We Hit Peak 2019

[BmorePat87]

Calling black people "well spoken" has been an issue for a long time.

This op-ed in the Baltimore Sun from a few years back discusses it:

https://www.baltimoresun.com/opinion/op-ed/bs-ed-racism-20160904-story.html

It's often times unintentional and the person who says it earnestly thinks they are complimenting the person. It often times, however, carries a connotation that the person should not be well spoken because of their background. There's unfortunately a presumed lack of education and the code "well-spoken" speaks to this belief that they break through that.

This came up in the 2008 election as well

https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/04/weekinreview/04clemetson.html


The League had a bit about this and how black coaches are called "class acts"





Further readings:

https://ideas.ted.com/why-we-need-to-call-out-casual-racism/

https://thenorthstar.com/articles/why-knowing-the-history-behind-well-spoken-and-uppity-matters



Explicit bias is easy to identify and we often times rally behind ridding our society of it. Unintentional bias still exist, however, and when we understand those unintentional biases, we can make a lot a progress by working to overcome them.