and where others understand her as she understands herself”( Knadler 236).
I found that Blackplanet.com and they reading I did represent AAVE very similarly. Blackplanet.com actually shows how AAVE is appropriated, being used, and people actually expressing themselves. While the Knadler article shows that it is okay to use AAVE and using the internet as an outlet is a perfect solution. I found that in Knadlers article that one student wrote, “Once a net surfer has checked out my web-based portfolio, I want him or her to have a sense of who I am as a person. . . All of these works are representative of me. . . and in general are just me”(Knadler 236), I found this to be a rhetorical feature of braggadocio and found it consistent with many of the articles on Blackplant.com. Being able to voice your opinion is so important, whether you are voicing in it in AAE, AAVE, or any other form, just as long as it is being heard!