Reply #49: I'm with you, IP. [View All]

[Clark2008]

I couldn't figure out what was so wrong with calling Obama articulate - he is!

I didn't think it was a code for racism because I think George Bush sounds like an inarticulate idiot and he's white.

Maybe because I was a communications major with an English minor, I just expect people to at least TRY to sound articulate. I don't like ebonics any more than I like redneck. It's not a "race" thing - I just want to sound educated and, well, articulate.

It's funny, but I get accused a lot of times of not being Southern by other Southerners, although I was born and raised in East Tennessee. The reason? I'm articulate. I still sound very Southern. I have a drawl and I still clip my "g's" (like runnin' instead of running, etc.), but, for the most part, I don't have a twang that turns one-syllable words into three-syllable words.

My son is half-Arabic and his father speaks very proper English having learned it in British schools before coming to America - but that matters not when you're brought up in the South. For example, when I was teaching him words, we'd practice everywhere. Once, we were in the grocery store and I pointed to the eggs and asked him what those were and he said, "aigs." I nearly boiled!! It took me forever to get him to say "eggs." I keep telling him that he should be PROUD to have the Southern accent as it's a wonderfully melodious accent, but he needs to still form his words properly because, when he gets older and wants to take his dream job of being an architect in New York City, he won't get hired "if'n he sounds like he jus' fell off'n the turnip truck."

So, you see, it's not a race thing for me, either. It's a "proper English" thing.