Does This Yale Study Explain Why Ocasio-Cortez Used a Bizarre Accent To Talk to a Room of Black People?
A Yale study suggests that liberals change their speech when they’re addressing black audiences, which could explain why Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spoke in a bizarre accent while speaking to a predominantly black audience.
Ocasio-Cortez was widely criticized after she broke out a bizarre Southern drawl during a speech to the National Action Network convention Friday.
“I’m proud to be a bartender. Ain’t nothing wrong with that,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
The far-left representative also told the mainly black audience that there’s nothing wrong with folding clothes, cooking, and driving buses.
The entire clip is hard to watch, and it’s painfully obvious that Ocasio-Cortez is patronizing the audience.
Ocasio-Cortez speaks in an accent that she never uses while telling a room of predominately black people that there is nothing wrong with them folding clothes, cooking, and driving other people around on a bus for a living. pic.twitter.com/FIbIAPokt0
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) April 5, 2019
Ocasio-Cortez tried to explain that she used the accent because she “grew up in a distinct linguistic culture” and had to learn to “navigate” different class environments.
In other words, the representative claimed she was simply “navigating” a different environment when she used a different accent to speak to a black audience.
Folks talking about my voice can step right off. Women’s March & Kavanaugh speech, same.
Any kid who grew up in a distinct linguistic culture & had to learn to navigate class enviros at school/work knows what’s up.
My Spanish is the same way.
These conspiracy mills are 🚮. https://t.co/8li33Jd6DL
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) April 5, 2019
But a look at some Ocasio-Cortez speeches during the Supreme Court confirmation hearings for now-Justice Brett Kavanaugh and the January Women’s March doesn’t really support her claims.
A study published in September from Yale Professor Cydney Dupree might explain the situation more bluntly: Dupree found white liberals change their language when speaking to black audiences.
While Ocasio-Cortez does not identify as “white,” the same principle might apply in this scenario.
The Yale study found that “white liberals tend to downplay their own verbal competence in exchanges with racial minorities,” according to Yale Insights.
“Democratic candidates used fewer competence-related words in speeches delivered to mostly minority audiences than they did in speeches delivered to mostly white audiences,” the study found.
Not surprisingly, the study did not find the same trend among conservatives — it’s apparently only liberals who patronize black people by changing their language.
“The difference wasn’t statistically significant in speeches by Republican candidates,” Dupree told Yale Insights.
It’s incredible how liberals claim to represent the concerns of black voters, but they consistently use the most patronizing and insulting language toward black people.
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