We Hit Peak 2019

[CJD]

(12-11-2019, 05:51 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Mike Bloomberg apologizes for calling Cory Booker "well spoken"
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mike-bloomberg-apologizes-for-calling-cory-booker-well-spoken/


Is calling someone "well spoken" a racist thing now? Since when? Are we not allowed to comment on the fact that out of our last three Presidents, only one has actually BEEN well spoken? Or is that racist because that one was Obama?

W Bush: Mediocre Speaker
Obama: Good Speaker
Trump: Terrible Speaker

I don't get it. It's not like he said "he was SUPRISINGLY well spoken" (which then I could understand as being taken wrong) but it looked like he was just giving him a simple compliment. You listen to Trump, you listen to Booker, and simply their speaking skills are night and day. Can we not comment on that? Or are we just too far into 2019 for that to be allowed anymore?

The term more often used is "articulate."

My wife is black and you'd be amazed how many people tell her how "articulate" she is. 

In college, she worked at a Car Rental place. She had one day where she made a reservation with a man over the phone and when he came to pick it up he said "I mentioned to Dominique on the phone that I wanted GPS but it doesn't show up here on the bill, did she add that to my reservation?" And she replied "yes, that was me, I put it on your order, it was complementary for [reason that I forget, probably a promotion]." And he literally replied "Oh, wow! I thought I was speaking to a white woman, thank you for the free GPS!" Then he just kind of stuttered and tried to correct what he had just said...

It wasn't blatant racism, of course. He just heard a "white voice" on the phone and was expecting the person he was speaking to to be white, but she wasn't and that threw him off enough that he felt the need to point out this discrepancy in his perception to her.

And this has happened throughout her life, especially over the phone. She had a phone interview where essentially the same thing happened. And, after meeting her, the interviewer complimented her on being so articulate (she didn't mention this or anything like it on the phone).

There's this stereotype that black people speak differently or speak more "urban" and informal than white people. Essentially, they speak improperly. And when someone who only sees black people in movies interacts with a black person that just...acts and talks like they do, they feel the need to point it out. Almost compulsively.

It's such a common trope that someone wrote a book about it in relation to Barack Obama.
https://www.amazon.com/Articulate-While-Black-Barack-Language/dp/0199812985

Have you ever been called articulate before? Because I haven't. I've never heard anyone that isn't black be called articulate. Well spoken is a more innocuous phrase, but it's the same concept.

But I understand that it does seem ridiculous to think it's racist if you don't know the historical context. I think "racially insensitive" is probably a more accurate term for it, as the term racism has come to mean "with ill intent" (I don't think racism requires ill intent to be racist, but I know people don't like being called racist for unintentional things. It's a touchy subject.)