Talkin' white

[blackngoldengrl]

I'm loving this topic, it really hits home!

I've got countless examples of "you sound like a white girl" "you talk like a white girl" or "WHY you talk like a white girl?" Funny how I never got accused of talking like that before middle school. My whole family talks like me, including my grandparents! They have different accents b/c they are from PA, but other than that it's the same. I never knew that my intonation was a problem. Funny how my father's friends ( my aunties and uncles who are all Nigerian) never noticed my "white" speech.

When I was younger being accused of "white speech" stung, but I tried to get over it by thinking that some people just dont know how to speak proper English or just don't choose to. When I got to college, I realized a lot of black people talk like me, and I learned more about myself in general. I don't let anyone simplify my blackness to my speech anymore.

[lovehaiku84]

I got this too, starting in middle school when I started at a school where there were more black students than at my elementary school. I was in the Gifted/Talented Program so I had friends of all races, but we all pretty much talked alike. Anyways, one day another black girl at the school came up to me and asked me if I was mixed. I'm like standing there trying to figure out where she was going with this question. I was like um...no. She's like your mom isn't white? Again, no. Finally she just came out with it and said, well why do you talk like that? In my 13 year old mind I'm like WTF? But I just walked away. Anyways being told that I was talking white or trying to act white really used to bother me. Now, after attending an HBCU where plenty of people "talk white" I just say that this is me and I'm not apologizing to anyone for speaking proper english.