Combat accentism, the auditory aspect of discrimination

Traditional research on discrimination usually focuses on the visual aspect of our lives, things we can see like our race, age, gender and so forth. Naturally, the auditory aspect of discrimination gets overlooked. A listener’s perception of one’s speech is vital when framing the picture of a person. A listener’s perception of one’s speech, moreover, can sometimes write and then rewrite one’s story through unknown personal bias and stigmatization.

While it is true everyone has an accent, accentism focuses on the stereotypes that haunt those with a non-standard English accent, following the adoption of English as a lingua franca post-globalization.

Researchers from the University of Queensland say accentism results in hiring discrimination. The researchers found women with a standard English accent were more likely to be hired in comparison to their peers with a non-standard English accent. Negative implicit bias therefore plays an essential role in our everyday lives by impacting the employability of non-native speakers.

This not-so-unique experience is what a lot of academics refer to as “accentism,” a tool used for linguistic hegemony. Linguistic hegemony refers to the empowerment of one’s language through the subsequent disempowerment of another. Accentism is one of the many physical manifestations of colonial linguistic hegemony, it refers to a form of discrimination triggered by an individual’s accent or unique use of language.

A case of accentism is the exaggerated Indian accent, the misrepresented Brown Voice, borrowed from South Asian immigrants around the world. Safe to say, that racism does have a sound, and it usually sounds like a caricature of the subaltern. Accentism over time has become the most accepted form of mockery of South Asians. Mockery of the fluidity of language. Mockery of linguistics weaponized against the South Asian community in the West.

I was born in India and raised abroad. I studied in an English medium school and have spoken English for most of my life. My first encounter with accentism was at dinner. “I never thought you were a newcomer; you don’t have an accent!” The absence of exaggerated alphabets in my speech perplexed the white man. Conformity, too, arrived as a compliment. “Your English is so good.” Thanks, I guess.

Popular culture is integral in cementing linguistic stereotypes about South Asians. Take Apu Nahasapeemaleilton from “The Simpsons.” The character is dubbed by Hank Azaria, an American. Known for his theatrical thick accent, Apu was sported as a convenience store owner who almost became an illegal immigrant but was saved by a white family. The white man’s burden plagues Apu’s legacy.

Languages are communal. Within the language we speak lies our oral histories, passed from one generation to another. And within our varied dialectic capacities lies a worldview that is strictly yours, shaped by people, places, and personalities who frame your life. So why expect conformity? Well, you see most “colonies” embraced English with open arms, we understand the fluidity of language, so we integrated another language with our own. To standardize an English accent is to deny linguistic syncretism that persists. Moreover, the standardization of English once again closely follows imperial lines drawn on cultural and racial superiority by the British.

“To speak is to exist absolutely for the other,” wrote Frantz Fanon in his book, Black Skin, White Masks to expand on the “two dimensions of a black man.” One dimension exists with his peers and another with the white man. Code-switching is the word sociologists later adopted to label this phenomenon. To speak the colonizers’ language and convey your joy, your pain, and your sanity through it is a power. A power that is denied ever so often, through the policing of diverse accents through mockery. It’s almost as if the colonial subjugation of linguistics is an ongoing process through which the othering of non-native speakers continues through the attachment of stereotypes to various accents.

How can one combat accentism and the urge to abandon our linguistic heritage? Perhaps by embracing our dialects, our accents. In a world that continues to be shaped by coloniality, embracing the self, and finding oneself within a cultural identity is an act of resistance. To resist linguistic hegemony is to speak broken English, unapologetically. To resist linguistic hegemony is to understand accents are a sign of intelligence and stand as a testimony to the various languages we speak.

This commentary is part of the Cash Cow to Scapegoats series that highlights the good, the bad, and the ugly of immigration from the perspective of international students.

A version of this commentary appeared in The Baron.

Ridhima Dixit is an international student studying political science at the University of New Brunswick in Saint John. She is doing a UNB Arts 4000 placement with the Madhu Verma Migrant Justice Centre.