Tupac Shakur (image via The Source)

This might be strange coming from a middle class white girl, but I find Tupac Shakur fascinating. About a year ago, I was researching the topic of accent prejudice (prescriptive versus descriptive grammar) and decided to narrow my focus to African American Vernacular English (AAVE). There is a lot that I could say about the research and the contents of the final essay, but in sum, accent prejudice has far-reaching implications with heavy roots in classism and racism. The reason I mention this paper at all is because Shakur’s work is an excellent example of someone refusing to bow to societal pressure to speak in “acceptable” prescriptive ways. Continue reading →