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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had a speaking gig the other day. She was one of the keynotes at Al Sharpton’s National Action Network conference thingy. It wasn’t enough for her to wave her Green New Deal flag and diss all Republicans including Trump. Nope! She decided she needed an accent not her own to make a point. And when called out for her ‘code switching,’ she threw a snit fit. Well guess what AOC? What you call ‘code switching,’ is what we call PANDERING.
Here’s AOC’s little speech.
Isn’t that something? Needless to say, folks weren’t happy.
“Ocasio-Cortez’s comments immediately sparked outrage as many accused her of racism, noting that her accent while speaking to black people was similar to how two-time failed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton would speak to black people — which was widely condemned as racist.
Here are some of the responses that Ocasio-Cortez’s remarks elicited on social media:
“This is the end for me. How dare @AOC get up there and disrespect the intelligence and integrity of black folks like that,” Brandon Tatum tweeted. “I literally could not watch this all the way through the first 5 attempts. These Democrats are pimping out black neighborhood in plane view!! Dang shame”
Another Twitter user tweeted: “She trying too hard. The accent is so obvious ‘Ain’t nun wrong with dat’ Every African-American does not talk in this way. I guess you’re trying to ‘win the black vote.’ This ain’t it, @AOC””
Well, guess what? Yes, she was trying too hard, and no, that is NOT how she talks 99.99999% of the time. Not a sign of it while questioning Wells Fargo CEO Tim Sloan, nor when she was supposedly making history (seriously CNN?) by building some piece of IKEA furniture while chomping on popcorn and talking with her mouth full.
But let’s go to tapes shall we? Any accent at her Women’s March speech? How about her speech regarding the Kavanaugh hearings? Anyone hear an accent in there? I didn’t think so. What I did hear is her shrill nasally ‘nails on a chalkboard’ voice. The same voice she used to announce her Green New Deal. The same voice she used during her entire campaign. The same voice she used when interviewed for the cloying Rolling Stone puff piece.
How does AOC handle the criticism? By throwing a Twitter tantrum.
Next time you‘re told straight hair is “unprofessional” & that speaking like your parents do is “uneducated,” then you can complain about code-switching.
Code switching is a tool communities learn when they’re told their voice, appearance, & mannerisms are “unprofessional.” https://t.co/tKPTneEncO
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) April 7, 2019
Code-switching is referenced a lot in pop culture. It was a big element in a major film last year: “Sorry To Bother You.”
If you’re confused about how code-switching is a cultural reality for people of color & communities, read about it.
Some accounts: https://t.co/3YfBR074qs
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) April 7, 2019
So it’s ok to code switch because it was done in a movie?? I don’t think so.
We see the perceived “costs” to not code-switching all the time.
Can’t tell you how many young people in our community don’t have the confidence they should bc they didn’t grow up learning secondary speech.
Their talents get stifled by “respectability,” despite enormous gifts.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) April 7, 2019
Let me guess, slang is the primary speech and speaking in correct English is what stifle’s people’s talents? Why do I have the feeling that AOC would’ve been all in on the Ebonics craze?
https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1114294594282434560?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1114294594282434560&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitchy.com%2Fgregp-3534%2F2019%2F04%2F05%2Faoc-plays-the-victim-after-getting-called-out-for-her-new-accent-at-al-sharptons-national-action-network-convention%2F
No, YOU step back and listen up.
I grew up in Wyoming. Within two weeks of my first semester at Baylor I had a Texas accent and had picked up quite a bit of the lingo. My dad got a kick out of it and for years gave me a hard time about it. ‘What do y’all have to fix in order to do?’ he ask? We always laughed about that.
Then, one year I went to England to study for a semester. Within days I had an English accent. It was quite fun calling home and hearing the response from my family!
Here’s the thing. Anytime I talk with someone from the south whether on the phone or in person, I inevitably pick the accent back up and it stays around for at least a day or sometimes longer.
The difference between me and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez? She did the accent ON PURPOSE. I never have.
Secondly, slang and whatever idioms are in at the time are NOT primary speech. Never have been.
AOC, you can throw a snit fit all you want about being called out for your accent. You can define it as code switching and make tons of excuses. But the fact is, you were pandering to the crowd, just like Hillary Clinton did back in the day (and still does for that matter). You know it, and so do we.
You want to be treated as credible and intelligent? Then act like it and quit talking with your mouth full!
Welcome Instapundit Readers!
Feature Photo Credit: Dimitri Rodriguez, Women’s March 2019 via Flickr, cropped and modified
GWB says: So it’s ok to code switch because it was done in a movie?
Ummm, no….
But note what she’s saying. People who are perceived as lesser status have to “code-switch” to appear of higher status, and that makes it OK to “code-switch” to appear as one of lower class. Especially so you can “connect” and get their votes.
That’s what ‘pandering’ IS.
Their talents get stifled by “respectability,”
Oh, bullcarp. Their talents get stifled because they are told by people like you that they’re no “authentic” if they learn to speak proper English. You don’t have to learn to do it “their way”, even when “they” own businesses and such – because we’ll make sure you get treated as a victim and never have to actually use your talents.
Secondly, slang and whatever idioms are in at the time are NOT primary speech. Never have been.
I’m going to say you’re wrong here, because language is not static, but most of us view it as so because we don’t expect it (a lot of things, actually) to change during our lifetime. Welcome to the age of the friggin’ world wide web.
IMHO, AOC didn’t do it as grotesquely as HRC. But she definitely did it.
Though, it’s possible her justifications are worse than HRC’s ever were. *smh*
Robin H says: If I understand this correctly, she said she’s not pandering but she’s speaking down so they’ll understand? Isn’t that actually worse? That they won’t understand you if you speak correct English? The blacks really need to continue to #walkaway from the democrats.
Tom says: Damn girl you must have a great ear. I lived in Texas for a decade before I got the “fixin'” thing down and after 25 years Texans still called me a Yankee.
Nina Bookout says: I guess. Was a surprise to me as well as rest of the family that I can pick up accents on the fly. 😉
Ruffin says: My two best friends in Army basic were from Maine and Mississippi. I picked up both of their accents at the same time.
My own accent comes out in the last five minutes of the game – hockey or football.
I get a situational accent. AOC did that deliberately.
Pragmatic says: I honestly don’t know why you bother. Attack her ideas – they’re bad. Leave her out of it. You are giving her the exact fodder she wants to dismiss criticism of policy as criticism of the race and gender of the person delivering it. And honestly, given the volume of personal attacks the pundits level at her without mentioning her bad policy, i’m not entirely sure the assessment is inaccurate. She’s annoying, yes. But it’s more because she’s so confident in what she “knows” when she knows pretty much nothing and misunderstands pretty much everything. That’s not a female or Hispanic thing, that’s a lack of experience thing emboldened by your visceral, vocal hatred of her. Please – stick to the policy. Leave her name and style out of it. You are propping her up. The MSM already does enough of that for her.
GWB says: she wants to dismiss criticism of policy as criticism of the race and gender of the person delivering it
WUT?!? You think she would STOP blaming everything on racism and sexism if we just stopped “attacking her personally”. HAVE YOU BEEN PAYING ATTENTION THE LAST 30 YEARS?
without mentioning her bad policy
There’s been plenty of discussion of her bad policies here. And just about everywhere I’ve looked.
that’s a lack of experience thing
Hell no. It’s a SOCIALIST thing. She’s a tried and true, dyed in the wool, useful idiot (that’s not my term, that’s the one the Kremlin used back in the day) for socialism/communism. It is possible she was indoctrinated into it by her college – but that just reinforces the ‘useful idiot’ part. She believes these things because either she wants to deceive people and lead them into an autocracy, or she’s too stupid to engage her brain and think about these things.
emboldened by your visceral, vocal hatred of her
Oy vey. No, she’s not emboldened by criticisms of her financial shenanigans, her pandering, her lying about her upbringing, her pathetic lack of manners, or her incredible vanity. She’s emboldened by all the vapid, low-information voters who think she’s cool and crap because she is a millennial New Yorker.
Oh, and she’s emboldened by the last 30 years of Republicans rolling over and refusing to fight for their declared principles.
You are propping her up.
And you’re surrendering.
Maybe you should go back and read the “visceral” rendings of her actual policies here and elsewhere before you try tone policing anyone into surrendering to the left. Again.
Douglas Frank says: Well even I, a cisheterowhite patriarch, know that if you’re gonna speak blackface, it’s “wit” not “with.” Geez Louise what a piker.
GWB says: Heh. I’ll just leave this here:
https://babylonbee.com/news/ocasio-cortez-suddenly-shifts-to-speaking-like-jar-jar-binks-while-addressing-crowd-of-gungans
Nina Bookout says: Granted I’m a Star Wars fan of the original three … but golly. Babylon Bee can be brutal in its sarcasm!
Michael says: The literal point of “Sorry to Bother You” was it was WRONG for him to do that. He sold out – and did not remain true to himself – so much so he was willing to subject himself to racist experimentation on his body.
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