Or am I? When I saw the synopsis of an upcoming show on Real Talk with Anele where they were going to talk about language discrimination, I asked the team and our readers for their thoughts. What a can of worms it opened.
The synopsis for the popular SABC3 talk show read - 'I am not my accent. Having an accent is not a measure of intelligence, we unpack why people get discriminated for having accents.'
I agree with the second sentence but not necessarily the first. Let me explain why this is not a contradiction.
I grew up in a white neighbourhood, went to white (private and government) schools, was raised in a country ruled by whites, worked in an industry largely controlled by and that works primarily with whites and am friends with whites.
It's not a singular story but it's one that's reflected for the purposes of this opinion piece and in my 'you speak such good English' accent, 'you're a coconut/coon' accent, 'you think you're better than us' accent. Read More
