Thursday, March 28, 2024

TikToker Nakia Smith Schools Users on ‘Black American Sign Language’: ‘It’s Got Seasoning’

*”English is not my first language,” writes Texas native Nakia Smith on her TikTok account.

The 22-year-old African-American woman, who has been deaf since birth, uses her large following on social media to celebrate her little-known dialect: Black American Sign Language (BASL). In her videos, she tells her 400,000 followers about the differences between her language and the standard American Sign Language (ASL).

“The biggest difference is that BASL got seasoning,” she signs in one of clips.

Smith comes from five generations of family members who are deaf. A TikTok she posted introducing her great-grandparents went viral. She began filming more TikToks with her great-grandparents and other family members to share the history of BASL and teach people how to sign. She said that Black people created BASL out of necessity, due to segregated black and white deaf communities. The first school for the deaf opened in 1817, but didn’t begin admitting Black students until the 1950s.

Get more details about Nakia and BASL below:

We Publish News 24/7. Don’t Miss A Story. Click HERE to SUBSCRIBE to Our Newsletter Now!

YOU MAY LIKE

SEARCH

- Advertisement -

TRENDING