Harry Reid made a comment to President Obama stating his “lack of negro dialect.” This was a comment that should not have been said and President Obama said him self that sometimes speaking to a primarily black crowd its hard not to code switch because of the atmosphere. He compared it an atmosphere that would be in an all black church. It was hard not to start speaking in “negro dialect” but its something that people frown upon all the time. Reid encouraged Obama to run because he was a light-skinned black man and said that his negro dialect could help him, if he wanted to use it. This to me seems racist. Mr. Reid was clearly stating that if Obama spoke to black people in a way that would get them to vote for him, he would clearly have a leg up on any other competitors. Code switching to me isn’t something that I think is bad. I think people code switch all the time depending on who you’re talking to in order to ”fit in.” Just because President Obama is black doesn’t mean that he isn’t going to have good proper english. Thats why I think Mr. Reid’s comment came off racist. “So for example, if you would look at Jesse Jackson in ’84 and ’88, he also spoke Standard English in his interviews, but Harry Reid – for the most part, but Harry Reid would likely say anyway that he spoke with a Negro dialect.” To me this also proves that Hayy Reid is somewhat racist because of his comments. They discussed if there should be anything further punishment fro Reid and I believe their should. The government is somewhat corrupt already and comments like this really tell that some people in congress and racist and are mad that the United States has a black president. Whether President Obama uses his “negro dialect,” or not he is still the President and it did not come easy for him.
Code Switching
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