Excuse me, but I didn't quite catch that. Can you repeat that again?

So, I was watching a covergirl commercial where Rihanna was the spokesperson and noticed that her Bajan accent is

well

gone

Why???

I remember when she first came out, I felt so connected with her because she had a strong Caribbean accent, and even though I'm not Bajan, I felt like she was the new young representation for us West Indians. I remember saying "alright alright she's not trying to cover up sh sh sh it". All of a sudden she's trying to emulate the Americanize accent.

The reason why I even bring this up is because whenever I watch a season of ANTM, I always get pissed off when Tyra Banks puts a person of color, or a non-American on the spot and says, "You have to work on your language as a model. You must be articulate."WTF. So if you don't have an American accent, you're not articulate? Why is it that American people can't try to understand a different enunciation. Why the conformity? Why assimilate?

Back in college I had a Taiwanese roommate who introduced herself with her American name. I said "HA Amanda huh, now what's your real name?" She told me her real name and quickly said but you can call me Amanda. I said no no no no no Imma call you by your Asian name, so please rewind so I can pronounce it correctly. What's funny though, is that most of her American friends called her by her real name (because I was the pesty roommate who had a predilection for being real and would NO her name is not Amanda it's...), however, her Asian friends called her Amanda. I asked her one day "why do you feel the need to have an Americanized name?" Her response was "back in my country, we're assigned an American name to make it easy to pronounce"

funny huh

I bet you, if she were to study in another country of color, her name would not change to Zarifa, Yaa-Asantewa or Celestina Guillermina Arelis or Ti Elize, Kiskeya, Ayida...

sigh

The point is that when non-whites or non-Americans feels pressured to assimilate, we lose our culture. We lose our uniqueness. We no longer stand out.

F assimiliation support integration

Maybe I'm too much of a black hippie who wants to connect with every and appreciate what makes us different, but I honestly feel like people should embrace every aspect of their heritage. Since English is seen as the universal language, I really wish people who conforms to the media's requirement accepted that not everyone speaks the same English. It's a damn shame that Rihanna's accent is almost gone. So what if your range tone is different! So what if you roll your Rs and speak so fast that you put sonic to shame! So what if you click when you speak! So what if your lexical tone is low mid high! Who cares about the accent. Having an accent does not mean you can't speak, or that you're not articulate.





Everyone can speak

The problem is nobody is listening