There were so many things running through my mind as I read these articles. I "flashed back" to my childhood when I would say something and my older brother would say, "Don't say it like that or others will think you're a 'Country Bump!' " He was not being mean, he just didn't want people to say negative things to me or think negatively about me.
My mother grew up in the NC mountains (Bakersville) and the dialect from people who live there is different than from where we live. I grew up with family members saying words like "yuns" and "y-hear." This was normal to me and I didn't think anything about it...these people are family- ones I dearly love. As I was reading the Delpit article, I thought about these words and about how I "unconsciously acquired" (Krashen) some of the vocabulary from my mama's family. These words seemed even more foreign when you added them to my very-pronounced-Southern-drawl.
Growing up, I really didn't have to worry about "being different" because of my speech because a lot of kids, in the younger grades especially, accept others as they are. This is probably also because my older brother called my attention to my speech quite often. I think I started really paying attention to the way I talk when I started taking a public speaking course in college. I started to try really hard to not talk with such a pronounced Southern drawl.
I still am very conscious of my accent when talking in front of people, including my students. When I am around my friends, I relax and my accent becomes more pronounced. After reading Delpit's article, I now know this is "code-switching." I do not want people to stereotype me just because of my accent and so I change it depending on whom I'm talking to.
I wrote about all of this to make the point that biases come about not only from race...I think we all are stereotyped at one time or another for one reason or another. I do, however, think it's extremely sad that some people feel they need to change "physically" in order to be accepted. My heart went out to both of the girls in the articles we read because they felt they needed to change physically, among other ways, to be accepted by peers.
Marsha Warren
Comments (1)
“Accept others as they are,” what powerful words. Wouldn’t it be a wonderful world if everyone lived by those simple words? I feel better about my accent after reading everyone’s comments. Somehow it’s comforting to know that I am not the only person that worries about my Southern drawl. Like you I am very conscious of speaking in front of my students and their parents. I make a conscious effort to speak correctly. Pam Aubuchon
Posted by Pam Aubuchon | June 7, 2010 10:26 PM
Posted on June 7, 2010 22:26