Adam Aleksik

These words originated as a form of creative expression independent from the straight white norms of the English language.

But when those words began to be used online, they were quickly taken by people who wanted to capitalize on the perceived coolness or comedic value of black and queer culture.

When a word like gyat goes from an African-American English pronunciation of goddamn to being used as a noun for butt in memes like the Rizzler song, it's ultimately exaggerated in a way that makes a farce of its pronunciation and meaning.

Its original importance is diluted as it becomes widespread, and you can be sure that none of the middle schoolers saying gyat are aware of its etymology.

Unfortunately, just like the euphemization of unalive is in you, the appropriation of African-American English also is in you.

We've been whitewashing black slang since the days of cool and high five, which at this point have become so mainstream they're just seen as regular words.

But once again, social media algorithms are a vehicle enabling and accelerating this process from start to finish.

They create communities that feel like they have a space to use their words and then open up those communities just enough to allow those words to spread.

That's how we got Unalive.

That's how we got Cottagecore.

That's how we got Sigma, and that's how we got GYOT.

Whenever I post a video talking about one of these topics, I inevitably get the exact same comment.

We're so cooked.

Meaning we're so screwed.

Ironically, this is also TikTok slang coming from African American English, but I wanted to address it.

Are we, in fact, cooked?

I know I've just painted a very bleak picture of the future of the English language, and there are a lot of concerning trends to unpack.

But these trends all do follow the same historical patterns that we've seen time and time again.

I don't think we're sliding into a dystopian 1984 scenario because we're always coming up with new ways around media censorship.

If a word gets banned, we'll just come up with another word, like we did with Unalive.