Friday, September 26, 2008
Articulate differently
Southern white Republicans -- Lindsey Graham and Haley Barbour come specifically to mind -- really ought to stop describing Barack Obama as "articulate." Even I cringe.
9 Comments:
By 
, at
Sat Sep 27, 12:11:00 AM:
By 
clint, at
Sat Sep 27, 01:36:00 AM:
I had a similar visceral reaction watching Barbour doing spin after the debate.
I remember a year ago thinking he might be an excellent candidate. A governor, good record on Katrina at a time when others were failing, a few other good points...
The thought of him debating Obama at Ole Miss.... **shudder**
By , at
Sat Sep 27, 08:45:00 AM:
Agreed. Ditto for Biden's comments - clean and articulate, was it?
By Dawnfire82, at
Sat Sep 27, 08:45:00 AM:
Maybe if you spent some time in downtown Atlanta (or Beaumont) you'd better understand their reaction.
Blacks have (and are proud of and maintain) their own dialect. *Southern* blacks can be outright incomprehensible.
By , at
Sat Sep 27, 08:55:00 AM:
My Webster's defines 'articulate' as 'Being able to speak.' Obama is an accomplished speaker. They are using the word correctly. How do we fight politically correct speech codes if we are forced to play by the Left's rules? Do we meekly allow them to expunge words from the English language? One wonders how a 6th grade grammar teacher would explain the word to her class? Perhaps ending the discussion with the phrase, 'you can't use it when referring to black people'?
By TigerHawk, at
Sat Sep 27, 09:26:00 AM:
Actually, DFire, I have lot of experience in the rural south. I get the point, but that's exactly it, right? Nobody calls a Northern white "articulate" because there are a bunch of crackers in the Ozarks who are impossible to understand.
Feeblemind: I agree about the speech codes issues, but this is a bit different. It is one of the rather famous "little things" that has annoyed educated blacks for generations. This is not some creature of lefty post-modernism or an innovation of the trial bar like so many other things.
By , at
Sat Sep 27, 10:25:00 AM:
"It is one of the rather famous "little things" that has annoyed educated blacks for generations"
I've got to go with Feeble on this one. People who take offense at things that simply aren't offensive shouldn't be indulged.
By Dawnfire82, at
Sat Sep 27, 10:43:00 AM:
"Nobody calls a Northern white "articulate" because there are a bunch of crackers in the Ozarks who are impossible to understand."
They would if that's all they were accustomed to hearing, wouldn't they?
If my only exposure to northern white accents was heavy Bronx, Boston, and Wis-can-sin dialects, and I cam across someone like, say, Rudy Guiliani, my first reaction would likely be, "Hey, I can understand him! He's articulate!"
By Donna B., at
Sat Sep 27, 06:53:00 PM:
articulate: to express ideas coherently in speech
articulate: to enunciate clearly
Obama is articulate in the sense of the second, but certainly not in the sense of the first.
For that reason, I think it is not insulting or racist to call him "articulate", merely wrong.
