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[roarheels]

Has anyone else had the experience of feeling as if a move to a new academic environment required proving your bona fides in the area of diversity? I recently switched types of school, geographic location, etc... and discovered a real pre existing belief structure amongst faculty and fellow students as to how they felt my background (which is instantly knowable due to my thick accent) would translate into personality. I heard at least five times this year that it was remarkable to someone that I held a particular belief or that they 'never' expected to hear that from me. For the record, all of these were positive reactions to my statements. People expressed great surprise at who I actually was absent the preexisting suppositions. One professor, who clearly had great apprehensions about me at the start, went so far as to initiate a massive email back and forth after s/he heard about my proposed dissertation topic, which was near and dear to her/his own heart. I am talking like 25 emails, which I cannot even get out my own advisor who openly lobbied for my admission. Has anyone else had this experience or was it just particular to my graduate institution?

[tenured_feminist]

I think it happens sometimes. One of my most beloved profs in grad school had a thick 'Bama accent, but hu's work involved in part a devastating critique of liberal constitutional failure as a cause of the Civil War. I have to imagine that hu's combination of self presentation and work occasionally created some cognitive dissonance.

[beacon1]

I think it happens sometimes. One of my most beloved profs in grad school had a thick 'Bama accent, but hu's work involved in part a devastating critique of liberal constitutional failure as a cause of the Civil War. I have to imagine that hu's combination of self presentation and work occasionally created some cognitive dissonance.

It is disappointing that southerners are still stereotyped and discriminated against because of accents. I mean, after all, some of us folk got a schoolin past the eighth grade. Some of us can even do some readin, writin, and arith... aw shucks... addin!

[roarheels]

Since it is now evident, yes the southern accent is the problem, but it is quite mild, and rears its ugly head only on certain words.  As a joke and I still enjoy this one myself, if you have southern friends ask them to say 'steel' and 'still' and see what happens.
I have to say tenuredfem, cognitive dissonance seems to be the right definition. I just really found the whole situation very odd. I do not think generally about accents but perhaps thats because I have a very distinguishable one.  I was just interested to know if this was more widespread? Does this happen to people from Worchester or the Bronx? Is there always a cultural presupposition that flows from an accent particularly in respect to questions of perspective on diversity issues?  Or is it just confined to persons from areas with historical definable diversity issues, such as the south and slavery, which would call one's bona fides into question?

[kitmonk]

I think there's a presumption that everyone with a Boston accent (or Worchester, or Peabody) is blue collar and uneducated past high school.  As a child growing up in the Boston area, I was always aware of the more "high class" Boston accents, but they seemed to be a thing of the older generation (like the Kennedys or my grandparents).  I was taught early in life to have "ideas," not "idears," and pretty soon virtually the only people I encountered with identifiable Boston accents were bus drivers, checkout clerks, and the like.  I know, of course, that there are very smart and very well-educated people who speak with a Boston accent, but I think most people I know hear those dropped 'R's and immediately assume working-class.

Of course then there's the Stoughton/Sharon/South Shore version of the accent.... and I mostly associate that with sort of middle-class Jews.  Still, generally less afluent than, say, the "unaccented" folks in Newton.

It's amazing what kinds of assumptions we make about people based purely on how they sound, isn't it?



KM

[tenured_feminist]

Don't forget about Lawn Giland either.

[onion]

Since it is now evident, yes the southern accent is the problem, but it is quite mild, and rears its ugly head only on certain words.  As a joke and I still enjoy this one myself, if you have southern friends ask them to say 'steel' and 'still' and see what happens.
I have to say tenuredfem, cognitive dissonance seems to be the right definition. I just really found the whole situation very odd. I do not think generally about accents but perhaps thats because I have a very distinguishable one.  I was just interested to know if this was more widespread? Does this happen to people from Worchester or the Bronx? Is there always a cultural presupposition that flows from an accent particularly in respect to questions of perspective on diversity issues?  Or is it just confined to persons from areas with historical definable diversity issues, such as the south and slavery, which would call one's bona fides into question?

I have a very thick Chicago accent (we're talking "Sports Guys" Saturday Night Live thick) and I'm now living in the South.  I've had a very similar experience to you.  Someone asked me if I was a Communist.  I'm not kidding.

[minor_t]

I love regional accents.  Too often, people try to smooth out their accents to avoid being stereotyped.  I get that but I think eventually we'll lose the regional accents so I enjoy them when I hear them.

[kitmonk]

I love regional accents.  Too often, people try to smooth out their accents to avoid being stereotyped.  I get that but I think eventually we'll lose the regional accents so I enjoy them when I hear them.

Of course, everyone who hears me open my mouth immediately asks, "Oh, are you Canadian?"  I have to convince them that I've actually only spent maybe a total of 3 weeks in Canada in my entire life (lovely coutnry, by the way).  When I tell them I'm from Boston, they always say, "But you don't sound like you're from Boston!"  When I was a kid I wished like heck that I could be cool and have a Boston accent! lol.

[expatinuk]

I live in England... and I'm from the US South.

I do a lot of email communication with people in my discipline, and they generally know that I'm from South Carolina. When we meet face to face I'm constantly being told... 'Wow, you don't sound like Dolly Parton'. or even... You sound educated.

I don't look like Dolly Parton either, and since I have two BAs, two MAs, and a Ph.D., I consider myself to BE educated...

But this just goes to prove that people from all over make judgments based on where you're from and what that accent means to their way of thinking about you.

[dr_stones]

Some of us can even do some readin, writin, and arith... aw shucks... addin!

Cipherin' . . . the term is cipherin'. You cipher your numbers down south.

[beacon1]

Some of us can even do some readin, writin, and arith... aw shucks... addin!

Cipherin' . . . the term is cipherin'. You cipher your numbers down south.

Holy horny toads! I been havin it all wrong! Guest I werent nearly as smart as a I thought I were. Even then, I still graduated tops in Mrs. Thompson's Eighth grade spellin class - I even won the Hornswallow County Official Spellin bee. The winnin word - "hog maws".

Seriously, there are schools in my community that have eighth grade proms. Prom in the eight grade? Curious? The reason being that these young folks will never make it to the eleventh grade. Now if you are thinking that what I'm saying is a good idea, you might live in the rural south - Otherwise it just speaks tragedy.

[draco]

Some of us can even do some readin, writin, and arith... aw shucks... addin!

Cipherin' . . . the term is cipherin'. You cipher your numbers down south.

Maybe down in Looziana y'all got them complicated figurin' set-ups.  Round here we just reckon a bit and it gits the job done.

When my ear was more practiced I could tell the difference between many different Southern accent variants.  I still can pick out a few and ask, "are you from X" and usually be right on. 

For the OP, good luck in your new environs.  As your personality and intelligence shine through, your accent won't be an issue, rather it will add to your charm. 

[dr_stones]

Here's my expert consultant and authoritative source on cipherin' . . .

[roarheels]

Merigan, that has been the best part of this whole deal. As soon as people realize I am not who they assumed based on accent, then its an immediate plus 10 in my column. Its not that I have done anything to earn that, its just I am not who they assumed. It is fantastic, making friends therefore has been no issue.
To extend the thought then, perhaps, its political. There seems to be an assumption that all persons from red states are red, and that blue staters are all blue. Thankfully, I am just not very red/blue in my politics, and it helps that my object of study died a long painful death many millenia ago, so that present political concerns are not so much of an issue in my writing or presentation. However, if I were in a more modern period I could see why those political divisions might be more pressing, espeically when 'fit' seems to be so much of an issue in departments. I find that to be the most undiverse thing about my education. Neither my undergraduate or graduate institution has had a real lunatic conservative, authoritarian, or libertarian (plenty of lunatic liberals) who wrote provocatively about those issues. A very fwell known prof in my field with whom I did some work used to close his door to expouse what I thought were well thought out positions on a whole range of issues. I would have called them conversative, but his writings were identifiably liberal. Talk about cognitive dissonance.