Republicans Accuse Kamala Harris of Changing Her Accent Again

[ificandream]

Source: Newsweek

By Emma Marsden

In a fresh wave of criticism, Republican commentators have accused Vice President Kamala Harris of altering her accent again during a recent public appearance.

The allegations resurfaced following Harris' speech at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's 2024 Phoenix Awards Dinner in Washington D.C. on Saturday, September 14, where she appeared alongside President Joe Biden.

Since Harris' appearance at the event, where she addressed the attendees and spoke in an accent that appeared to differ from her usual one, GOP figures have claimed her accent change, tone and manner of speaking seemed tailored to appeal to the audience.

(snip)

It is not the first time Harris has faced such claims. Critics have previously accused her of modifying her speech patterns, particularly when addressing different demographic groups, alleging that the vice president adjusts her accent depending on the audience.

Read more: https://www.newsweek.com/republicans-accuse-kamala-harris-changing-her-accent-again-1954010

---

I'm not sure which is more ridiculous ... what Republicans are saying or the fact that Newsweek thought this was a story. Whoever copy-edited this story doesn't know the job. (Yes, I used to be one.) I would have rewritten the crap out of this thing if I had been given this story to work on. That's before I would have suggested to higher ups that this wasn't a story to begin with.

[Ramsey Barner]

1. I'm glad the article (eventually) mentioned code-switching

"Linguists have often noted that speakers, including public figures, naturally shift their tone, cadence, and vocabulary depending on context, a phenomenon known as "code-switching," especially among those who engage with a wide variety of cultural and social groups."

[Irish_Dem]

2. Everyone changes their tone and word use with different social groups.

We all talk differently to our local minister or mayor than we do at home with our family.

We talk differently to people we just met vs people we have known for years.

And if we go home to visit our family with regional accents, we slip back into that
style of speech easily.

We speak differently to children vs adults.

[pat_k]

27. Absolutely!

When I was commuting regularly to Columbia South Carolina for a project -- staying for a few days or a week at a time, I found myself "picking up" bits of a southern accent. When I was younger I had lived with a friend from Mississippi for a couple years, so perhaps that is where "seeds" of accent got planted. But later on, when I was on a project in Boston, I "picked up" bits of a Boston accent. Completely unintentional. Some accents just seem to be a little contagious. Or maybe some people are just more susceptible to accent contagion.

[Irish_Dem]

32. Both my parents are from parts of the US with strong regional accents.

When visiting those families I still slip into those accents when talking to them.

[SheilaAnn]

3. So what if she did? Spend some time in Mass. and see if after a while you're not pahkin the cahr in the gahraghe.

[ificandream]

7. As a former Bay Stater myself, I love this one.

[twodogsbarking]

14. My mother had a friend from Boston. My mother said you should hear her say "fork".

.

[pat_k]

28. So True!

Just posted about my own experience with accent contagion in Boston and in the south.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143307214#post27

[sinkingfeeling]

4. So does TSF. Sometimes he sounds drunk, sometimes he sounds sleepy, and sometimes he sounds like

a ranting lunatic.

[Kid Berwyn]

5. Gee. Nothing seems to stick.

What to do? What to do?

Time to panic, pukedom.

[LiberalBrooke]

6. They have nothing else.

They cannot attack her on policies so they make up something silly.

[LizBeth]

8. Or that it is a bad thing. I adapt in change accordingly in communication with people

should see how I change for a dog or a child

[ChazInAz]

9. Glad I've never run for office.

I'm an Hungarian immigrant, who grew up in an immigrant neighborhood where everybody had some kind of an accent, usually Eastern European. When tired or angry, my native one pops up occasionally...or the Russian, Lithuanian, or Polska etc. My late wife's sweet little Irish grandmother was convinced that I'd come from her native county Cork. She did wonder why I had that foreign name, though!

[turbinetree]

10. Newsweek is a disgrace.............they are nothing more than clickbait and a disservice to

and form of publication............

[FightFight]

11. Didn't the Trump's change their name from Drumpf--Didnt JD Vance change is last name?

Does that Louisana Republican named John Kennedy--no relation to to JFK--also use a fake accen
https://boingboing.net/2023/11/30/oxford-educated-maga-senators-foghorn-leghorn-accent-is-phony-video.htmlt

[Bayard]

12. She has an accent?

When I moved from KY to MN for a few years, people at work used to grab me and say--Talk for us! I never thought I had much of one since I've lived all over the place. I sound like I never left though, now that I've move back home.

[forgotmylogin]

13. It's not unusual to change your manner of speaking based on the audience.

How many times have you heard someone say "I dropped my southern accent when I moved away, but when I get talking to my family it comes right back out!"

It's also part of the art of public speaking to read your audience and make a connection. Formal speeches in an enormous venue at a podium on an echoey microphone requires your cadence and diction to be different. Speakers can't mumble nor talk fast, they need project their voice, possibly in a higher, almost shouting register and verbally "bullet point" their phrases to give the audience time to absorb and potentially react. In a smaller indoor panel in a chat-show format, speakers can be conversational and personal, using more dynamics in their voice.

Newscasters all speak differently on-air (usually with a generalized midwestern dialect) than they do when conversing in real life. It's common to drop an accent for public speaking and then speak differently when among a friend group. Your team lead who is normally low key and measured at work might cut loose when she's out with her best friends.

We all know these right-wingers speak WAY differently when they're in front of a CPAC crowd vs being interviewed on CNN.

[twodogsbarking]

15. That's all you've got?

[cstanleytech]

16. The nutshot Biden gave them has really fucked with the Republicans heads if this is the best they can do LOL

[ArkansasDemocrat1]

23. Better nutshot that the one this bear gave himself

?si=1qOE1ysTpJ9oTwGD

[lamp_shade]

17. Maybe she does it on purpose. I would.... just to poke him a little.

[jvill]

18. This is why people think Repubs are weird. THIS kind of complaint IS weird...

[tonekat]

20. They act like Mean Girls in HS N/T

[ificandream]

36. Yup.

[Bird Lady]

19. Oh for the love of God...

Don't these people have better things to do?
I wonder when the day they realize they are the suckers and losers will come.
There will be a special place in hell for them and their orange Jesus.

[ificandream]

37. If this nation was smarter, all this dumb stuff by the R's would be ignored.

That's the problem, I guess. We are a nation full of dummies. After all, we elected Trump in 2016.

[SWBTATTReg]

21. Couldn't come up w/ anything more substantial, eh, republicans? Kind of sad and pathetic. But I'm not surprised

being that your candidate is one of the worst candidates ever to run for president. Again.

Cowards in the republican party can't defend their own party, from the likes of djt, so in what way do they feel like they can lecture democrats on anything?

Pathetic, isn't it?

[Wonder Why]

22. When your answer is the same, no matter what the question is, you get

Confused easily. 🤥🤥🤥

[Warpy]

24. Keepin it Klassy, ya Klowns

They sure know how to focus on the important policies that go into running a big country, don't they?

Hell, I wouldn't care if she broke out into Guyanese Pidgin if she has good policies, and she does. And if that's what her audience understood best, why the hell not?

Republicans are just getting pissy because the only language they speak is LIES. Oh, and because they're losing.

[4catsmom]

25. These people literally have

NOTHING to smear her wtih.

[no_hypocrisy]

26. Personally, I don't hear it.

I hear an educated woman who successfully uses Standard English. She also excels at diction, pronunciation, and elocution.

The closest "accent" that I can discern is Northern Atlantic.

[pat_k]

29. When I was six we moved from Chicago to Arlington VA

The school stuck me in speech therapy. They heard the Chicago accent as a problem that needed correction.

Go figure.

[applegrove]

30. My dad used to do that. I'll never forget a distant 5th

cousin from Scotland singing a song he wrote at a family reunion in Ottawa. My dad had a heavy Scottish brogue by the last time we sang the refrain. I've seen him pick up English accents too. He was a very empathetic person. It happens. I'm not saying Kamala did. Just that it is more common that one may think.

[samnsara]

33. my son in law in Scottish and he only has a slight accent until hes.....

...talking with his family. My dtr says 'I cant understand him'

[applegrove]

34. I love a scottish accent. Must be great to have that

in the family.

[Montauk6]

31. I'll bet Bill Barr wasn't sweating her accent

...he was sweating on other things, looks like

[LymphocyteLover]

35. so freaking stupid! Reason #34789099 why Republicans suck

[Vinca]

38. I don't care if she speaks Swahili with an Irish accent, she still makes more sense than Trump.

[onetexan]

39. Huh? Kamala doesn't hsve,an accent. Wth are they talking about?

[Happy Hoosier]

40. Code-switching is common among African-American Professionals.

I know a fwllow engineer. During the business day, his language is, for want of a better term... "whitebread."

But I hav travelled with him (for work) and when he is talking on the phone to family or friends, he speaks differently. Simply put, the dialect of off-work friends and family is differnt from the way he speaks at work. He's the only black guy on my current team, so I am sure he recognizes the situation and responds appropriately.

I mean, I do it too, to a lesser extent. I'm kind of a potty mouth in my personal life. I am not at work. I recognize the different contexts and respond appropriately.