Browsing by Subject "rap"

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    New York City Bitch: Linguistic Appropriation and Awkwafina’s Negotiation of Ethnic Identity Through Rap
    (2022) Kung, Caitlyn
    Chinese-American actress and musician Awkwafina has operated in a novel cross-cultural language space due to her unique position as a non-Black person of color who grew up familiar with African American English (AAE). Previous works have evaluated the authenticity of AAE by white and immigrant speakers, but so rarely has its usage by American-born people of color been examined. Awkwafina’s entire discography was examined in comparison to various interviews and spoken dialogue clips in order to assess the authenticity of her employment of AAE. Phonological and grammatical accuracy were evaluated in addition to Awkwafina’s usage of AAE slang terms in order to determine whether her on-stage persona was simply a face put on at the expense of African American culture or if her intimate knowledge of AAE in conjunction with her engagement with her Asian American identity provides new understandings of multi-ethnic social spaces.