I find the exaggerated vocal stylings of news reporters contemptible. Particularly, I dislike the stretchy vowels and odd pitch changes through which African-Americans tend to report TV and radio news. It’s aurally inauthentic, and, I believe, it disarms Black people. It keeps us from utilizing a wide range and sophisticated set of rhythmic and tonal apparatuses by which we comment on information—signify—in real time, as we relate it.
So, it’s fascinating to see, in this clip, how quickly the reporter goes from Standard American Newsman to NSFW Black Vernacular when a chewy, protein-rich insect flies into his mouth.
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Code switching is fascinating. Wifey does it subconsciously, speaking AAVE with family and close family friends and standard with nearly everybody else. She wasn’t aware of it until I called her attention to it.
I saw this clip a couple of days ago and nearly DIED laughing. There is an Emmy Award winning Black newsman in Washington, DC, on WJLA-TV, who quite possibly is the most non-threatening speaking Black man I have ever heard. His facial expressions even seem to be straight out of some nefarious “I-Can’t-Be-Too-Obviously-Black-Or-I-Won’t-Be-Able-To-Keep-My-Job” playbook.
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