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Listen to a Black person from New York, then a Black person from Houston, then a Black person from LA, then one from Philly, then one from Chicago and tell me they all sound the same.
I listen to a lot of rap. My favorite type of rap is from the East Coast, specifically New York. When I first started listening to rap, I was actually quite surprised that the Black guy I was listening to sounded nothing like the Blacks I went to High School with. I am not Black, either. But I did used to think that Blacks sounded alike UNTIL I listened to rap from different regions. The slang is different. The letters they drop are different. Blacks in LA don't drop the "r" in words like "car". They instead say "cawr" (similar to many White Angelenos). Blacks in Chicago DO drop the "r" from "car" and say "cah" like New Yorkers of any color, but it is NOT consistent across the board. Blacks say "waw-ter" in Chicago, "wooder" in Philly, and "wah-tah" in NY to say "water". So, really, I guess sometimes the only thing consistent across the board for Blacks in the US is probably the use of certain slang terms. But even then, it's questionable. Kind of like how Italians in Chicago will have their Italianisms like Italians in NY, but they don't sound alike.
Listen to a Black person from New York, then a Black person from Houston, then a Black person from LA, then one from Philly, then one from Chicago and tell me they all sound the same.
I listen to a lot of rap. My favorite type of rap is from the East Coast, specifically New York. When I first started listening to rap, I was actually quite surprised that the Black guy I was listening to sounded nothing like the Blacks I went to High School with. I am not Black, either. But I did used to think that Blacks sounded alike UNTIL I listened to rap from different regions. The slang is different. The letters they drop are different. Blacks in LA don't drop the "r" in words like "car". They instead say "cawr" (similar to many White Angelenos). Blacks in Chicago DO drop the "r" from "car" and say "cah" like New Yorkers of any color, but it is NOT consistent across the board. Blacks say "waw-ter" in Chicago, "wooder" in Philly, and "wah-tah" in NY to say "water". So, really, I guess sometimes the only thing consistent across the board for Blacks in the US is probably the use of certain slang terms. But even then, it's questionable. Kind of like how Italians in Chicago will have their Italianisms like Italians in NY, but they don't sound alike.
Also, whoever says they can tell a White/Black/Asian/etc. by their voice is fooling themselves. People used to tell me I sounded Black on the phone. Now they tell me I sound White. I am neither.
There are parts of Chicago you would swear you were in old country Mississippi. Those who tend to get more of an education and assimilate more to White American society do actually start to have the Northern accents, definitely.
People tend to have the accent of those grow up with. Blacks in most areas tend to be somewhat socially segregated, so they keep their accent. Also, not being black but guessing, there might be a social stigma amongst blacks who lose their accents as someone rejecting their community or heritage.
Blacks I've met who grew in areas with few people don't have the accent, as they're mostly around non-blacks without an African-American accent.
I'm black and was born in Philly and have always lived there. My grandparents( and assorted cousins)came to Phila., from the South, almost a century ago and none of them had southern accents. Or at least they lost them before I heard them speak. And no one in my family uses any kind of southern inflection today. Why should we? We're not southerners.
As you say it's probably culture that causes so many blacks to maintain certain accents and word usage.
Listen to a Black person from New York, then a Black person from Houston, then a Black person from LA, then one from Philly, then one from Chicago and tell me they all sound the same.
I listen to a lot of rap. My favorite type of rap is from the East Coast, specifically New York. When I first started listening to rap, I was actually quite surprised that the Black guy I was listening to sounded nothing like the Blacks I went to High School with. I am not Black, either. But I did used to think that Blacks sounded alike UNTIL I listened to rap from different regions. The slang is different. The letters they drop are different. Blacks in LA don't drop the "r" in words like "car". They instead say "cawr" (similar to many White Angelenos). Blacks in Chicago DO drop the "r" from "car" and say "cah" like New Yorkers of any color, but it is NOT consistent across the board. Blacks say "waw-ter" in Chicago, "wooder" in Philly, and "wah-tah" in NY to say "water". So, really, I guess sometimes the only thing consistent across the board for Blacks in the US is probably the use of certain slang terms. But even then, it's questionable. Kind of like how Italians in Chicago will have their Italianisms like Italians in NY, but they don't sound alike.
"Wooder" is not a racially based pronounciation in Philly. Many natives (whites too)say "water" that way.
There are parts of Chicago you would swear you were in old country Mississippi. Those who tend to get more of an education and assimilate more to White American society do actually start to have the Northern accents, definitely.
Unless they live in the South in which they will still have accents like Southern white people.
"Wooder" is not a racially based pronounciation in Philly. Many natives (whites too)say "water" that way.
Where did I say it's only a Black thing? Can you show me where in my post I was saying that Blacks in Philly talk differently than Whites? In my opinion, the Northeast is where Blacks and Whites are more likely to sound the same. I remember hearing Jadakiss talk on a CD skit and I thought it was some Italian guy. Turns out it was just Jadakiss with his very New York way of talking. I could have sworn it was some scene from a mafia movie.
Also, wooder is not just a Philly thing. I've met Whites from Virginia that say "wooder"
Here's the thing. I'm not the idiot who believes that Black people magically sound different than Whites or that they all sound the same. Case in point: I am a fan of Duck Dynasty. In one episode they have to get help from the townspeople to help them on a big project. Some of the black residents of West Monroe, LA help them. They sounded just as backwoods and redneck as the White people did. I couldn't tell their accent apart.
Even some White Southerners sound different than each other. It's a culture thing. Rural White southerners and city White southerners have a different way of talking. Those who pride themselves on being redneck do not have the same sound as those city people. I've met some Southerners who sounded practically English and they definitely weren't rednecks.
We got our accent from Africa first, then America after we learned how to speak English, so it depends where in America we are from how we will sound. Most of us naturally speak broken English and learn proper English later, unless we grow up in a household where our parents speak proper English only. Blacks who speak proper English 24/7 is obviously not the majority and that's why we sound the way we do too, plus the simple fact that it was against the law for us to read the language for about 200 years. It's not easy going everywhere speaking proper English all the time if that's not the way you were raised. That's why some white people have a hard time understanding what we say.
Also, whoever says they can tell a White/Black/Asian/etc. by their voice is fooling themselves. People used to tell me I sounded Black on the phone. Now they tell me I sound White. I am neither.
I don't know if you can tell a White person from Asian person (depending upon how assimilated said Asian person is). But it's generally pretty easy to distinguish a Black voice from a White voice (that goes for speaking and singing).
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