How Black culture is shaping Gen Z slang: Appreciation or appropriation?

Scroll long enough on TikTok or Instagram — or simply watch reality TV — and one might assume anyone under the age of 25 is speaking a different language

Scroll long enough on TikTok or Instagram — or simply watch reality TV — and one might assume anyone under the age of 25 is speaking a different language.

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Terms like “rizz,” short for charisma; “cap,” meaning to lie; and “lit,” referring to something enjoyable, are a few examples of Gen Z slang that are shaping how many young people communicate today, both online and in person. In some pockets of the internet and academic circles, interest in the origins of those words and the phrases they give rise to is growing, alongside questions about why their history often gets lost.

Many of the Gen Z terms, language enthusiasts say, once permeated Black subcultures, including early hip-hop music and underground drag culture, and were not fully accepted or respected by the mainstream. Words with letters dropped off the end or entire phrases strung together to form new words were seen as improper speech of the uneducated and poor. Today, many of those words fill out the default dialect of an entire generation — regardless of race, region or class — living online. But critics have called out the erasure of the Black origins of African American Language and point out how non-Black Gen Zers are using it without even realizing its cultural significance.