Vershawn Ashanti Young is a scholar in black studies, English language and writing, and communications. Also known as “Dr. Vay”, he specializes in three specific areas in black studies that include masculinity, writing studies, and also performance studies.[1] Dr. Vay is the co-author of many books and multiple articles about black studies and the importance of code-meshing.[2] Some of these articles include Introduction: Why Anti-Racist activism? Why Now?[3] Should writer’s use they own language?[4] Other People's English: Code-Meshing, Code-Switching, and African American Literacy. Vershawn Ashanti Young has taught at multiple Universities, teaching black studies, English language and literature, communication, and theater.
Young has taught at the University of Iowa, University of Kentucky, public schools in Chicago and Los Angeles, and is currently teaching at the University of Waterloo. Aside from being an educator, Vershawn Ashanti Young is also a performer and an artist, most notably doing a one-man show tour called Your Average Nigga. Dr. Vay has written 9 books, one of which is his 2007 publish called Your average nigga: performing race, literacy, and masculinity.[5] In this book, Dr. Vay discusses how black men have to give up their masculinity and way of speech to sound and act whiter to get an education. Another book from Dr. Vay is Other People’s English: Code-Meshing, Code-Switching, and African American Literacy.[6] Here he distinguishes the differences between code-switching (dialect used at school versus dialect used at home or with friends) and code-meshing (a combination of both). He also researches masculinity in this book and compares Tyler Perry to former President Barack Obama to see what performances they needed to do to be as successful as they had become.