Social trends in America are never framed in terms of class. Instead, we have to reach for other dimensions, in this case race. We could say it’s plain racism

Social trends in America are never framed in terms of class. Instead, we have to reach for other dimensions, in this case race. We could say it’s plain racism that keeps AAVE down. But it’s such an easy theory to falsify: it predicts that white non-standard English would be accepted at job interviews and in press rooms. It isn’t. So it looks like race is one explainer, but not the whole story. It could be a combination of things, except Ockham sneers at those, especially when the elephant in the room—class—gets us so much further than race.