From commenter Whitey:
would you want someone who spoke in the tones of West Baltimore to potentially be the next vice-president, a position where you're speaking to the world?Yes. Yes I would. But then I talk in the tones of West Baltimore, and I do my best not to change that, no matter who I'm talking to. It's who I am, and I'm not sure why I would want to be something else. I've never gotten the accent beef, beyond personal preference, or selling. I'm not sure why a Southern accent sounds stupid. When I was in college, I loved listening to the girls from South Carolina talk. You may not dig how Palin talks, but for my money, that really has no relevance to anything.
Also for the record Ta-Nehisi (pronounced Tah-Nuh-Hah-See) is an Egyptian name for ancient Nubia. I came up in a time when African/Arabic names were just becoming popular among black parents. I had a lot of buddies named Kwame, Kofi, Malik (actually have a brother with that name), Akilah and Aisha. My Dad had to be different, though. Couldn't just give me a run of the mill African name. I had to be a nation.
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
You remind me of Derek Walcott's lines, in Adios, Carenage:
"I have Dutch, nigger, and English in me,
And either I'm nobody, or I'm a nation".
Just thought you might like them.
Morzer,
The Schooner Flight, no? I always loved that line, that "either I'm nobody, or I'm a nation" great, and of course "scissor the sea like silk" joint. I think I was subconsciously drawing from that nation line.
....and when I adopted my daughter, I thought she looked like a "Ruby", but named her Julia instead. Thought it would be somehow not PC or racist for a white woman to name her black child Ruby. Wish I'd done it now.....she is still a "Ruby" to me.
Oops. I thought it was Jive for the capital of the state of Florida.
(No I didn't)
I find that I tend to pick up the accent of whomever I'm around a lot. TNC says "I do my best not to change". Which implies that he changes his speech patterns because of his environment. I see that as a normal thing, and a good thing, keeping a foot at home, but also letting yourself be influenced by the people you're around now.
In grad school, my housemates noted that I used a different accent talking to Dad on the phone than I did with them. A lot more "gunna hafta" and a lot more "do it quick" instead of "do it quickly". I didn't even realize it until they pointed it out.
Someone who is extremely "downhome", even not when they aren't actually down home, troubles me. It seems excessively rigid, tin-eared, or posey. It invites attack, since an attack on it will be seen as an attack on their constituents. That's the politics of resentment.
Indeed it is, the first section of the poem. Props for a fine start to the day!
The syllable "hi" is pronounced "Hah"? Really?
I had to be a nation.
No, that's your fan club: Ta-Nehisi Nation!
And thanks for the pronunciation guide.
Thanks for the info on your first name.
My grandmother's sister (both born at the turn of the last century) was named Lybia. Lovely name.
Fair enough. Having listened to the trailer for The Beautiful Struggle featured here at the Atlantic, I hear the Baltimore coming from you a lot less than I hear the Alaska hills coming from Sarah Palin, but maybe that's an East Coast bias of an entirely different kind.
Ultimately, I just think she sounds uneducated. On it's own, that might be fine. But when I connect that with the fact that this woman only got her passport two years ago, has only visited five countries-one of which is Canada and one of which is a refueling stop in Ireland-it paints a portrait of an extremely provincial individual. In the position of vice-president, I really want someone worldly, considering that visiting foreign heads of state is often an important part of the job. From a foreign policy standpoint, I want someone who can go abroad and connect with the leaders of the world, many of whom were educated in the United States. Would Sarah Palin be taken seriously by these people?
When you look at Palin next to Obama, the latter has spent time all over the world, while the former hasn't shown much interest in the world at large. For me, the accent thing is part of that, as it contributes to the impression that I get of Sarah Palin as the ultimate provincialist. Does the accent alone say anything about her ability to lead? Not a chance. But does it increase the nervousness I feel about her? Hell yeah.
Some of this might be personal prejudice from experience. I grew up around a lot of swamp yankees who talk a bit like Sarah Palin, and on the whole, they're the folks who never left town and never saw any reason to. Maybe I'm taking too much from a simple accent, or maybe I'm not.
Huh. When I was in the service I knew a dude from Baltimore named Kinshasa so your dad wasn't the only geography fan in the area.
You have a gift I do not, that of keeping your speech consistent regardless of audience. For a variety of reasons, within five minutes of talking to someone I begin to adopt their speech patterns, down to accent and choice of vocabulary. So much so that when I talk to a good friend from Scotland my wife complains that she can't understand me anymore.
This was a great trait when I was in theatre back in the day, not so much anymore.
"Having listened to the trailer for The Beautiful Struggle featured here at the Atlantic, I hear the Baltimore coming from you a lot less than I hear the Alaska hills coming from Sarah Palin,"
You sir, have insulted my honor.
you contain multitudes.
TNC --
I hope that you're in better shape than modern Nubia (Sudan)!
"You sir, have insulted my honor."
Sorry man.
Here's what I think it comes down to. While you may have some West Baltimore in your speech, you still speak like an educated intellectual (college degree or not). You don't sound like a guy who just came down off the corner. Sarah Palin, on the other hand, sounds to me like she just came down out of the woods. Once again, provincialism is my problem with all this.
"you still speak like an educated intellectual (college degree or not). You don't sound like a guy who just came down off the corner."
Again, with the insults...
Seriously, I'm joshing. I understand your point. Don't agree with it, but I I understand it, and I'm certainly not insulted.
Of all the issues you can have with Palin, this is really not a reasonable one. Since I hate how the newfound dominance of the "e" word, I'll use something more specific. A person speaking with a non-standard American English accent is not provincial; a person mocking someone speaking with a non-standard American English accent is provincial. Utterly ignorant and crass. People can't help the accents they grow up with and accents are in no way an indicator of intelligence.
Not everyone can do what my wife did: during late high school and early college she intentionally shed her southern accent because she was worried she wouldn't be taken seriously in life. And she was probably right.
To reiterate (and I'm the farthest thing from a Palin supporter), mocking her accent just makes you look ignorant.
I had to be a nation.
Does this mean that you, like Whitman, contain multitudes? Cause that would be awesome.
As someone who grew up on Edmondson Ave on the west side. I would not want anyone who spoke with that tone representing the united states as president. I loved my neighborhood when I was there, but now I cannot imagine anyone from there representing the united states on an international stage.
To quote myself from the discussion of your post on Unfogged, when I first (as a whitey o'white person from a ridiculously white country) saw the name Ta-Nehesi, I immediately thought "ooh, ancient Egyptian, cool" and later realised it also reminded me of Tar-PalantÃr and suchlike Númenorean names.