ask the white guy blog
SPEAK LOUDLY, PROUDLY,
ACCENT AND ALL
QDO YOU FEEL THE SAME WAY
ABOUT THE DIFFICULTY OF
UNDERSTANDING AN IMMIGRANT’S
ACCENT (SAY AN INDIAN’S ACCENT)
AND ANOTHER WHITE GUY’S ACCENT
(SAY SOMEONE WHO HAS A STRONG
SOUTHERN ACCENT AND YOU ARE
NOT A SOUTHERNER)? IF NOT, CAN
YOU THINK OF A REASON FOR FEEL-
ING DIFFERENT[LY] ABOUT THEM?
aIn my opinion, many people
(not just white people) will use
an accent as a reason to insult a person with less perceived power. Since
you asked specifically about white
people, I will relate that I’ve heard
white Americans tell people with foreign accents to “learn English.” I’ve
never heard a white person from the
Northeast tell a white person with
a southern (U.S.) accent to “learn English.”I’m sure
it happens from time to time (probably immediately
prior to some unexpected dental work), but it can’t
be common.
That’s because in almost all cases, if the person
with the southern accent is white, he or she is
perceived by white people to be a peer. Peers are
permitted to have an accent.
I have a friend with a prominent British accent
and she’s told me that she finds most American men
find her accent to be “sexy” and she’s used that to
her advantage in getting superior customer service.
A southern accent is considered charming in many
circles. But a “foreign” accent—especially from a
person of color—can be met with scorn and derision,
especially by bigots.
I’ve had the opportunity to travel to many places
on the planet and have found that my brain has
substantial shortcomings processing languages other
than English. Therefore, I humbly understand how
other people could have an accent for many years
after adopting a new language.
At a recent meeting of PRIMER (Puerto Ricans In
Management and Executive Roles, where I am one
of two Anglo members and the 2006 Member of the
Year), I was talking with one of my fellow PRIMER
members who has a fairly prominent Spanish accent
despite two decades of living in the mainland, a
graduate degree from a top continental U.S. university,
and a highly successful career in corporate America.
I had to ask him to repeat a sentence and he
apologized for his accent. I felt terrible about his
apology, so I said, “Please don’t apologize. If I moved
to Puerto Rico, twenty years from now, I’d still be
the guy with a difficult-to-understand English
accent—because that’s just the way I am.”
By the way, have you heard this joke? A person
who knows three languages is trilingual, a person
who knows
two languages
is bilingual
and a person
who knows
one language is
American.
In the most popular area of
DiversityInc.com, Luke Visconti
offers readers the opportunity to
confidentially ask questions regarding
diversity. You can find all questions and
answers at www.DiversityInc.com/ATWG.
Luke is one of two business partners who
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