AfricanAmerican undergraduates evaluated two language guises: BlackEnglish and Standard American English. The speaker in these guises described activities in a weekend (informal) and in a business (formal) setting. Based on their scores on the African Self-Consciousness Scale, 55 respondents were categorized as having either a low or high commitment to an African American identity. Results showed that persons without a committed Black identity evaluated Black English as lower on status than those with a committed Black identity. Black English was not perceived as reflecting higher social solidarity.
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