What are yooou doooing?

I saw a post recently on the blog of a black woman (FM), about how if she and some of her friends were on the phone and someone was listening in, people would think they were white folks. Being a white folk, it got me thinking.

I know you can sometimes tell a black person on the phone. How can you tell? I don't know, I guess when I think on it, to me there is a particular accent or speech pattern. I'm trying to think of some specifics but can't right now. And, you know some black folk use the black folk only lingo (most times white folks don't know the code unless they have a black friend translator filling them in). Yeah, I am SOOOO not in the loop on that, that I can't even give a current example, though I remember one of my friends explaining over the weekend how a drug reference to a half bag of a drug somehow translated into a lingo word for a certain size wheel rim on a car... But I can't remember what the word was...

Anyway, back to the thought. Do white folks have a particular accent that makes it obvious they are white? I always just thought it was lack of a specific accent and lingo, but maybe we have our own code that we speak and I don't even know about it!!!

So, the question is: is it just that we sound like June and Ward Cleaver from the 50's, enunciating painfully clearly and sounding like someone with a stick up their butt (thinking of Eddie Murphy's white person impression here, or the Budweiser "Whazzup?" vs. "What are yooou dooing?" commercial), or do white folk fall into a familiar patter when speaking with each other, as I've heard some of the black folks do?

Somebody fill me in here.

Part Deux
12/08 4:40pmish

The original comment that started me down this road was bothering (is still bothering) me, which is why I started this post to begin with. Let me start again, to see if I can find the problem. I don't know if this is right, wrong, ignorant or OK, but it's my perspective, with whatever innate biases it may have, and so, to some extent it is what it is (feel free to add your two cents, in the words of Michelangelo, at age 87, "I'm still learning").

In my business, working with clients, techs, etc. all day over the phone, I talk to a lot of people. Once or twice I have been surprised to somehow find out that someone was black after having known them for a while via phone interactions. I don't form mental pictures the way some people do, so in my mind I wasn't thinking "this is a white person I am speaking to," it was just a lack of knowledge of their race.

I think that is the difference - I don’t think most people pigeonhole all non-accented people as white (in my mind they could be Asian, middle eastern, white, black, etc.). Based on the comment, it seems that some black people pigeonhole non-accented people as white, and also that this has negative connotations associated with it. It’s almost like to have no accent is somehow a denial of black heritage, but I don’t think that this assessment is good or fair (of or by anyone!).

I’m primarily of German descent. You don’t see me hanging around exclusively with other German people, or stressing a German accent in some situations and using a different accent in others. Maybe back in the 1800’s, the Irish hung out with the Irish, the Germans hung out with the Germans, Polish with Polish, etc. But we’ve come a long way, and been fortunate enough to all move on, and become a “melting pot.” Due to unfortunate circumstances that no one alive today had any part in, the Africans, to put it lightly, got a raw deal (there just aren’t words for it that would fit here and suffice).

I’m sad that some of our ancestors did that to some of your ancestors. But, things are changing. Perhaps back in the day people discriminated against Irish people, but I’m pretty sure we mostly don’t today. And, definitely, back in the day people discriminated against African people, but we’ve come a long way. I think it’s somewhat foolhardy to cherish and protect a particular manner of speech that may have more to do with a lack of education or enunciation and really nothing to do with Africa or heritage, but you know what? That’s your choice. I guess the bottom line is: I just wish people wouldn’t discriminate against each other (or anyone else!) if someone speaks differently.