Jason Howerton @ The Blaze:
Reacting to newly released footage of President Obama’s controversial 2007 speech at Hampton University, Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) told Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren that when Obama “get’s off of his teleprompter, you see a different type of president.”
That being said, West said he doesn’t think the video is going to be a game changer.
“First of all, having been born and raised down in Georgia, I’m very surprised at the incredible southern accent that the president, who was born in Hawaii and grew up in Chicago, was able to command,” the Florida congressman said, poking fun at Obama’s drastic accent change during the 2007 speech.
There was definitely a “tinge of racially motivated comments” in Obama’s address, West explained, adding that he was playing on people’s “worst fears and emotions, which is this sense of separation.”
“The only thing that comes out of this, as I believe what everyone knows, when the president gets off a script, gets off of his teleprompter, you see a different type of president,” West added, referencing Obama’s infamous “you didn’t build that” remarks.
West continued: “I don’t think its going to really go anywhere, because what is most concerning to me is the fact that right now we don’t have voting ballots going out to our service members, right now we have a president that said he is going to use tax payer dollars to make up the difference for the severance pay that will come to sequestration for our defense contractors.
It’s amazing how many people refer to the way Obama talked in this video—as does Allen West. Where did he learn the southern accent—West asks—being raised in Hawaii and going to ivy league universities. Well how do blacks talk in Hawaii? Or Harvard? How did his clients talk when he was a community organizer? It’s easy to see how he would pick up this kind of ‘black’ accent, and fall into it when around it. I think it just goes to show how few experiences ultra-conservatives have had.
Talking ”white,” and talking ”black,” are two sides of a weird racist coin, Lib1.
Stanford-based anthropologist and linguist H. Samy Alim said, “When somebody says ‘you talk white,’ it may be far more than a linguistic judgment. It may also be a political one.”
Political, not simply where you are from.
Alim specifically notes how black Americans respond positively when Obama inflects his speeches with a little soul, or other linguistic nods to the black community.
These nods provide a sort of cultural signal that say, “I’m educated. I’m now part of the dominant power structure but you can still trust me.” (The book Articulate While Black specifically analyzes the impact of President Obama on language.)
In our public schools the message is being sent by blacks telling someone else black, ”You talk white,” is that speaking grammatically correct English, is a teasing offense and that telling someone they sound intelligent should be hurtful.
It is a form of BULLYING.
If the person who is talking white succumbs, he or she stops speaking in the form of English that will lead to financial success.
Oh, and maybe this peer pressured talking only like blacks contributes to the less than 50% graduation rate among black males in the USA.
Obama can turn it off or on.
Michelle has never slipped in public, maybe she doesn’t talk black at all.
Remember that phony and identical grin Obama was able to sport for over 100 photographs with world leaders?
He can act.
Are you falling for it?