Harris Gonna Code Switch

The New York Times ^ | Aug. 15, 2024, 3:00 p.m. ET | John McWhorter

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Traditionally linguists have bemoaned the fact that the general public knows little of what we do because the subject isn’t taught in schools. But that has changed over the past 20 years or so, as the internet and especially social media have been so effective at getting the word out. I have rejoiced to see the public becoming ever more hip to the fact that language always changes, that you aren’t handicapping your child by raising them to be bilingual, that the way I just used “them” does not spell the fall of our Republic.

Twenty years ago I never thought I would hear the term “code-switching” used as widely as it now is beyond the halls of academe. Code-switching is perhaps best known in reference to alternating between different languages, such as English and Spanish. However, the same concept applies to different dialects of the same language, such as between a standard dialect and a colloquial one. But as glad as I am to see this, my heart sinks at the way people are mocking Vice President Kamala Harris for code-switching according to the audience she is speaking to. Barack Obama attracted criticism for doing the same thing back in the aughts; I hoped we had gotten past this.

Harris does this readily. In an address in Atlanta responding to “Lock him up” calls about Donald Trump, she said, “The courts are gonna handle that,” later working up the crowd by referring in pep-talk style to “Novem-buh.” In a speech in Michigan she mentioned that “We have fun doin’ hard work.” Some of her switching is simply to good old colloquial American — gonna, doin’ — but at other times, especially for heavily Black audiences like the one in Atlanta, she switches into Black English...

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Pandering to your audience with a badly faked accent is good, you see. Acadame approves.

[Vermont Lt]

I want to see her start rattling off in Quebecois.

[Honorary Serb]

“All the news we fit to print!”

[Dr. Sivana]

Actually, using “them” instead of “him” IS a symptom of the collapse of Western Civilization.

[maro]

Code switching is fine if you speak both codes. But when she makes up her dialect, it sounds ridiculous. Like Hillary.

[ifinnegan]

Leftist academic jargon is meaningless idiocy.

[exnavy]

I bet she knows pig latin.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

“Ich bin ein Berliner” comes to mind. “I am a doughnut.”

[ifinnegan]

“ I want to see her start rattling off in Quebecois.”

She was too stupid to learn any French.

[Reno89519]

So, she’ll speak in her native Hindi?

[clintonh8r]

mark

[Languager]

Yes, exactly. It is fine if the speaker genuinely has both codes. Harris sounds terribly fake, though. I’m surprised McWhorter defends her.

[FirstFlaBn]

Conjugate the verb ‘to be’ in Ebonics.

I be.
He be.
She be.
They be.

[Skywise]

“Code switching” is approved when Democrats do it.

When Awkwafina did it? Not so much.

When voice actors did it? It’s cultural appropriation.

In short this guys a retard. It’s not “code switching” when you pander to your audience.

It’s called pandering to your audience.

[GraysonFL]

They are always coming up with new broader terms to replace the simpler ones that already said it all. In this case the correct words are FAKE, PHONY, and FRAUD

[BenLurkin]

Code-switching is perhaps best known in reference to alternating between different languages, such as English and Spanish.

Asinine. And ignorant.

Neither are a code and both are related to each other through the introduction of 'romance' (started as Latin) language into England by the Normans

[Waverunner]

Arnold is not amused.
New Campaign picture of tough on crime Khammie...

[cgbg]

Code switch = fraud.

[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

“Dey gonna put y’all back in chains.”. That kind of code switching?

[Jonty30]

Most minorities code switch when they are dealing with general America and when they are dealing with their own kind.

Mario Lopez talked about how he had to speak a certain when talking to Americans, but then he could switch his words when he was speaking to his friends in the Latino community.

Harris, of course, will use it to pander.