WEEK 5

Don’t ask me where I am from, ask me where I am local

What is your experience with codeswitching?

I didn’t know what codeswitching was. Hearing and learning about it I realized I codeswitch all the time. It even got me thinking. What is my identity? When do I codeswitch and in what environment am I myself. Have I learned myself so much of adapting to other people that I completely lost the essence of myself and if so, who am I. Learning about codeswitching got me really confused. I know myself as being a peoples pleaser and always make space for others. I always want the majority of people to like me and can’t handle a situation in where someone doesn’t. It’s something I want to change and I still struggle with quite frequently. For me growing up in a white dominated town, made me want to be as white as possible. I was always the person with the most foreign features and it made me stand out. I always adjusted my behavior to fit in and made their ways my own. This made me not like my Surinamese side. It always felt like a part of me, that made me feel excluded and not like everyone else who had a regular white dutch family. This made me feel like my family had weird traditions and they were always too exuberant. I didn’t want anything to do with all of this and because of that took my distance from my Surinamese/Black side. Instead I had more affinities of being more around my white dutch family. It also felt easier for me, because with them I knew how to adapt myself more easily. After all I was used to adapting mostly in white environments. Now that I am older it goes the other way. I feel like getting more in touch with my Surinamese/Black side and starting to see and dislike the ways of thinking and the morals of my white family.

What do you understand codeswitching is?

Codeswitching is whenever you adjust the way you act, speak, present yourself to the situation/environment you are in at the moment as a way of blending in and not standing out comparing to the majority of people you are with. It can also be as a way of opening doors to yourself. Where you create the possibility for yourself to have a seat at a table where it is not obvious because of a domination in white people, men, upper class etc. Codeswitching can also be a protection mechanism. For example in the United States, where black people adjust there behavior whenever they are around police or get pulled over. There is a lot of police violence towards black people, so when they follow the rules and behave or act a certain way, there is more chance nothing will happen to them. Whenever a black person is not able to codeswitch, they could be shot at or be harmed or killed in another way. So in this case it is not about having a way of fitting in, but about the adjustment of behavior to protect and try not to trigger the police.

What happens when you codeswitch?

Code switching mostly happens unconsciously. It is a way of adapting to an environment. This can be while switching languages, while being with certain people. You change a little bit. Sometimes a little bit of yourself, sometimes a different version of yourself.

What was the topic you wanted to dig into?

The topic I wanted to dig into in the first place was being biracial in western society. What does it mean to be biracial, what do you deal with being biracial, how does this connect to code switching? What does it do to your identity being biracial, Racial imposter syndrome.

Why does codeswitching happen?

Speakers may switch from one code to another either to show solidarity with a social group, to distinguish oneself, to participate in social encounters, to discuss a certain topic, to express feelings and affections, or to impress and persuade the audience.

Colorism within codeswitching