Race and Speech Patterns
Harry Reid has come under fire for his statements about the benefits of President Obama’s speech patterns. The statement in question is that then-candidate Obama didn’t speak in “the negro dialect” unless he wanted to.
I am a little torn on this issue. There is a dialect, one could call it an accent, that could be called stereotypical of African-Americans. Perhaps the key is the word stereotypical. I know many African-Americans that speak in the same cadence, pronunciation and word-selection as I do. I also know a number of Caucasians that speak in a manner that is very different than me.
So can adults discuss this issue without appearing as a racist? If there is a speech pattern that would be stereotypical of African-Americans, is there a non-insulting way to describe that dialect? I suspect that we all understand the idea that Harry Reid was trying to convey in his private conversation. There are a number of people that wouldn’t vote for a black candidate that speaks stereotypically. Of course, we don’t have a problem electing a guy that talks like he just fell of an Texas turnip truck.
I am prepared to be skewered by this post, so skewer away.
Tags: Harry Reid, President Obama, racism
Yes, there is a speech pattern that is stereotypical of African Americans, and no, there is really not any politically correct way to describe it. Just like there is a speech pattern that is stereotypical of some Caucasians that live in the South. Just like there is a speech pattern that is stereotypical of some Caucasians that like in North Dakota, Minnesota, Alaska, and Canada. JUst like there is a speech pattern that is stereotypical of some Indian immigrants.
What Harry Reid said is not racist, though it may be stereotypical. My problem with what he is said is the words he uses. “Negro dialect?” Who uses those terms, either separately or together?
So can adults discuss this issue without appearing as a racist?
White adults? No. Unless you are Bill Clinton.
it’s not like he could say “ebonics”. (nor would that have been accurate since ebonics is inner city rapper slang usually spoken by rich white kids)
Of COURSE there is a slighty different speech pattern. For the bulk of this nations history the races were kept separate. When you do that, dialects form and accents change. Im sure it happens, but i have NEVER heard a black person speak with a “southern accent” or even a Midwestern accent.
(i have heard a white guy with a THICK carribean accent, but he was born and raised in Trinidad)
I’d say Obama has a neutral accent. The same way most tv news anchors, regardless of race learn to have non accents. It just makes it easier for everyone to understand them.
Well, now we know why Steele wasn’t fired last week. He was needed to lead the call for Reid’s scalp. White guys take their (political) lives in their hands whenever they talk about race.
And now the GOP cannot fire Steele. Steele probably sent Harry Reid a nice bottle of scotch or chocolates thanking him.
Of course they can still fire Steele. They won’t because they don’t want their soft bigotry of low expections be on display.
“There are a number of people that wouldn’t vote for a black candidate that speaks stereotypically.”
Obviously, Mr. Reid’s concern was that those people were Democrats.
There’s a banal point.
Yet, even if you can’t admit it, relevant to the discussion. Reid was merely making a condescending assessment of Obama’s saleability to the uninformed masses.
It worked.
FYI The linguistics term for the “dialect” to which he is referring is “African-American Venacular English” (AAVE). However, this really only referrs to a family of dialects as an African-American speaking in the venacular from Alabama will sound very different from an African-American speaking in the venacular from the Bronx. It is actually a facinating area of study, as is the sociological implications of how some African-Americans esentially speak two dialects of English; one around their peers and another in “white” society.
See, now if Harry Reid had just said that, wouldn’t people have been more understanding? 🙂
Actually, “ebonics” started as an academic term, coined in 1973 by African-American scholars (incidentally, this was just the year after a book on AAVE was published using the term “Negro dialect” in the title). Ebonics is now basically a “layman’s term” for AAVE, which being the duller term, naturally was the one adopted by the academic community.
Reid was merely making a condescending assessment of Obama’s saleability to the uninformed masses.
It worked.
No more condescending than what gets usually said by white people about black people they judge to be acceptable. And certainly it is a banal point that there is are specific ways of being black that are more acceptable than others to white people. That would be a banal point.
I seem to remember that Oprah was part of a media storm about ebonics. There was a movement among African American academics to teach AAVE and Oprah called foul because she felt it handicapped people to speak a different dialect from mainstream society.
I have known white candidates who attend “charm school” coaching to overcome speech patterns that do not appeal to voters. Most candidates alter their wardrobe for campaign appearances, i.e. blue is a sincere color and green isn’t. There are a lot of little nuanced things that can work for or against any candidate, and the serious candidate spends time and money on these “image” issues.
And, I can imagine a conversation among party members where a candidate is being evaluated and speech patterns and appearance are put out on the table. I can imagine comparing two candidates based on these factors. It is a brand discussion and it could certainly be racist in so far as it reflects voter attitudes. But it isn’t racist on the part of the party member who is trying to find the most electable candidate. You will all remember that the Hillary supporters called “sexist” and with some justification.
The key factor to me is that my party was talking about an African American candidate and a female candidate for the highest office in the land. The members of my party had elevated both of these people to the position of serious contenders. We had all gone to the polls and voted for a black man or a white woman in the primaries. Can you imagine that happening in a Republican primary??
Reid’s comments were probably pretty blunt and unfortunately reflective of voter prejudice but I don’t think they would have been seen as racist if taken in context. It probably was more like comparing an apple and an orange and observing that the apple is red and the orange is orange and how will voters respond to red or orange when they go to the polls.
Alterman cuts to the quick:
But “negro” has never been a slur, it is just not the preferred term of the alleged spokespeople for linguistic correctness. The idea that what Harry Reid said is genuinely offensive to anyone is comical. And if you see anyone acting like it is, even if they are merely asking the question on some dumb cable show, then you can conclude that that person is purposely full of shit and ignore everything he or she says for the rest of your life.
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/altercation/515766/you_can_cut_the_pressure_in_game_change_with_a_butter_knife
But “negro” has never been a slur
I’ll defer to Morgan Freeman on that.