“Say vote.” She snickered.
“Now say gloves.” She looked over at her friends, rolling her eyes and laughing.
“Say friend.”
I remember sitting across from this scene, appalled that there was such blatant bullying taking place among a group of women in their fifties. Three of them were singling out one woman. This woman that was being singled out was someone who learned English as a second language and this woman was being mocked by these fools. She was someone that I knew and she came from a country in Southeast Asia.
From what I have witnessed, there has been an overwhelming and disappointing majority that view having an accent as a sign of unintelligence – which is the farthest thing from the truth. Even here on campus, I have heard students remark that they despise going to certain professors’ classes because they think those professors “can’t speak English.” That statement is incredibly flawed in logic, as many of these professors have earned their doctorates and teaching certifications in this country. These same students who make these outrageous claims also mock the professor when in disagreement – speaking incredibly slowly and overly enunciated and laughing at their accent. On the first day of this semester, I overheard a student remark about a certain professor, “I was incredibly nervous when I saw the foreign last name on my schedule. I hope she can speak English.” My jaw dropped when I heard that – I could not even fathom thinking such thoughts about someone I have never even met before (much less prejudge their English-speaking abilities.)
I remember hearing from one of my Canadian friends that employers up North prefer candidates who have accents – that easily displays that they know a second language. Employers prefer that because that candidate can reach out to a larger market of people. I don’t know if this is true or not (and this could lead into another conversation about discrimination and profiling) but I can understand that reasoning. Even on international channels like the BBC based in the United Kingdom, I have watched interviews take place where many interviewers do not have accents originating from Europe.
Accents are beautiful – when a person speaks with one, they are speaking with centuries of rich history. They speak with the struggles and successes of their ancestors before them, even Americans – yes, I know that some people think “we don’t have an accent.” Oh yes, we most certainly do (and our accent was shaped by many ethnic groups years in the making.) We stick out like a flamingo among swans whenever we go abroad and sometimes our accents get made fun of.
With this article that I’m writing, I am mainly writing about discrimination against those who speak with accents originating in regions of Africa, Asia, South America and Central America. I have not witnessed much discrimination against European accents, in fact I often hear wonder and admiration from my peers whenever they hear one. I don’t have a doctorate in anthropology nor do I have my Master’s in Cultural Studies to explain as to why there is such shameful judgement against non-European accents – I am just simply writing from my observations and experience and hopefully at least persuade one closed-minded person to think twice before judging.
