AOC's Racist Speech

[BmorePat87]

(04-11-2019, 10:39 PM)GMDino Wrote: While I admit i haven't listen to or watched the video (I serious don't care about the topic of the thread), but voices and accents fascinate me, so isn't possible she always had that accent from growing up with people who did grow up in the Bronx?

I mean she said her mom was born and raised in Puerto Rico so even if they moved to Boston she'd be raised in a house hearing that accent during her formative years.

Our daughter spent a lot of her pre-school years being watched by her grandmother and great-grandmother who were both born and raised in Michigan and she has this quirky accent with certain words and phrases that sound just like them even though she was born and raised in PA.

Additionally if I am talking to someone for an extended period of time I will catch myself slipping into their accent if it is different than mine.  I'm sure I'm not the only person to pull a Zelig.  It's not even on purpose, it just happens.  And I've done it since I was a kid and become fascinated with things like this.

Many public speakers alter their speech tone and accents when public speaking even if it is not to "pander"...it's just a part of what you do when you learn to speak in front of others.  You can always hear it slide back in sometimes though.

So I'd propose she didn't learn the accent later as much as she always had it but also doesn't talk like that in more formal settings.

And I could be totally wrong, but I wanted to offer another perspective.

School plays a huge role in this. I know someone here from England whose kids lost their accent as soon as they started school. You can still keep certain words and phrases when you grow up. I will say "warter" for "Water" and "warsh", "Warshington". This comes from my grandparents who grew up in DC. 

But we know AOC doesn't talk like that. She was putting on an accent. I don't think it's racist and I don't think it's unique to politicians.