Black employees are nearly three times more likely to code-switch than white employees, according to a new poll. Here’s why.

The definition of code-switching has evolved over the years, but initially, it was a term used in linguistics to describe tailoring your language to your present social context.

In this sense, code-switching is where the speaker alternates between two or more languages, language varieties, or informal mixtures of language – all within a single conversation.

Code-switching is not a sign of confusion or language deficiency. Linguists view it as a complex, intelligent response to living in a multilingual environment.