Random thread summarizing a HUGE misunderstanding I've been observing through different threads regarding the country Chile and the AAVE word chile (lowercase "c")

First of all, Chile and chile are homographs. Spelled the same, pronounced differently. Also have different meanings. Chile (capital C) is a country. chile is a word in AAVE that means "child."

AAVE is African American Vernacular English. A dialect (I think it's considered one now) in the U.S.

When I was growing up, it was referred to as ebonics, but now the correct term is AAVE to specify the group.

Here is where a LOT of issues clashed simultaneously:

Chile (the country) has been going through a lot of issues for a while due to political issues, and the pandemic has made everything worse. So a lot of Chileans have been asking people on twt "please do not use the word chile because we cannot find news about our country."

On twt, the AAVE word "chile" has been considered trendy, HOWEVER, a lot of people in the U.S. AND internationally don't seem to know that this word has been around in African American culture for years.

The word didn't happen recently. It's been used for a long, long time.

The problem is that "stan twitter" has decided to use this and other AAVE words as some cute and trendy new lingo. But it isn't new. As usual, people have stolen again from African American and Black culture.

So there has been a LOT of misunderstandings.

There was a tweet that said "There is no country called chile" and I think this person meant it in the AAVE context.

The thing about the internet is that people drop or use lowercase and uppercase randomly. More confusion.

People on stan twt also use the word "chile" wrong. And A LOT of people apparently did not know how it was pronounced because they've only seen it online. (Which also means they've never heard someone say it)

So Chile and chile look the same. And an algorithm treats it the same.

So there has been a lot of surface level anger where some people have said "I won't care about the U.S. because they don't care about us" regarding the use of this word.

At the core it's just layers and layers of misunderstanding due to internet culture and stolen/misused words.

Some people who have only seen the AAVE word "chile" online and use it seem to think it is pronounced like the country. It is not. It also does not mean "chill" or "chilly." It is literally the word child without the d.

I don't think people are ignoring the country. But it's not okay to tell people "don't use this word" because people who use AAVE have always been told "don't talk like that. Talk properly."

And now they're being attacked for their own language being stolen and used as a trend.

It's really insensitive to say you don't care about the U.S. regarding the use of this word, especially because it was stolen by the internet masses and now people who use AAVE are being targeted. More ironic is the fact that people say "don't use it" but use other AAVE words.

To see someone say "I don't care about the U.S. because you don't care about us" and ALL THE REPLIES are "yas preach" "periodt" "yas sis"

That right there was painful to see.