sorry but once you notice how often ppl use a southern accent as shorthand for being unintelligent you can never unsee it. classism is baked so deeply and why are you acting like anyone who talks the way my grandfather talks is stupid.
ditto cockney accents being used to denote stupid and evil. why are you acting like someone who talks like a member of the working class is irredeemable and an idiot.
Adding 1) hardcore New Jersey accents and 2) Appalachian accents. I’m sure there are many many more examples from everybody’s specific region. But those are the two I’ve experienced in my family.
My grandpa who grew up in the Great Depression talked like a Jersey City gangster. Because he was a Jersey City gangster. He also ran away from that life as a teenager in an attempt to better himself. He became a high ranking USAF officer and a highly respected flight instructor. Despite this, he was still stereotyped as unintelligent for his accent.
My mom’s entire side of the family is Appalachian. I’m talking “warsh,” and “taters,” and “britches” and any stereotype you want to make about “dumb hillbillies.” I retain some features of Appalachian English even after moving further east. I have the vocabulary. And yeah, I say “water” like “warder.” I’ve come to understand that my everyday speech is just dripping with Appalachian-isms. And I’ve been made fun of relentlessly by preppy rich Southerners for sounding like one of the “dumb” Southerners.
This isn’t even to touch on the subject of my friends who have been bullied out of speaking AAVE— been refused jobs, promotions, opportunities for higher education— because of their use of AAVE.
Making fun of someone’s accent is NEVER okay. Equating someone’s accent with their intelligence is NEVER okay. It is always classist, often racist, and it makes YOU unintelligent.
