Growing up I listened pretty much exclusively to Black music, had only Black friends, and could easily code switch to AAVE and “sound Black”. I caught a lot of shit for it - from both Black people that weren’t in my friend group and white people. I lost count of the amount of times I was called w****r or was otherwise bullied and harassed as a result.
It wasn’t until later that I understood where much of that hostility came from. To racist white people I was an easy target for bullying. To some Black people I was a white interloper poseur that needed to be taken down a peg. (From my perspective and lack of self-awareness, I was a young teenager just trying to emulate a culture that was deeply meaningful and important to me.) I eventually had to learn to accept that as much reverence and respect that I may have, I would be never more than a tolerated outsider. That was an early and painful lesson in white privilege: I was “acting Black” by choice but I didn’t have to live with it.
ETA: It’s been decades since I had a conversation using any sort of “blaccent”, but I do try to keep up with the slang because it’s fucking awesome.
Like, in German, it would be “fön?” (Mouth shaped like you’re saying a long-A but instead you pronounce an Oh – smökes, höme etc.). I thought that was a Maryland thing.
I know I’m drifting off topic, so apologies, but can I just scream out my loathing for the word “professional”? It’s so beautifully undefined that it’s mostly used as a club by for beating people down for not being like the speaker. There are as many ways of being “unprofessional” as there inflexible arrogant jerks ready to make the accusation.
I learned to do this instinctively growing up but only realized it one day after yelling something to my friends outside, then going in the house and repeating what I had just said to my parents in a completely different way. Now I understand what was going on but at the time it really blew my mind!
I was in Germany once for a work trip. I was walking down the street with a coworker and we were talking in English (he speaks fluent German, unlike me that has at best “survival proficiency”). We walked by two people sitting outside at a café talking among themselves. As we started walking by, they just kind of switched to talking in English for no apparent reason and after we had passed started speaking in German again.
Afterward, my coworker looked at me and was like, “wow that was really weird”. It was as if they had subconsciously heard us speaking in English and just started doing that, and then switched back to German right after we had passed by — even though we were just two strangers that nothing to do with their conversation other than proximity. It could have just been a total coincidence but it’s still something I think about from time to time.
I truly envy you in that regard. Anyone can clearly see that I am not Japanese (even though I am an actual citizen of Japan) before I even speak, and anything that a “foreigner” says in any dialect other than modern standard Japanese is just played up for laughs.
Are you able to pass as Franconian (or Bavarian when in Franconia)?
