TY Baker!!!
>>7941171 (lb)
Heh.
Born and raised in GA; East Point, Jonesboro, and Riverdale were my stomping grounds until about 1991. I remember when you could see the Hyatt Regency, plain an clear, from the southside of town as you drive towards it. Now? Nearly completely obscured. I've not regretted a single moment in my 40 years were I was living in an entirely different state; 8 Years in Colorado, and 2 in Virginia. Both of these places had diverse accents from people coming from all over. Some were intelligent, and others not so much. It happens, and accent plays little into it. That doesn't mean it isn't just another tool used to divide us.
I cannot tell you enough how much the southern used to INFURIATE me. I don't judge people by it (I used to, but not anymore), and I've come to realize that there may be a reason stuff like this was pushed on all of us as groups of people. I had the hardest time with grammar because spelling/pronunciation never matched for me. It took me YEARS to unlearn talking like that, and retrain my thinking when it came to language. I had to because the career field I was in basically demanded speaking clear/plain English with people all over the country, and other countries.
I think the main reason the dialect gets me going is the dividers of this country have used things like "culture" and "dialect" to drive more wedges between us, and so many gobble that shit up so willingly, and go with the flow in conversation.
From:
"He don't talk liiiike we do. He must be wunna them carpet-baggers."
to:
"Let's impersonate Trump supporters by sounding like 'ignorant' southerners, while cracking incoherent jokes that no one laughs at."
So many speak that accent so proudly, and use it to sound "smooth" and weasel their way into politics, law, jobs, and the worst; church. Many southerners are "trained" to not trust folks that don't speak like a cast member of the Andy Griffith show - you know what I'm talking about.
This shit is perfectly demonstrated in the movie "The Devil's Advocate" with Keanu and Charlize pulling their best impersonation of someone else's impersonation of the "Southern Accent". Of course not all southerners are morons. Collins, for example, is seeming to be more of a patriot than most. I would consider him the exception to the rule. People still have a hard time getting past it, though; especially when they really start drawling out words during a speech.
Our accents, traditions, culture, skin color, hair, music, tv, and the clothes we wear do not define us, but so many are convinced of this that their way of thinking about themselves relies on it almost entirely. It's something people need to ponder as we strive for freedom from their control. Don't let them divide us with this shit.
Different people talk differently; big fucking deal. Bigger fish to fry, IMAO.