Posted on 07/26/2004 7:40:49 AM PDT by HalfFull
Iowa First Lady Christie Vilsack, a key factor in John Kerry's primary sweep and the primetime convention speaker tomorrow, has derided blacks, southerners and easterners as bad speakers because she couldn't understand them.
In inflammatory columns for her local newspaper obtained by the Herald, the normally soft-spoken Vilsack tore into several minority and ethnic groups while lampooning non-midwesterners for regional dialects.
``I am fascinated at the way some African-Americans speak to each other in an English I struggle to understand, then switch to standard English when the situation requires,'' Vilsack wrote in a 1994 column in the Mount Pleasant News, while her husband, Tom, was a state senator.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bostonherald.com ...
That is it exactly.
A Virginian, bump....ya'll
And remember, if a Southerner ever says, "Well, bless your heart!"...well, hehe, maybe we'll just keep that'un a secret from all those Yankees and Damnyankees. :)
Wonder if Ms. Vilsack was the only one in the theater not laughing at Frances McDormand's accent in "Fargo"? Ooooh, yaaah, you betcha.
}:-)4
Are you suggesting she has grown....or is 10-20-30- yr old records reserved for Republicans.....sy GW's payroll records. Can't have it both ways honey.
I think she is refering to blacks that can speak standard english and jive or ebonics when necessary. Kind of like "when in Rome, do as the Romans". But I think Bill Cosby was talking about blacks that cannot speak anything but ebonics or jive.
This sounds like someone that understands her audience and adjusts accordingly.
Great work Dim's
Keep p%%%%%g people of like that
And watch W win
True story: In 1989, a friend and I were coming back from Spring Break in Florida, and stopped at a KFC along Interstate 75 in Valdosta, Georgia, for lunch. We ended up in line behind four college guys with Illinois sweatshirts.
The perky, cute, very efficient black lady behind the register took one of the frat boys' orders, then looked up at him, smiled sweetly, and said, in the thickest south Georgia drawl I had EVER heard, "Would yew lahk a beeeskit wif thayut?"
He looked at the poor girl like she was speaking Klingon. All he could say was, "Uh, what?"
Unfazed, she repeated the question. "Would yew lahk a beeeskit wif thayut!"
He just stared at her. Fortunately, I'm bilingual--I speak Southern *and* English (although being a native Virginian, a south Georgia dialect is very different). I tapped him on the shoulder and said, "Dude, she wants to know if you want a biscuit with that."
She nodded vigorously, still smiling.
Fifteen years later and it still cracks me up.
There's no sweeter sound to these unreconstructed ears than a Southern accent, be it Virginia foothills, south Georgia plains, or Texas desert.
}:-)4
She probably got lost when that eager to please "southern American" said, "Down the road 'bouta mile' and turn left at the Pigly Wigly.
No, no. Remember, we Southerners always give directions based on where things *used* to be.
"Well, lemme see...y'all turn 'round, turn left outta this lot, go 'bout a mile over t'where th' Harris Teeter was, turn raht, g'down t'whar Ed's Body Shop wuz till it burnt down last month, turn left, when y'get t'that shoppin' center they used'ta call Eastgate, turn raht and y'all'l be headin' raht for yer hotel!"
}:-)4
Being from Va. myself, it amazes me that folks just cannot understand plain english!
She said something that almost every HONEST person thinks at some level...that some other people talk funny. So what?
And half of the population is more stupid than the average, with thin skinned Republican whiners nearly matched by obnoxious Democratic hypocrites.
Very funny
ROFL...always a pleasure to meet a true southerner!
I agree with you. Tweaking peoples accents seems pretty harmless. When the Coen Brothers' movie 'Fargo' came out, it exposed the MN, ND, and SD accent to an admittedly absurd level, and I thought it was funny. And, although I love working in the South, and it's full of great people, many times I feel like I need a translator with some people when I have projects down there.
True story #2: I happened to be living in the South some years ago and I went out to dinner with my girlfriend who was from SC and had a nice accent, but it was not overly noticeable.
We got to the restaurant and the hostess was a very nice looking (about as hot as my girl) young Asian-American girl. No big deal.
Then the hostess started talking -- and she had the sweetest Southern accent.
Not fair to introduce men with such an attraction in front of their girlfriend, I don't think, ha ha ha.
When I was a kid, we moved from Oklahoma to Texas, and I used to laugh at the people with their Texas accent which I would mock merrily, and continued to do so for years.
Now, to anyone else, there would be little difference between an Oklahoma accent and a Texas accent. But to a little kid who has lived in one spot all his life, small differences are big ones.
Then I remember the first time I met the folks who moved in from Louisiana, that was really like a different language altogether, I would just stare at them with mouth open, not understanding a word.
But like most people I've accumulated a fair bit of mileage over the years, and small differences in speech don't throw me anymore. Plus, people in general move around more than they used to, so most of us have by now been exposed to a lot of varied speech patterns.
This is how I read her remarks. Its a big world out there and she has seen such a small piece of it.
I would include in the overall Midwest definition those parts of Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado east of the Front Range, as well as western Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia due to the similarities in economy, population, and language to their Midwestern neighbors. I would exclude Oklahoma due to the predominantly Southern influence on that state.
Certain Midwestern distinctives, like the hard "r", may reflect the Germanic roots of much of the region's population. Regarding Gone With the Wind, it is worthy to note that Clark Gable, a native of Cadiz, Ohio, and partially of German ancestry, did not even attempt to sound Southern. During the Golden Age of movies, a large number of actors from mid-America did not try to sound Southern, even when their roles called for a drawl: John Wayne (Iowa and California); James Stewart (western Pennsylvania); Gary Cooper (Montana). OTOH, in the recent movie Cold Mountain, only one of the lead actors (Renee Zellweger) was from the South. Nicole Kidman (Australian), Donald Sutherland (Nova Scotian), and Jude Law (English) all delivered competent Southern accents.
What is wrong with that statement? Must be a slow news day.
I picked that up, as well.
Nothing about the screaming fast New Yawkers, nor the slow witted surf culture of the West Coast, or the seasoned whining of the retirees in Florida.
We're a melting pot, but this little screed was meant in a nasty way to belittle specific groups on purpose.
Isthay illway akemay erhay admay, ootay.
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