I was born in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, lived in the Midwest most of my life, including the Great Plains and THEN moved to Missouri where I started in speech language pathology courses. My articulation course professor told me I STILL have the Yooper accent after I’d been gone more than 50 years! My mom, born in Wisconsin, could say “Bless your heart,” with the best of them after growing up a military brat in GEORGIA!! DIALECT is all these idiot, pot smoking, kool-aid drinking fuckers have? Aren’t they special.
I was raised in the South. I have lived in the Midwest or North for 20 years. When I go home to KY, I drop into my southern twang as quick as popping out my dress shoes at the end of the day and into my sneakers.
I absolutely love the tack that Karine Jean-Pierre took here, and that Kamala Harris used in her CNN interview. I think it’s best summed up as the “next question response.”
Seeing them refuse to waste their time, or ours, on these racist dogwhistles is bringing me joy.
The media is clearly trying to hook the Harris campaign into explicitly *explaining* her Black identity, on behalf of racists everywhere. I hope responses like these teach the media that it isn’t going to work.
Great article. I appreciate you bringing in the “one drop rule” and the fact that whiteness in the US has *always* believed it got to define blackness.
I grew up with a mid-atlantic accent, but I got a suburban NY one from my family, a southern one from my teachers, and a DC AAE one from school friends and work. It is just not possible for me to avoid lapsing into them when I hear them. Now that I've moved to the country, the drawl is out of control. I just hope no one thinks I'm making fun of them.
I have a similar experience. Birth to age 10 in suburban NYC. 10 to 20 in Tampa while it was still Deep South (Dixie at pep rallies). Four adult years working construction in NYC. Eight years in Maine. Six years in the Mojave. My speech patterns change with audience without conscious effort. Doocy has only one: gormless dingbat.
I never even lived in the south, but for a time in the military almost all of my best and funniest friends had very strong southern accents. For years, whenever I was cracking a joke I would notice that I was using their phrasing and intonations. People do speak on different ways to different audiences and it’s not nefarious.
Many Northerners aren’t able to distinguish between Carolina and Mississippi accents, and many Americans aren’t familiar with the regional variations in British accents other than Cockney. So Doocy and other white conservatives might think that AAE is a Southern accent, but for racist reasons - they don’t care to understand the difference or understand Black people in general.
It definitely merges into the next word and sounds a bit more like “yuhs” in the places I hear it, “Do yuhswant to go to the zoo?” Or the slightly oo and divided s sound “You zwant hottogs or hamburgers?” But I’ve never seen anyone spell it either of those ways, which have a softer s than the z of “youse,” more like in “in use,” not as soft or long as the s in “caboose.”
I would say I only hear it among older Chicagoans but I catch myself addressing my kid and her friends “Yuhsave a good day!” I think the merging with the next word makes it somewhat invisible to the observer in a way y’all can’t be.
Great column. So true and clear as you explained it so well, and of course the “criticism” is so racist to the core. Yet these low lifes at Fox get away with it over and over again. I know their audiences love it, but I truly wonder how they sleep at night.
‘It maddens racists that Harris embraces all aspects of her heritage. Watters compared Harris to Fani Willis because he doesn’t believe the latter can speak “correctly” (i.e. “white”). The repeated claims that Harris is as Canadian as Ryan Reynolds is also meant to diminish her genuine connections to the Black community.’
The contradictions are confounding. Conversely, they would also complain if Harris didn’t speak the way she does. They would protest that she was trying to be ‘too white.’ Honestly, to me she just sounds human as opposed to Trump and Vance.
We all know there’s nothing more “authentic” than a guy with fake hair, a fake tan, fake teeth, who is a fake billionaire with a fake marriage, is a fake Christian, a fake stable genius, fake business acumen, fake Twitter, a fake Patriot, and fakes being a man of the working class.
My degree in Community Development included work in linguistics. This is literally no surprise to me. Use the language to suit the setting.
I was born in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, lived in the Midwest most of my life, including the Great Plains and THEN moved to Missouri where I started in speech language pathology courses. My articulation course professor told me I STILL have the Yooper accent after I’d been gone more than 50 years! My mom, born in Wisconsin, could say “Bless your heart,” with the best of them after growing up a military brat in GEORGIA!! DIALECT is all these idiot, pot smoking, kool-aid drinking fuckers have? Aren’t they special.
I was raised in the South. I have lived in the Midwest or North for 20 years. When I go home to KY, I drop into my southern twang as quick as popping out my dress shoes at the end of the day and into my sneakers.
And just another fun little factoid: there are many Black people in Canada. Had she spent her whole life in Canada, she’d be no less Black for it.
I absolutely love the tack that Karine Jean-Pierre took here, and that Kamala Harris used in her CNN interview. I think it’s best summed up as the “next question response.”
Seeing them refuse to waste their time, or ours, on these racist dogwhistles is bringing me joy.
The media is clearly trying to hook the Harris campaign into explicitly *explaining* her Black identity, on behalf of racists everywhere. I hope responses like these teach the media that it isn’t going to work.
Great article. I appreciate you bringing in the “one drop rule” and the fact that whiteness in the US has *always* believed it got to define blackness.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHGGGllllllllllllllllll
ugh ugh ugh
ugh
Sorry. It's just hard to find words for how sick I am of this BS already.
Well done. Great explainer I wish could be read more broadly.
Thank you!
I think they call that communication.
Unleash John McWhorter!
I grew up with a mid-atlantic accent, but I got a suburban NY one from my family, a southern one from my teachers, and a DC AAE one from school friends and work. It is just not possible for me to avoid lapsing into them when I hear them. Now that I've moved to the country, the drawl is out of control. I just hope no one thinks I'm making fun of them.
I have a similar experience. Birth to age 10 in suburban NYC. 10 to 20 in Tampa while it was still Deep South (Dixie at pep rallies). Four adult years working construction in NYC. Eight years in Maine. Six years in the Mojave. My speech patterns change with audience without conscious effort. Doocy has only one: gormless dingbat.
I never even lived in the south, but for a time in the military almost all of my best and funniest friends had very strong southern accents. For years, whenever I was cracking a joke I would notice that I was using their phrasing and intonations. People do speak on different ways to different audiences and it’s not nefarious.
Many Northerners aren’t able to distinguish between Carolina and Mississippi accents, and many Americans aren’t familiar with the regional variations in British accents other than Cockney. So Doocy and other white conservatives might think that AAE is a Southern accent, but for racist reasons - they don’t care to understand the difference or understand Black people in general.
I defy anyone to spend any time in the South and not start saying “y’all.”
Any y'all have a second person plural pronoun y'all'd like to put forward instead? Thought not.
I am not above “youse”
Yeah, that's a good one. I guess I always associate it with youse guys tho.
It definitely merges into the next word and sounds a bit more like “yuhs” in the places I hear it, “Do yuhswant to go to the zoo?” Or the slightly oo and divided s sound “You zwant hottogs or hamburgers?” But I’ve never seen anyone spell it either of those ways, which have a softer s than the z of “youse,” more like in “in use,” not as soft or long as the s in “caboose.”
I would say I only hear it among older Chicagoans but I catch myself addressing my kid and her friends “Yuhsave a good day!” I think the merging with the next word makes it somewhat invisible to the observer in a way y’all can’t be.
I picked it up in Philly.
Great column. So true and clear as you explained it so well, and of course the “criticism” is so racist to the core. Yet these low lifes at Fox get away with it over and over again. I know their audiences love it, but I truly wonder how they sleep at night.
‘It maddens racists that Harris embraces all aspects of her heritage. Watters compared Harris to Fani Willis because he doesn’t believe the latter can speak “correctly” (i.e. “white”). The repeated claims that Harris is as Canadian as Ryan Reynolds is also meant to diminish her genuine connections to the Black community.’
The contradictions are confounding. Conversely, they would also complain if Harris didn’t speak the way she does. They would protest that she was trying to be ‘too white.’ Honestly, to me she just sounds human as opposed to Trump and Vance.
Why do they care so much about how someone talks and police everyone for everything. They need to mind their own business.
Because they can’t question her on anything of substance without exposing her incredible depth and intellect. The point is to demean her.
We all know there’s nothing more “authentic” than a guy with fake hair, a fake tan, fake teeth, who is a fake billionaire with a fake marriage, is a fake Christian, a fake stable genius, fake business acumen, fake Twitter, a fake Patriot, and fakes being a man of the working class.
^Exactly this! Upvote x1000. How did we get here where nearly half the country is persuaded by a cheap avatar?