Accentism on the media

Accentism on the Media

Here is a curated list of recent newspaper articles covering the topic of linguistic and accent discrimination. If you happen to find some news that is relevant to the subject, please drop us a line!

Media stories

• Il razzismo in Italia è qualcosa con cui mi interfaccio ogni giorno (article with paywall) (17/12/2023, IT)
• UK cop convicted of gross misconduct for mimicking woman’s Indian accent (27/11/2023, The Shillong times, India)
  
• Inclusive education: Investigating accent prejudice at Bristol University (15/11/2023, Epigram, UK)
• Is being Turkish my only personality trait? (15/11/2023, US)
  
• Nous avons tous un accent. Voici pourquoi « l’accentisme » est une forme de discrimination contribuant au racisme (07/11/2023, The Conversation) 
  
• Why Chadwick Boseman’s fight for African accents in ‘Black Panther’ was so important (01/09/2020, The Washington Post)
  
• Tower Of Babble: Nonnative Speakers Navigate The World Of ‘Good’ And ‘Bad’ English (25/04/2021, National Public Radio)
  
• Accents and AI: how speech recognition software could lead to new forms of discrimination (07/11/2021, The National News)
  
• The state school experience at the University of Edinburgh (26/10/2023, The Student)
  
• ‘We still make judgments from the way people talk’: Rob Drummond decodes accent prejudice” (08/10/2023, The Guardian)
• Discrimination is the biggest career obstacle for women of colour in the NHS – new research( 03/10/2023, The Conversation)
  
• Cozen Partner Named in Discrimination Suit Joins London Fischer (19/09/2023, US)
• The pervasive problem of ‘linguistic racism’ (03/06/2021, UK)
• Fertitta’s Landry’s chain is sued by EEOC for allegedly picking on an Iranian employee (25/09/2023, US)
• Discrimination: a practical case to follow up with the latest legislative improvements (25/09/2023, Belgium)
• Accent bias and risks for employers (26/09/2023, UK)
• Adults missing out on jobs because of their accent, study for Co-op suggests (The Irish News, 15/06/2023)
• One in four have accents mocked at work – survey (03/11/22, UK)
• Revealed: The UK’s least respected accent (03/11/22, UK)
• The King’s English still reigns among workers and students (02/11/22, UK)
• Can you ‘lose’ an accent? And more importantly, why would you want to? (03/11/22, UK)
• People mocked and criticised for their accents throughout their lives, report says (03/11/22, UK)
• ‘Open your mouth, you’re at a disadvantage’: The UK has accent bias – but who does it affect most? (03/11/22, UK)
• English teacher reveals the bad habits that make you sound ‘dumb’ – including saying ‘like’ when you’re lost for words and using upward inflection (11/09/19, UK)
• Accentism: is it time for protected status? (17/08/22, UK)
• How Accent Discrimination Has Impacted My Life (22/08/21, UK)
• Putting the Accent On Prejudice (02/08/21, UK)
• BBC’s Alex Scott ‘proud’ of working class accent after peer’s elocution jibe (31/07/21, UK)
• How the civil service is posher than in the 1960s (20/05/21, UK)
• How international teaching assistants learn to sound like engineers (12/01/21, Canada)
• Accents that face the most discrimination revealed in study (27/11/19, UK)
• Speakin while female (12/01/15, US)

Accentism on social media

• Lucy Bella Simkin’s YouTube Channel 
• https://twitter.com/hughdellar/status/1443182419205632000
• Accent discrimination at the University of Edinburgh (Twitter)
• Accent discrimination at the University of Edinburgh (Instagram)

On accents

• Farewell to King’s English? Traditional accents on the decline, study finds #UKaccents #accents
• Would you Adam and Eve it – cockney’s out. We’re all speaking multicultural now
  This article reports about research carried out by CIRCE Advisor Amanda Cole about the changing distribution of accents among young Britons, with cockney and received pronunciation being replaced by MLE, estuary English and standard southern British English.
• Understanding all kinds of English accent can improve empathy and learning – and even be a matter of life and death
  In this article, CIRCE Advisor Alex Baratta argues that wider exposure to all accents of English can only but improve empathy and communication, even if Received Pronunciation and Standard American English remain highly sought-after accents to be imitated to improve social mobility. Key sentence:  “A global language, after all, will have global accents.”
• Mads Mikkelsen spiega perché interpreta sempre il cattivo: “È per l’accento”. #accent #accentstereotypes #accentsofenglish
• Say what? British tourist says he’s struggling to understand Singaporean accent #accentsofenglish
• Why Lancashire is one of last homes of traditional English accent (article with paywall) #accent #accentofenglish
• Transplanted to the US as a child, two accents seemed like a great idea. Until my first playdate
• Code-switching: the pressure on people to change how they speak
• Why some people lose their accents but others don’t – linguistic expert (30/03/23, UK)