They ultimately associate things like financial success, upper neighborhoods, top-ranked schools, and outer appearances with the way in which they choose to speak and act.
You can end up mentally drained from code-switching.
Code-switching comes along with the task of balancing it all.
You have to essentially juggle who you truly are, with how you want to be presented as and seen.
You have to now balance how you speak, how you dress, how you walk, your responses, your facial expressions, your laugh, your choices in food, music, and your stances on everyday news and politics.
It’s a never-ending juggling act that will leave you drained and affected.
You may forget who you are.
Through all of this, you end up with just you.
At the end of the day, when you’re home alone or with your close family and friends, you may feel disconnected in some sort of way.
Maybe it’s due to all of the extremities of code-switching you’ve had to do the majority of your day and week. Or due to you now relating more to the other side of the coin. Whichever it may be, code-switching will always come with a price.
Do you code-switch? Chime in on the conversation on www.BlackDoctor.org.