Kamala Harris slammed for deploying a ‘fake accent’ in Detroit speech

[childeye 2]

Why the facade?

What facade?

Every now and then, a scholar's niche expertise lines up with a cultural or political moment and finds an audience hungry for the details. Nicole Holliday is having one of those moments.

Holliday is an acting associate professor of linguistics at UC Berkeley who studies what politicians say, how they speak and what their speech reveals about their identity. Perhaps more than any other scholar, Holliday has spent years examining the speaking style of a politician who is also having a moment: Kamala Harris.

What does Harris's enunciation of vowels say about her California roots? How do a few choice words on the debate stage speak to her background as a Black woman? And how does that all change when she's working a crowd in Georgia or delivering a policy statement in Washington?

"I'm really interested in what happens with the voice, with the body, to inhabit these different parts of a person's style," said Holliday, who has also researched Barack Obama's speaking style. "Politicians are the best people to study this on because you know what their motivations are—they're all trying to get elected, or they're trying to get money, or they're trying to get voters."

Journalists and the general public have become increasingly interested in Holliday's work ever since President Joe Biden dropped his reelection bid and Harris soared to the top of the ticket as the Democratic presidential nominee. Holliday's TikTok videos describing the science of Harris's tone, style and word choice have gone viral, as have her explanations on why, linguistically, it's problematic when people intentionally mispronounce her name. (It's "comma-la.")

Individuals shifting how they speak based on their goals isn't reserved for politicians, and it shouldn't be viewed as inauthentic, Holliday said. Regular people vary their tone and word choice from their workplaces to their homes. Those variations fascinate Holliday.

"Most of the stuff that I'm talking about happens way below the level of consciousness," Holliday said, "It would be really hard to control, even if you were trying."

Berkeley News asked her what her research on Harris says about Harris's culture and identity, why it matters that some people—including Donald Trump—continue to mispronounce her name, and what language can teach us about the current political moment.

MSN

www.msn.com

 

[HARK!]

Individuals shifting how they speak based on their goals isn't reserved for politicians, and it shouldn't be viewed as inauthentic, Holliday said. Regular people vary their tone and word choice from their workplaces to their homes. Those variations fascinate Holliday.

This had nothing to do with tone nor word choice.

 

[Servus]

She's play acting. She's an actress playing various characters. Her accent and stance on policy is whatever part she's playing and the script dictates. She's bad at ad-libbing her lines.

 

[HARK!]

She's play acting. She's an actress playing various characters.

This one is fun:

YEEEEEEE HAAAAWWW!

 

[HARK!]

Cringe

 

[BPPLEE]

I didn't actually catch her speaking any Ebonics. Maybe I'm a little oblivious to it, having spent a great deal of my life in a predominantly African American community. However her forced feeble attempt to mimic a African American vernacular was embarrassing.

x.com

x.com

 

[Pommer]

She made herself look inauthentic. No amount of apologetics or denial can change that.

You’re certainly entitled to hold such an opinion.

 

[Pommer]

The thread was created to expose pretentious behavior.

To whom? (Undecideds?)

 

[BPPLEE]

To whom? (Undecideds?)

Are there people who are really undecided or is it just trendy to say that?
I have a hard time believing that many people are truly undecided.

 

[Oompa Loompa]

Vice President Kamala Harris was accused Monday of using a “fake accent” in her remarks to teachers union members in Michigan.


Harris, speaking at a Detroit high school, appeared to alter her tone of voice in moments where she became particularly animated and when interacting with supporters in the crowd.

Kamala Harris slammed for deploying a ‘fake accent’ in Detroit speech

Harris has previously faced accusations of putting on an accent to pander to certain crowds.

nypost.com

She made a similar speech to union workers in Pittsburgh.

See if you can spot the difference: Clicky

Robert Downing Jr was more convincing in the movie "Tropic Thunder."

 

[Oompa Loompa]

Has she ever visited Detroit before?

But she has never been to Europe either. So I don't understand the point of your question.

 

[o_mlly]

She's play acting. She's an actress playing various characters. Her accent and stance on policy is whatever part she's playing and the script dictates. She's bad at ad-libbing her lines.

Her favorite movie: Zelig.
Her favorite character: Leonard Zelig.

 

[BPPLEE]

Robert Downing Jr was more convincing in the movie "Tropic Thunder."

Memba

 

[o_mlly]

Her favorite movie: Zelig.
Her favorite character: Leonard Zelig.

View attachment 354142

Her favorite rock band: Three Dog Night.
Her favorite song: Well, I've Never Been to Spain ... England ... Heaven ... What Does It Matter ... What Does It Matter.

 

[Nithavela]

So, to sum it up: Harris is flip flopping constantly while barely able to get a word out because of her hysterical laughter, while simultaneously switching her pattern of speech like a master manipulator as she is unable to make a single decision without the firm leadership of Obama directing her from the shadows.

Is that the current state of Harris criticisms?

 

[Oompa Loompa]

You should watch the video that @Michie posted. They have her up to 7 accents now, including French.

Oh please. Kamala is just following Paul's example in 1 Corinthians 9:22.

 

[iluvatar5150]

Good lord, these sorts of threads are so stupid. Is this really the best critique of her you guys can come up with?

She's not putting on a fake persona. She's switching accent for a short period of time in order to emphasize something and better connect to her audience. One could probably argue it's a little patronizing, but it's not an attempt to portray herself as something she's not.

Was Trump trying to pretend to be Asian when he used Asian accents to mock our allies? Was he trying to pretend to be hispanic when he adopted a Puerto Rican accent in this speech:

No. He, like Kamala, was trying to highlight something.

 

[Oompa Loompa]

I'm wondering how long it took her, from the time that she stepped off the plane, to acquire this accent; or did she practice at home?

In all fairness, she did spend most of her life living on the mean streets of the Canadian suburbs. So French is probably an accent she is familiar with.

 

[Oompa Loompa]

It's called code switching and it is done all the time by people who come from outside the dominant culture.

When you are a politician, it is called "pandering."

 

[Oompa Loompa]

She sounds like an African American woman. She sounds like she's from Northern California. She sounds like a charismatic political figure.

I think she is going for a Wicked Witch of the West meets California valley girl vibe.