“Sounding white”: African-American attitudes toward “whiteness” in the speech of African-Americans

The purpose of this study was to examine what it means to be an ethnic community member and be told that you “sound white”. This was done by interviewing members of the African-American community. The information from personal interviews and focus groups was analyzed using thematic analysis. Multiple themes were revealed regarding the definition of “sounding white”, emotional and social consequences, and acceptance into the African-American community. Although multiple definitions of what it means to “sound white” were revealed in this exploratory research, it can be concluded that to sound “white” means to speak “proper” English, talk in an educated manner, or overly formal. These findings suggest that reverse language discrimination exists within the African-American community amongst non-AAVE [African American Vernacular English] speakers. An African-American’s speech can be viewed as a measure of his or her Blackness. With this knowledge, linguistic programs should be implemented to promote language diversity and acceptance amongst the AAVE speaking community and combat linguistic discrimination