The Real Reason the Harris Twang Is Driving Republicans Crazy

[Coventina]

As is the case for many people who grew up in the Deep South but have lived somewhere else for many years, the Southern accent I once had has given way to the “nowhere man” accent that I think of as generically American. But it comes roaring back when I visit my family in central Alabama, and even lingers for a few days after I have returned to Brooklyn. It’s also a little more pronounced after a martini (or two).

No one gets offended when my Southern accent comes and goes. For Kamala Harris, it’s a different story. Figures on the political right, including JD Vance, Donald Trump and various conservative internet celebrities, have accused Ms. Harris of affecting a Southern accent on the campaign trail, and implied that it was a kind of deception.

Ms. Harris, who is not from the South, wasn’t using a Southern accent, though. As John McWhorter has recently pointed out, what Ms. Harris was slipping into was Black English. There’s nothing unusual about her using Black English because to state the obvious (to everyone except Donald Trump, apparently) Ms. Harris is Black.

So what’s really bothering Republicans? The answer has nothing to do with linguistic purity. It has everything to do with cultural stereotypes — and electoral math.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/18/opinion/kamala-harris-accent-language.html

******************************************************************************************

A very entertaining read.
Apologies for the paywall, I get NYT for free due to being an educator.

[Ocelot II]

1. Gift article, no paywall:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/18/opinion/kamala-harris-accent-language.html?unlocked_article_code=1.L04.g4g_.qAmT3QDt_ytY&smid=url-share

[Think. Again.]

5. Thanks! And here's this one from archive.is...

https://archive.is/wdW48

[brewens]

2. John Kennedy is a republican Senator. The inbred mush mouth is a put on. They need to STFU! n/t

[spooky3]

28. Foghorn is the biggest phony in Congress--and that's saying a lot.

[robertpaulsen]

3. Rethugs never had a problem when Dubya did it.

Born in New Haven, went to Yale, always had a drawl thicker than usual when campaigning in the South.

[LisaM]

20. Right? Except when he pronounced the word "rather".

It always came out "rawther".

[Think. Again.]

4. Thanks for posting this...

You can post non-paywall articles by going to archive.is or archive.ph and pasting the original paywalled article's URL into the second search engine, copy the resulting non-paywalled URL and paste that into you posts.

On DU, you should always also post the original paywalled article link as a source for the article in addition to the non-paywalled link from archive.

Here's the link to the non-paywalled article that I retrieved from archive.is:

https://archive.is/wdW48

...from the original source article at https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/18/opinion/kamala-harris-accent-language.html

[hlthe2b]

6. Yup... Exactly... Really tired of the RW coded language. Nothing wrong with speaking to/knowing your audience.

[unblock]

7. It doesn't "bother"; they're just using it as a mother way to point out that she's black.

Same with the "turned black" comment.

They always want the focus to be on race and sex and national origin and all that crap because all they have going for them is their bigoted appeal.

I really wish everyone would just slap back at them for being bigoted instead of even suggesting that these things are questions or controversies for the target of their nonsense.

[GumboYaYa]

8. My wife laughs at me. When I visit my family I sound completely different than

I do at home. I start using terms like "I might could" and "how y'all doin". I vanquished those from my vocabulary a long time ago.

[COL Mustard]

13. I hear you!

I was a military brat and while we lived in a lot of places, I never realized what a thick Southern accent I had, because both my parents were from the Deep South, and I learned that way of speaking.

We went overseas when I was about 12, and I heard my voice on a tape recorder. I was appalled at what I sounded like, and I dropped the accent in a few months.

Like you, when I’m around family, it comes back to an extent, but most of the time I sound like anywhere USA. I have a generic accent and could be from anywhere.

One thing I really hate is bad Southern accents in movies and TV. If you’re going to play a Southern character, get a voice coach and learn how to speak it.

And by the way, I love me some gumbo!!

[GumboYaYa]

33. It's all about the roux!

Gotta cook it til it is almost burned but not.

[COL Mustard]

34. The darker the better!

Mmm mmm. Now I’m hungry!

[UpInArms]

40. Am not certain that I ever say window

it always slips out as winda

[COL Mustard]

41. Another one is

Plug it up for plug it in. 🤣

[Mopar151]

9. WTF dialect does Trump spreak?

Especially when speaking to an. audience....

[world wide wally]

11. I believe Trump's accent is commonly referred to as Bronxian stupid

(no offense to anyone from the Bronx)

[fierywoman]

30. Mmmm, Long Island girl here, actually his accent (to me, at least) is very Queens (about 10 miles

from where I grew up.)

[COL Mustard]

14. He speaks Stupidian

Mixed with word salad.

[Seinan Sensei]

24. And a side of whine

[FailureToCommunicate]

15. As duplicitous as he is, he speaks in Parselmouth.

Parseltongue.

/revision/latest

[Blaukraut]

16. Central Park Crow

He squawks like a pissed off crow with a NYC accent.

[Aristus]

10. I was born and raised in Texas.

But I have lived in Washington State my entire adult life.

My Texas twang comes back at regular intervals, usually when I’m in a very good mood or a very bad mood.

And I will say Y’all and dang until I die.

VP Harris can speak in whatever mode she chooses, just like the rest of us. There are a million reasons why I’m voting for her. A stupid-ass thing like the repukes’ “concern” over this non-issue isn’t going to change that.

[Skittles]

12. I always knew when a coworker had vistited her family

she'd slip back into country dialect, instead of the clipped corporate speak she had morphed into

[tsSleepyTimeDwnSout]

17. remember the big republican fit over ebonics?

the whole point of calling it that was to emphasize that it is a dialect that partially evolved from Ebo ( apologies if i have that ethnic name wrong).

growin up in nys i was surrounded by all kinds of ethnically- based dialects. the italian (mercan) kids, the irish kids, the polish kids - all had residuals from the motherland, even though almost all were second, or even third generation americans. of course. not an issue.

i once asked a screaming anti-ebonics bigot if he felt the same way about white cajun kids in LA. should their public schools punish them for their dialect?

pathetic. the fact that this all seemed to come from Steve Doofey of Faux negates any reason to consider it.

check out the poignant song "Southern Accents" by our beloved Tom Petty of Fl. tear enducing. ❤️

[Skittles]

18. my English mum LOVED ebonics

said it was a unique dialect, reminded her of Cockney slang

[NBachers]

19. Yup- My Rochester NY Great Lakes accent has been softened a bit, but I still get the knowing "You from . . . ?" by

people up that way. A woman last week wanted to know if I was from Cleveland - she was an ex-Clevelander. It gets more pronounced the closer I get to my little Erie Canal hometown village.

Now I live across the bay from Kamala's Oakland hometown; and I've voted for her in every election she's run in. She's authentic in every way and I love the way she talks.

[tsSleepyTimeDwnSout]

31. ah! Roshster!

i went hs near there. those great lakes "short a's" (bath, hat) -a real identifier!

[NBachers]

35. "Put yer hat back in your backpack before ya have a heart attack"

[LittleGirl]

32. Howdy neighbor

I live in Coasta Costa county near Mt. Diablo.

I’m new here so I’m learning by posts like yours about our new POTUS.

[NBachers]

36. My son and his family live in Walnut Creek within walking distance of the BART station. I can drive over there, but I

like to let BART drive too.

Earlier this year, I drove around Mount Diablo and ended up going way down Marsh Creek Road and found a place called Round Valley Regional Preserve in rural Brentwood. It was a nice place to do some hiking and exploring.

On Edit: Here's a picture from Round Valley:

[LittleGirl]

39. Excellent, looks like my

Neighborhood alright. I’m reading up on the history and settlers of Morgan Territory and I need to go to Livermore. It’s an amazing area and I’m thrilled to settle here.

[COL Mustard]

42. I also like coal country Pennsylvania

Ho but! Are yinz home for da weekend? Let’s go to the Ack-ame and get some beer.

[NBachers]

43. Yuengling

[LisaM]

21. Slipping back and forth between accents is common.

My partner's mother was from North Carolina and moved to Michigan. When she got on the phone to her relatives, her accent shifted completely.

Her father was originally from Pennsylvania and she spent some time there (and went to Penn) so she had a few Easternisms thrown in too.

[joanbarnes]

22. All true.......

......and my Chicago accent comes whenever I turn "Polish."

[3Hotdogs]

23. "....Ms. Harris is Black." Ms. Harris is Black? I seem to remember reading something about that.

When did she turn Black?













Inquiring minds (or at least one inquiring mind) want to know.

[Demobrat]

25. I was born and raised in Chicago.

Lived and worked most of my adult life in California. When I am at work I speak like the educated professionals around me.

When I am at home, tired, or a little tipsy I speak like a B movie Chicago gangster.

I suspect many people have a work voice and a home voice. I like her home voice.

[ailsagirl]

26. Repugs must *really* be desperate to consider Kamala's accent objectionable

[Seinan Sensei]

27. Clarence Thomas

grew up speaking Gullah Geechee
He speaks standard English now.
Does that mean he turned white at some point?

[bucolic_frolic]

29. OMG. When did she turn Southern? /nt

[DavidDvorkin]

37. After 67 years, my South African accent comes back when I hear a South African on the radio

Sometimes it happens even when I think about something from my boyhood. It's a common phenomenon.

[oasis]

38. Because sometimes it be like that.

[John Farmer]

44. We tend to modify our speech to sound like who we've been talking with.

Harris spend four years at Howard University. I'm sure that she rubbed elbows with plenty of Blacks from the south and elsewhere and can easily slip into sounding like that.