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New York Democrat Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez used a southern accent while delivering a speech to Al Sharpton’s National Action Network organization in a Manhattan hotel.
Critics slammed the inauthentic nature of her accent.
Ocasio-Cortez speaks in an accent that she never uses while telling a room of predominately black people that there is nothing wrong with them folding clothes, cooking, and driving other people around on a bus for a living. pic.twitter.com/FIbIAPokt0
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) April 5, 2019
This is not the first time Democrats tried to connect with a black audience by deviating from their normal speaking pattern.
Hillary Clinton, the former State Department head and former presidential candidate, also used a southern accent while speaking to a black audience.
The Daily Mail reports:
Ain’t nothing wrong with that,’ the freshman Democrat drawled while speaking on Friday at Sharpton’s National Action Network conference in the Sheraton Times Square in Manhattan.
‘I’m proud to be a bartender. Ain’t nothing wrong with that,’ Ocasio-Cortez said. ‘There’s nothing wrong with working retail, folding clothes for other people to buy.’
In her speech, Ocasio-Cortez addressed reparations for black American descendants of slaves.
Ocasio-Cortez called for “pursuing an agenda of reparations,” and received a lot of criticism on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/khaliqrodriquez/status/1114340375336976385
Responding to the criticism, Ocasio-Cortez defended herself on Twitter:
Folks talking about my voice can step right off. Women’s March & Kavanaugh speech, same.
Any kid who grew up in a distinct linguistic culture & had to learn to navigate class enviros at school/work knows what’s up.
My Spanish is the same way.
These conspiracy mills are 🚮. https://t.co/8li33Jd6DL
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) April 5, 2019
Ocasio-Cortez’s southern accent was insincere and she was indeed pandering to black voters.
