Your brand is not a black person

Before you start adding Gen Z slang into your brand’s marketing channels, socials and more. Read this.

There seems to be an apocalypse of brands using language that is actually ebonics and not Gen Z slang.

Why does this matter?

This language being used incorrectly by non black people for sales is offensive.

Black people who naturally speak this dialect have to code switch in the workplace.

Using this dialect can often mean discrimination or non-employment all together.

Due to the impact of Tik Tok, language has traveled faster than ever. Specifically ebonics.

There are people all over the world misusing a dialect black people have gotten ridiculed for, for years and somehow renamed it Gen Z slang.

Words are not just words when the context is so dark.

So before you and your social media team decide to hop on the latest Gen Z slang train.

Ask your team this:

• Is this actually Ebonics recycled as “Gen Z slang” and I don’t know about it?

• Do I even know what Ebonics is?

• Is using language I saw for the first time a week ago going to bring me closer to my customers?

• How am I going to recover if I rightfully piss off people for using language I never fully understood?

• Will my brand fail if I don’t follow every trend?

• Are you high right now? Do you ever get nervous?

This should be a good start. Happy Marketing!