Why did Obama speak in a preacher accent during yesterday's speech?

[Herman Munster]

Was that a deliberate attempt to make him look like Martin Luther King? Previously that accent was only a "South Carolina special" reserved for black churches there. It's the first time I've heard him use it with white audiences.



.....edited title to reflect more accurate description of the accent, whatever it may be, preacher sounds good.

[annie1]

1. He's doing it right now, he just started, and it's doing my head in. wth? or like...

he's announcing wrestling or something.

[Quixote1818]

2. I just listined to it and I don't know what you are talking about. nt

[mckeown1128]

3. It is a Chicago accent.

Listen closer. It is very ethnic.

[TeamJordan23]

5. Agree. Its Chicago. nm

[Herman Munster]

6. well whatever it is it isn't present during debates

[annie1]

10. thank you.

[Quixote1818]

18. MLK Jr. Sounded white when he talked too

Giving a speech is a whole other ball game from regular conversation. You tend to emphasize different parts of each sentence and it's possible that some kind of accent tends to show up slightly during his inspirational speeches that you don't hear with regular speech.

[jenmito]

27. In debates he has to think about what he's going to say.

When he's giving these inspiring speeches, he's using his most natural,flowing voice. He speaks in cadences, naturally. He hits his stride. It's nothing contrived.

[Cha]

105. No worries...herman and

his gang are digging for dirt.

[superkia]

100. Maybe during debates hes answering questions and in his...

speech's, he is giving a speech instead of just hitting points or giving shorter answers? I try not to worry about how any of them talk, I just try to stick to the issues so I don't look like a fox news propagandist.

[Cha]

104. You bought hillary's hype..

you look disingenous displaying your little "don't the buy the hype".

[Renew Deal]

110. Isn't there a natural difference in speaking styles

between debates and raucus rooms?

[joe_sixpack]

9. Please, it's not a Chicago accent

not that Chicago shouldn't be proud of Obama's accomplishments, or to be associated with him, but that is not a Chicago accent.

[Occam Bandage]

72. I assume you're not from Chicago?

It's influenced by Black speech, yeah, but that isn't your run-of-the-mill South Sider coming out of his mouth.

[reggie the dog]

86. Think more

Harold Washington, or Jessee Jackson Sr. or Jr. than the average working class black Chicago accent. Mayor Daley has a Chicago accent too but it is not the white working class accent from Bridegeport.

[Occam Bandage]

101. I agree Jesse Jackson Jr. does it too,

but I always considered that an affectation. Most people affect a different dialect when orating; when Edwards is fired up, he sounds different than when he's just talking normally. Obama does the same.

You won't hear anyone talking like that in Woodlawn, for instance.

[reggie the dog]

85. Chicago

A bit like the accent of Jesse Jackson when he speaks, its that mix of southern black working class with northern "upper class" polished black english that we have in Chicago because of our history of migration from the south into Chicago (It also resulted in great blues and jazz scenes as well).

[Hekate]

109. Interesting. I could never quite place it, not having been in Chicago...

Growing up in Hawaii, I think his mother was like mine: Thou shalt speak "accentless" American English at home and in school, because that is the language of business and education.

California, where I have lived almost 30 years, feels "accentless" to me. I could never quite place Obama's voice -- but he was an academic, a college professor, as well as a politician.

He has to be able to go between worlds and mirror the speech patterns of others in order make them comfortable. I think that's what we hear as he goes from interview to debate to major speech.

Hekate

[Radical Activist]

4. It didn't sound southern to me.

Its a certain type of cadence. I've heard it from him before.

You might look to other candidates if you think someone is changing who they are from week to week.

[speedoo]

11. Didn't sound southern to me either.

Some revisionism going on here, methinks.

[Laurab]

16. I couldn't agree more with your 2nd sentence. n/t

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

58. Yup.

[Bonobo]

Are you confusing Obama with Hillary?

[maddiejoan]

19. you mean where she read from a poem

that was written in "dialect"?

[Bonobo]

64. Yeah, embarassing moment indeed.

[maddiejoan]

65. maybe for you

I thought it was cute.

[Bonobo]

67. I know. You even draw her cute. Not how I see her.

[maddiejoan]

69. meh

just for that...

[XemaSab]

7. A lot of Blacks talk "Southern."

:shrug:

[annie1]

14. oh come on. i've lived in the north and the south, one of my parents is black...

i have an extended black family. one of whom was a politician. and people don't just rollllll there S's around, and languish on the end of there words and all this whatever he's doing. it's stylized something. not that there is anything wrong with the accept per se, but sometimes it comes off TO ME at least, really overboard.

[Anouka]

77. May I ask, how do you define yourself? n/t

[wndycty]

8. Its called preaching. . .that is what we Black folks do. . .I assume you don't like it. . .

. . .LOL

[annie1]

12. ok, not southern, but like a late night preacher.

[speedoo]

13. A "late night preacher"?

Like who, for example?

[Double T]

15. Fraud? Bad wannabe actor?

Haven't we had enough of the bad actors and phony southern accents over the last 7 years?

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

17. Cspan now~ Sounds like a Yankee to me, a Yankee.

[no name no slogan]

20. Sorry, I didn't hear it. But I did hear south-side Chicago

nt

[NoBorders]

21. Sounded like that a couple months ago at a rally

I attended. I suppose it's possible he affects a bit of an accent but I haven't noticed.

[NoBorders]

24. Might be interesting to check out his '04 speech

at the demo convention and compare

[beaconess]

22. Black folks do this all the time

Many of us have, by necessity, two ways of speaking: our inside voice and outside voice. Obama has always slipped back and forth between the two.

Nothing unusual about that - except to people who don't know blacks well enough to know that this is a common part of our lives.

[hedgehog]

48. My family does the same thing, and we're Irish Catholic

Get a bunch of us together or just show us an Irish movie and we slip into a brogue. It confuses hell out of people, because my brogue is overlayed with a bit of West Virginian.

[reggie the dog]

88. whites have this too

at least working class whites that become part of the "educated" middle class do. I have the english I use in work situations and with the friends I made at the university/at work as a teacher, and I have my standard working class english full of aints etc. that I learned from my parents/other kids I was friends with, which I still speak with my old buddies from high school.

[AngryAmish]

107. Everybody does it

It is ok to swear around your friends, you don't do it around your parents.

It is one of the things people do when they communicate.

[WinkyDink]

106. Then it IS okay to discuss race here?

[Clanfear]

23. That sounds racist.

Just the question itself. Shame on you.

[RFKJrNews]

95. Just posing such a question is dubious in itself.

If this is the best his opponents can do, how sad indeed.

I like Hillary and voted for Bill Clinton twice in the `90s, but I must say that when she went to Selma earlier this year for the anniversary march, I found her affected Alabama accent deeply offensive. It struck me as obvious pandering.

If she is going to paint herself as a southern woman from Arkansas, she should speak that way all the time - not just when it is politically advantageous to do so.

Respectfully submitted as a proud southern woman and lifetime democrat.

[Politicub]

25. I don't think he did

I actually like his ex-smoker gaveley voice, though.

I can't deny he is a fantastic speaker!

[maddiejoan]

26. I'm not an Obama supporter (unless he gets the nom)

but I am a voiceover actress.

I didn't hear a southern accent from Obama.

[zulchzulu]

47. Any samples?

VO work that is... I do some on occasion.

[maddiejoan]

63. 8 years as Meowth on Pokemon

and an occasional caller on Mike Malloy (Gollum)

[reggie the dog]

90. wow

really???? I watched you for a few years with my buddy Russ's kids.....

[reggie the dog]

89. do you watch UK comedy cartoons ever?

"I do mostly voice overs, but I am a classically trained actor..."

[maddiejoan]

91. sadly I don't have cable

but if you could point me to an online collection?

[reggie the dog]

98. I need to ask my British friend, he showed me them online before

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

28. Titles of threads ought not be up for Editing by OP.

Titles should stand as is.

[Quixote1818]

31. You noticed that too?

:wtf:

[wndycty]

32. So did I. . .its very pathetic, but then again DU has become a pathetic place lately

:kick:

[tammywammy]

33. Agreed.

[Herman Munster]

34. why do you care?

I thought it sounded southern but I don't claim to be a linguistic expert. Like I said, whatever it was, it was different than how he ususally talks on TV.

[wndycty]

36. Because of your tired transperent bullshit. . .

:kick:

Do you have a candidate or are you just the captain of the hate brigade?

[kerrygoddess]

39. For what it's worth

Listening to him last night I wondered if he hadn't been listening to MLK tapes and studying them because I thought he sounded eerily like MLK and I said that on my blog: "Obama’s speech was electrifying. At times I felt his voice reminded me of MLK, deep and resonating." - http://thedemocraticdaily.com/2008/01/03/obamas-grand-speech-next-stop-nh/

[carpe diem]

41. you sound like Randi Rhodes when she melted down over...

Oprah, the Black woman born in Mississippi and raised in Tennessee, talking like a southern Black woman (as if she was faking something or being inauthentic)...just because it's unfamiliar to you, doesn't mean it's not real...

[wndycty]

42. You know Bill Clinton does it too. . .

. . .but I guess its OK for a white president to sound like a Black preacher, but not for a Black Senator to sound like a Black preacher. . .LOL

[reggie the dog]

93. no, Clinton

just sounded like a redneck preacher, not a black preacher.

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

49. I noted no difference w/ the Obama speech patterns.

The thread title should have stood as is. Ugly or not.

[IndianaGreen]

29. It was a solid Midwestern accent

He sounded like many Hoosiers.

[harun]

102. I am originally from Wisconsin and it sounded Midwestern/Chicago

I don't think he was trying to go MLK.

[doc03]

30. You mean like the one Hillary uses when

she is in the south?

[DUyellow]

35. what are you talking about?

[yellowcanine]

37. Really trite "eye of the beholder" stuff don't you think.? "Obama speaks in a special accent!"

"Hillary cackles!" "Al Gore sighs!" Come on people. Focus on issues.

[Honeycombe8]

38. I didn't detect a preacher cadence, any more so than he's always used.

I suspect you're not an Obama supporter, right? Right.

[loveangelc]

40. I could ask why does Hillary speak in a southern accents when she goes to black churches?

or why does she sound like nails on a chalkboard when she's not speaking in her nice-whisper voice like at the dinner they just showed.

[bellasgrams]

50. please explain how Hill's voice sounds like nails on a chalkboard.

You people are pushing me more and more toward her with your snide, childish remarks about a good lady that has been put thru hell by the repubs. She's paid her dues, and doesn't deserve the nasty remarks made on a democratic board. No candidate is perfect, but you'd never know it from the Edwards and Obama supporters.

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

55. Sounds like she has a trained operatic voice shouting her POV.

That voice really does drive me goofy. Yes, she has paid her dues and she'd be good to win, but that Voice! Please! make her work on this.

[loveangelc]

56. so you're going to hillary's side because you don't like some of the comments from

obama and edwards supporters? smart. a few comments definitely reflects an entire group of supporters.

and clearly its what I hear when she tries to scream and be energetic. it doesnt sound good and imo it sounds like nails on a chalkboard. you can disagree, but thats what i hear. i suppose you don't have a problem with someone making constant deriding comments about obama and his voice?

[bellasgrams]

51. please explain how Hill's voice sounds like nails on a chalkboard.

You people are pushing me more and more toward her with your snide, childish remarks about a good lady that has been put thru hell by the repubs. She's paid her dues, and doesn't deserve the nasty remarks made on a democratic board. No candidate is perfect, but you'd never know it from the Edwards and Obama supporters.

[Forkboy]

73. Thank you Bitwit

[tammywammy]

74. ...

[OHdem10]

43. Shelby Steele, noted black author said one question to be

asked of Obama. Why do you speak to black audience with one oratorical
style and to white audiences with another.

Perhaps this is an answer to Shelby,s question.

[carpe diem]

52. actually, he was asked that very question in an NPR interview...

and he said that there tended to be a different rhythm (paraphrasing) when speaking to a predominately black audience and he often responded to that energy...


(edited to add link)

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7630250

Do you try to talk in the same way to a black audience as a white audience?

I think that the themes are consistent. It think that there's a certain black idiom that it's hard not to slip into when you're talking to a black audience because of the audience response. It's the classic call and response. Anybody who's spent time in a black church knows what I mean. And so you get a little looser; it becomes a little more like jazz and a little less like a set score.

[Anouka]

79. Why is it necessary to note that Steele is black?

perhaps that's an answer all it's own. did you intend it? :\

[ecstatic]

83. Because some people think that as long as one black person said something

that is agreement with bigoted rhetoric, then it's an OK argument to run with.

[Bullet1987]

44. Why?

Do you get offended when Obama sounds "Black?"

[reggie the dog]

94. Unique in the USA

In the UK blacks tend to have the same accent as whites. In the USA we had slavery and really high black illiteracy, so their english was an oral language for generations. This difference stuck, Obama lived in a black neighborhood in Chicago and picked it up while he was there. That is all.

[HughMoran]

45. Why did the ducks cross the road?

Because they were writing a book, "Make Way for Ducklings" - and they made a killing too...

[zulchzulu]

46. That's his real voice...uncalculated, unfocus grouped, unCarville-coached...

It's also called projecting your voice in a large, large crowd...which he is very used to seeing and speaking to.

He isn't shrill. People like that in a candidate.

[kerrygoddess]

57. Of course it was his real voice but

the intonation was different. I noticed it last night (as I mentioned up thread) and I wondered if he had been listening to MLK tapes and studying them because I thought he sounded eerily like MLK.

Nothing worng with that, it was actually wonderful and though I am not decided on who I am supporting hearing him speak like that and sounding like MLK made me think of what might have been (MLK, JFK and RFK) and brought a few tears to my eyes.

I noted on my blog that I thought he sounded like MLK: "Obama’s speech was electrifying. At times I felt his voice reminded me of MLK, deep and resonating." - http://thedemocraticdaily.com/2008/01/03/obamas-grand-speech-next-stop-nh/

[CarbonDate]

53. What of it?

Even if he did, being a talented enough speaker to bring on your "A-game" for a major speech like that or the Democratic National Convention is natural. Certainly, if he spoke like that all the time, it would wear mighty thin.

You know what does wear thin?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEXLCn6ZNss

Her speaking tones are repetitious. Start high, stair-step down until she's done with her sentence. Lather, rinse, repeat. Follow the bouncing ball. She's like an automation. You say Obama sounds like a preacher? Clinton sounds like a Sunday school teacher who puts the kids to sleep.

Man, I wasn't even for Obama at first, but the more I listen to Hillary supporters talk about him, the more I like him. I hope that dynamic plays out in New Hampshire.

[CyberPieHole]

54. Oprah did something like that when she was parading for Obama...

suddenly she no longer sounded the way she does on her show when she is hawking crap and Dr. Phil...

[Quixote1818]

59. With Oprah it was clear as day. With Obama there were only a few instances where

he kind of sounded preachy or southern. For the most part his diction had little or no accent.

[Thrill]

60. So now he's changing his voice? C'mon Hilary supporters

Thats weak.

[Name removed]

61. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[bigwillq]

62. I thought the same thing.

Sounded very Southern to me. Hated it.

[alcibiades_mystery]

66. Ay yay yay

Sad.

[Forkboy]

68. Glad you're on this crucial issue.

:thumbsup:

[Gloria]

70. I do have one question: remember how all we heard about Kerry was

that he was stiff and a bad speaker? I find Obama like a stuffed-shirt, overly preachy, sometimes haughty and boring as hell. When do we start get a review of his speaking from the media?

[killbotfactory]

71. you're amazing

Seriously, try to get a job at fox news. You've got "the goods".

[Occam Bandage]

75. Why is it that white people "speak" and black people "preach?"

[Anouka]

78. Hillary voice: "I can't wait to hear this answer!" /s

sigh. but really, I would like to hear those answers. too bad it's going into a weekend, eh?

[BenDavid]

76. HM, you are right in suggesting it is patterned after MLK.

Obama's new stump speech continues his oratorical practice, patterned after Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech, wherein identical lead-in words, followed by slight shifts in meaning, are repeated at the beginning of a series of sentences, most notably at or near the close of a delivery. Then, as a political altar call, Obama moves into his close with a five-fold repetition of "believe."
Barack Obama has made the most effective use of speech patterns from American church sermonizing. As Obama did in his Jefferson-Jackson Day speech, he invoked Dr. King's phrase, "the fierce urgency of now," as a key concept of his candidacy. He used it again on Meet The Press, December 30th. We will likely hear it again, and often.
Three of the five historical illustrations chosen by Obama's speech writers are race-related. That can be no accident. One illustration blatantly promotes revisionist history. Abraham Lincoln resisted Confederate succession with force of arms not to free the slaves, but to save the Union. Putting aside whether it yields him the votes to win, is there anything worthy of criticism with regard to Senator Barak Obama's somewhat oblique playing of the race card? As an informed voter, that's for you to answer.

[ekelly]

96. I read the article you just paraphrased

in the American Thinker http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/01/obamas_oblique_race_card.html

I think he sounded a bit different than he usually does, but I liked it. I think he was "in the moment" and responding to the energy of the audience. Nothing wrong with that imo. Speakers like Obama get me fired up and even more eager to vote!

[smoogatz]

80. He sounded like the first black president of the United States.

Get used to it, mo-fo.

[Vickers]

87. Har!

:thumbsup:

[rucky]

81. He was just orating.

they all do it in their own way.

[ecstatic]

82. Is it offensive to you when someone doesn't sound as white as possible?

:eyes: Your sheet is showing.

[here_is_to_hope]

84. To show Hillary how its done? n/t

[suziedemocrat]

92. I hate it when he does that! I've noticed it a lot lately.

[Digit]

97. I have only heard the Captain Kirk of the Enterprise cadence

It took me awhile to figure out who it reminded me of.
Nothing wrong with that.
Then again, I have not heard the speech you mention.

I will vote for whichever Dem gets the nom, tho.

[BattyDem]

99. They all get that "politician cadence" when they give a speech.

Every one of them. It's a rhythmic, singsong speech pattern that just sort of ebbs and flows. None of them speak that way during an interview, but when they take the stage ... whoomp, there it is! :-)

[SaveOurDemocracy]

103. Even Tweety, with all his recent Obama fawning, commented

on the 'Baptist preacher cadence' a couple weeks ago. It's things like that that make me feel uneasy, like i'm being manipulated, sold a bill of goods.

[Didereaux]

108. pure unadulterated pandering, and it is going to take a huge chunk from his ass if he keeps it up