Once I said “esa,” (the female form) of “ese” (meaning homeboy or homegirl) from around the way way back in the day, during class and a student responded with “what?! you’re a scrap.” I didn’t know it, but I guess to him I was. I was talking like “a scrap.” And come to think of it, I did useta kick it, for a quick minute, with some vatos locos back in the day. Instead of inviting language diversity (my own) into the classroom, I alienated him because “esa” and “ese” are forbidden adversarial terms in his cultural language community.

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