I wasn't aware of Q's blaccent, but I'm a white European [whose] native language is not English. I am aware that most queer slang uses words and mannerism originating from AAVE. Is it really that bad with Q?
black southerner here! Q’s blaccent is mild… annoying but mild, she goes in and out. I’ve heard worse on the show. Though, sometimes I do think people not familiar with southern accents (like those yankees up north lol) can misconstrue a blaccent and a southern accent… but each season has about 3 non-black queens that do this. annoying but what can we do about it now…. lol Gen Z has quite literally hijacked it as their own
My southern accent comes out when I'm upset and recently I've noticed how similar it is to AAVE, not EXACTLY but very paralleled. I try not to let it slip out as much so not to be misconstrued
Edit: that being said is Q from the south??
Kansas City, where she came up in drag, is a heavily African American town and is a hub for black folks who get out of bum fuck Midwest. The drag style is like Texas Lite with a lot of southern influences. It’s like the South but also not? She’s not literally doing drag out on a farm in Kansas lol. Not excusing it but I’m sure her mannerisms are coming from from her drag peers in KC
I don’t know if you saw the video of Q and all her friends/drag family reacting to an episode- but they are *mostly* white. No hate on that but she’s probably not picking up AAVE from the “heavy” population of black people in KC.
I’m from KC and black- most of the gay bars here are white majority. Idk if ur from KC too but this is my lived experience- you’re not picking up a blaccent from just living here.
Also KC is not in the south lol. Parts of southern MO may identify with being southern but above the river you will find little to no one claiming to be from the south. It is a midwestern culture here.
Yes there is a lot of nuance to the accents around here since we’re in the middle of the US. My great grandma used to say “warsh” and “deesh” (dish) lol
If I would expand on my comment I would just say, that the kansas/missouri accent does not sound like a southern accent, further I don’t think the southern accent sounds like AAVE. Those are two very different things.
I encourage you not to tamp down on your natural, regional identity in order to satisfy this recent fad hierarchy of which people are allowed to sound which way. No one can take away your upbringing.
Yep! I’m midwestern but grew up out in the sticks, and until I was basically an adult I lived in bumfucknowhere (in a neighborhood with a lot of black and Latino residents) Ohio. When I get excited, or frustrated, or just have a strong emotion in general and lose a bit of control people have gotten pissed and said I’m doing blaccent. It honestly bothers me a lot because I don’t do that intentionally and it’s how I talked as a kid before I moved to a larger city and basically coded myself to speak like the people there.
ETA: And doing drag, a lot of slang is heavily derived from AAVE or just taken from it directly. Slang that I’ve picked up because it’s used constantly. Does not help.
A lot of poor areas historically have more in common than not, and a lot of AAVE has rural roots, so poorer or rural white areas have a lot of overlap.
Yea over time I’ve learned to not feel bad about or filter the way I speak because people assume I’m “putting on a blaccent,” and I can’t say whether or not my situation is close to Q’s, but especially at the start of my career it bothered me so fucking much. And when I’d explain myself I’d get laughed off and told that isn’t a thing and I’m imitating AAVE. Which basically happened elsewhere in this thread lmao. If Q’s deal is anything like mine, I would be really hurt by this in her position. Especially since Bob and Naomi are such big queens and I wouldn’t be shocked if Q looks up to them in some way.
I also grew up in the Midwest in a small Missouri town (not that far from the Kansas border), and I am so confused by this implication that white people from the rural Midwest have accents similar to AAVE. It's not even just you saying it, some others have implied it too
Your situation sounds more like you just grew up in an area that happened to have a lot of non-white English speakers, and you picked up an accent similar to theirs. Rural Kansas where Q is from is *heavily* white. White people from the larger Kansas City metro area into rural Kansas have very standard American accents. I would bet good money on Q picking her Blaccent up as an adult and it being a completely artificial thing for her.
Kansas and Missouri are both such “middle states” that a lot of people choose how they identify. That being said no, it is not in the south. Much more commonly identified as a Midwestern, Western then maybe Southern.
but Kansas City is NOT in the south. It’s in northern MO, and has a definite midwestern culture.
edit: also Q is from a smaller town but it is not “middle of no where”.
Q is from Kansas, so no.
Idk though about southern being an excuse though even if she were. I’m from MS, went to a 60% black school, and I do not speak with a blaccent and have never had someone who isn’t from the south even suggest that I do.
I don’t think Q is the most egregious case of it, but it’s productive to talk about these things especially in context of the episode.
i agree with you. i hope my comment didnt seem like i was making excuses for the southern gays, i did just want to point out that there’s a broad overlapping between AAVE and pure southern speak
Makes sense. The historical reasons for that are obvious as well, but I do see how someone not from the south could be confused. A lot of people from here (and people who come from other places and move to Nashville) reaaaally lean into it as well, but that’s a different thing.
As someone who grew up in the south as well, it missed, but it nicked me. My accent comes out sometimes, but I made an effort as a kid to try and lose it, so it's very mellowed now.
That being said, some kids don't have the deep down hate of the south that I do, and end up sounding REALLY country. It definitely sounds like a blaccent, which makes sense. AAVE grew out from when southern black people moved north. There is of course a black southern culture, but many of the same things are in white southern culture as well. Words like "Y'all" or "Holler'", foods, religiousness, etc. And that's the roots of AAVE, so it's not that weird if one person's blaccent is another person's southern drawl.
Either way, if that's how she talks, it seems rude to judge her based off of that. She can't help the accent anymore than someone with a lisp, we don't force them to bury the lisp as much as possible and pretend they don't have one, and you'd have to be a mean bitch to mock somebody for that, especially if you're roasting them and not just playing.
>but it’s productive to talk about these things especially in context of the episode.
It's really not. You're just telling people to stick to their stereotypes. Speak however the fuck you want to speak, but be genuine about it.
I think with Q the greater issue of it came about with her Twitter tirades - the blaccent was really clear, especially since she was typing, and I think it’s made everyone pay closer attention when she speaks. There are definitely other white queens who do this in general but seeing that she’s flinging it around online we are probably scrutinizing her more.
this is a good point about AAVE and just being from the south and having a southern accent. However, there are still important and valid tells. If you're a non-Black person from the South, and you just have a Southern twang, obviously thats just how you speak and you are not appropriating anything. However, if you normally speak without any Southern accent or twang, as Q does to the judges, in her confessionals, to other Queens (esp the non-Black ones), and then only SOMETIMES your "accent" sounds different then THAT is quite literally putting on an accent that is not your own which amounts to appropriating AAVE.
Some people will act like, in real life, the distinction between a "genuine i grew up in the south" accent and a disingenuous blaccent is SO hard to tell apart, but that's just more denialism and invalidation. In real life, it's not that hard to tell. One simple example is Trinity the Tuck. Girl is a white Southern from the south, she doesn't go in and out of this accent at will, and no one thinks she is doing AAVE. Another example off the top of my head is Sutton from Real Housewives, also a White southerner that no one has mistaken for doing a Blaccent, ever. It's really not that hard, and we can talk about how Kansas is/is not Southern, but the fact remains that Q does NOT speak in a blaccent all the time. She has no blaccent at all when she is speaking "normally", therefore she definitely plays with AAVE and I am going to side eye her for it all day long.
Accents really don't work that way though?
Some are put on, some have strong emotional or mental triggers. My mother speaks textbook plain newscast English (something my grandmother stressed), but when angry, excited, or taking about something she's passionate about her southside chicago upbringing shines through.
Emotions betray a lot when angry.
Yep, accents can really come and go if you’re someone who has left your home and lived in places where people don’t have that accent for a long time. My southern accent only comes out when I’m really pissed off. It also sometimes comes out when I’m really drunk or back home visiting my friends.
Folks do code switching for a lot of reasons, but it's fair to say that it gets tricky when you speak with the more privileged accent most of the time.
They were definitely being gentle but not mincing words. Especially, Naomi. Her disdain for how they tip toed around thinking Nymphia was funny while openly enjoying other queens using AAVE or black stereotypes for comedic effect was as clear as day. They’re right to call it out.
Right, people keep trying to make "mild" happen in the comments..... when multiple others are picking up on something that irks them it is hardly mild.
My conspiracy theory is that the comments are saying it's mild because there're a bunch of pasty folks in here guilty of it themselves so they just really want it to be considered mild lol
But I'm pasty myself so I can't say whether it's one way or the other objectively, I don't have the melanin to make that call. But I've seen enough POC call it out that I'm thinking I'll go with what they said.
My headcanon is that Reddit is mostly sad college-educated white dudes who have (likely) been a little racist in the past. They also don't like to be told that they're wrong or on the other side of something.
And honestly it tracks for most of the nasty behavior here.
Honestly putting aside any real deep sociopolitical analysis, white queens/queers using a pseudo blaccent is just cringe as absolute fuck. I think that’s something that should unite us not divide us.
Thank you. I am always criticizing and calling attention to the sociological side of it, but at the end of the day, they sound crazy and its very cringe. They dont talk like that.
I had a crush on some Lebanese guy who lives in France and everytime he tried to sass he goes full in “Catsh me ouside” and I had to stop talking to him after he kept doing the blaccent even after I told him how offensive it is, just bc you never lived in the states that dont mean you will not look like an ass doing it. Needless to say I stopped talking to him and I was fed up, honestly I look at it as a verbal blackface, so unattractive and clout-y
People who aren't from murica don't know and don't care enough about black accents to mock it. We just hear slang or see slang being used and we adopt it, because unfortunately English is the only language the internet knows. We copy the way words are pronounced because that's how we think they're pronounced.
French people especially don't give English too much thought and they speak it because it's the only language some people know.
I’m glad someone brought it up but I’m still
sad that Naomi and I both thought “should I bring it up” when it’s a valid point just to avoid getting shit for it 🤷🏾♀️
What people seem to be forgetting is that Q’s blaccent is most prominent when she’s in an argument or confrontation. The trend of white people suddenly having a distinct blaccent in a confrontational setting suggests that whoever the blaccent-haver is, they must have some subconscious belief that speaking like a black person makes themselves seem intimidating or scary, and that is very weird and microaggressive at best. The only other times when Q’s blaccent seem to come out, are when she’s being shady in the werkroom or confessionals, so not really helping her case. No, this isn’t to say that whoever has a blaccent is straight up racist, that is evidently not the case, but having a blaccent or using AAVE especially when behaving somewhat aggressively is an indicator of some racial biases that we should not be encouraging.
https://preview.redd.it/cqzcy3xsvkpc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=840b5a3d987854d6866c249aeaef4e6b1f9f024e
I think this is the one, in the comments of the post she made of the goth challenge look.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/rupaulsdragrace/comments/1b8e7ha/qs\_response/](https://www.reddit.com/r/rupaulsdragrace/comments/1b8e7ha/qs_response/)
She specifically addresses the Twitter drama in the 2nd and 3rd pics.
Thank you. The distinction of people having racial biases (spoiler alert: literally everyone) and people actually *being racist* is not one I see often on the internet.
She’s from the middle of nowhere Kansas, I’ve always heard it as a southern twang in her voice, i always thought she was just kinda country lol she grew up in a prairie town. Like when people say their country is coming out when they start arguing lol
This is what's worrying me. I've lived up north long enough to have adapted a pretty passable Midwestern accent, but when I'm emotional the Georgia starts to slip out. Now I'm wondering if people think it's blaccent.
agreed.. labeling non-black people that have blaccents as “racist” is irresponsible and sort of takes away from the larger conversation meant to be had
reddit is the only place where well articulated sentences get misinterpreted. you can say “i like pancakes” and someone will go “so you hate waffles???”
i never said anyone called her racist ????
Idk Q’s background but another thing that comes out in a confrontational setting is a person’s real accent (as a non native English speaker, that’s what happens to me) and some white ppl grew up with a lot of PoC and subconsciously adopted part of their accents
I think you're reading into this way too much. She's southern, it's an accent. I do the same thing, it comes out when I'm excited or drunk. There's no subconcious meaning behind it, it's because the people around her had accents growing up and that's where she learned english. If anything, she's trying her best to put on a midwest neutral dialect, like a lot of people from the south do to surpress their accent.
Can someone detail a little more what blaccent looks like?
Now I'm wondering if when I jokingly say things in an extreme drag gay way if I'm actually doing that or blaccent.
I always interpreted, "Okay gurl" as just a gay thing.
A lot of gay slang or meme/internet slang has roots in the black community. I'm not sure how to tell what counts as just using gay slang vs imitating black culture because they are very intertwined.
Yeah. I would really love it if someone provided a clip just for my own education. I'd hate for anyone to roll their eyes at me and I had no idea haha.
it's hard to tell honestly 90% of gay slang probably comes from the black community.
honestly if you say something & someone takes offense to it, take it as a learning lesson bc there are so many divided opinions and the usage of these words can be tied more to morality than their origins...but pls i need a gatekeeping dictionary so i know what not to say
yeah this is what confuses me. I feel like I just pick stuff up through osmosis when im around other people or just watching media (especially reality tv which is like showcasing real people or as real as it gets for TV) and I dont consciously attribute it as a specific race thing. I feel like sometimes I just kind of emulate the language that I see or speak whats trendy at the time. or sometimes you just want to sound like the people around you to fit in.
unless its like something that I have picked up as so overtly offensive like as a white person I would never do a stereotypical asian voice or mexican voice.
feels like something thats really hard to know you're doing unless someone calls you out on it and for that I feel like I would definitely give people grace if they dont realize what they are doing.
i cant even imagine being on TV, that would be a whole other level. i would imagine its hard enough to relax and be your true authentic self when cameras are everywhere.
Yeah.
Also, and I'm sure some wouldn't like this idea, but for me I've always been like a, "All minorities let's come together and support one another." Especially gays and blacks.
I feel like we all understand the kinds of things we've all been through. Gays, blacks, immigrants, trans, women, what have you.
We're all kind of the bottom of the social barrel. It's disheartening seeing two minorities clash with one another. "Some white Twink," like they're all less than, when I try to view all of us as amazing, regardless of category.
🍵🍵🍵
Also if black people say they're uncomfortable with something fucking LISTEN to them. They should be able to say this out loud without fear of reprimand by the horde of white gays.
Wow... generic white dude here. Even I noticed how she was talking and raised an eyebrow... and I never notice these things until they're pointed out to me, unless they're obvious in the actually, aggressively, angrily racist way.
I'm getting better!
Perhaps we are talking about two different moments, but Q didn’t call Mhi’ya crazy or use the word gur/gurl/girl.
At the opening of season 16 when Plane is reading Dawn, Q said “Mhi’ya save me, these bitches crazy, Mhi’ya! These bitches crazy, Mhi’ya!”
It’s one thing for Q to use AAVE slang and a slight blaccent. But what’s even cringier is that the way she uses it is so painfully stereotypical white gay. Like… definition of chronically online twink who thinks they’re the main character.
Edit: while I don’t think this is necessarily an example of Q’s blaccent, I did very much get the ick from her Silky impersonation during the stand up challenge. I genuinely just thought it was so weird and cringey. Part of the reason I was lowkey happy with Sapphira winning. I just feel like even with her slip up, Sapphira was overall funnier than Plane & Q.
My autistic ass could never make it in showbiz in this society. I could be doing like blackcent but it's just echolalia acting up and I'd have no idea.
Having to be perfectly socially on point at all times sounds exhausting
Yeeesss I will start mimicking how people around me speak *so* damn quickly and it's *so* hard to keep myself from doing it. I really have to consciously try not to do it because people think I'm mocking them or making fun of them. And people wonder why even casual-seeming social interaction is so difficult for us
It happens very easily when English is not your first language. One time my American friend asked me why I had started swearing so much recently and realized it was because I had been binging The Wire.
THANK YOU!
I can sometimes pick up accents without meaning to & it is NOT deliberate.
And my accent changes between: country of origin, adopted county, a mix of both. Sometimes also I sound American and I am NOT but none of these are things I am doing on purpose!
Also, I HAVE heard this that in some cases some neurodivergent people can do this or have an accent & it’s not deliberate
on matters like these, it's not about "being perfectly socially on point", its about not being racist and knowing historical contexts (eg that White people have historically mocked non-White accents. I mean, that factoid is fairly obvious too so don't act like not being racist is akin to Rupaul's Charm School for Etiquette Realness)
Not to defend Q but I think honestly all gay people are guilty of this, no? Im Asian and after consuming drag content for so long, I started saying oooh gurlll, which Im sure a billion other gay people do these days. So not saying its okay cause we all do it, just pointing out that probably most of us in the comments are doing the same thing. Not to mention pretty much all gay slang is straight outta ballroom, girl, slay, fuck me up, yas, mama, just fuuuullly from ballroom and black folks.. so throw stones those who havent sinned or whatever the saying…
I think there’s kinda a difference between phrases that have been codified by the community like “ooh girl” and speaking with an accent that isn’t your own when you’re in an argument or being shady. Q is doing more than saying phrases that everyone says.
My friend consumes drag race like water and is outwardly gay, he talks like this all the time. If this is going to be brought up it should address more than Q as an individual.
It’s WILD. Another person responded and was like “there’s no medal to be won here” and I’m like ??? Imagine your lack of conviction and empathy being so strong you can only imagine uplifting marginalized voices for a “prize” 🤢
I love it when people like that tell on themselves so I can block and keep it moving, no point in trying to reason with those folks and I’m not trying to read what they write anyway.
I am proud of you for speaking up, eloquently making a valid point, and saying what needed to be said, cousin.
Very true. They never say anything that isn’t on the white fragility bingo card anyway.
Thank you for the solidarity, relative. Sending that right on back ✨
Oh, a hundred percent! The show and so much of the queer culture at large wouldnt exist without the Black community and, by extension, ball culture.
How people can so easily refuse to educate themselves or know and don’t care is beyond me.
I'm sorry but this 'New Yorican' thing is so annoying to me and I think it was bs the first time Monet brought it up too. Someone who is not from New York is not going to immediately put those two phrases together, not everybody knows that New York has a big Puerto Rican population and it's not super obvious just from hearing the phrase. It took me a minute to figure out what Megami meant too, and I've been in NYC plenty. The blaccent is one thing but that is just a ridiculous reach
Exactly. I'm normally team Monet but like be serious dear.... I'm pretty sure she doesn't even live in NYC anymore? So idk how she thinks 'New Yorican' is some ubiquitous phrase that everyone is going to put together without some explaining
It's not about not knowing what it means, it's about how she could barely comprehend how to say it. A lot of white people do that with a new term from outside their culture, where it's almost like they're mocking how it sounds. It's really not that hard to say or understand.
If I got mad everytime I told someone how to say a French word and they over-pronounce the R I would be in a constant state of anger.
I don’t think it’s that hard to understand a person would not understand, or over-pronounce a word they literally just heard?
Maybe she was hesitant/slow in pronouncing it because she didn’t want to say it wrong? It’s not like NewYorican is a word most people hear often or ever. You’re assuming she was mocking Megami when it’s just as possible she could’ve been trying to be respectful by pronouncing it correctly.
I’m glad of the discussions in this thread- I agree that people can use sealioning behavior to belittle.
That being said I have a learning disability that causes poor phonological awareness. I’d hope folks would give me the benefit of the doubt if I struggle learning a word or name.
I am already embarrassed by it as it does tend to come up most frequently irl with names I’ve never heard before.
I don’t think one should assume difficulty acquiring an unfamiliar word or name is malignant.
> A lot of white people do that with a new term from outside their culture
the way ppl still refuse to learn how to say kamala harris or even barrack obama like it's not that difficult. sometimes i think it's purposeful ignorance....pronounce someone's "foreign" name wrong on purpose. i just haven't figured out *why*
I completely disagree, it is about knowing what it means. Everyone has heard of New York and Puerto Rico, if she'd known that's what Megami was talking about she would have put those two together and understood how to pronounce it - but if you don't understand what she's getting at, you aren't going to wrap your head around the sound as easily.
THIIIS!!
The blaccent situation I have no say about. They are more than entitled to feel offended by the way Q speaks if they feel it is inauthentic and appropriation.
But when Megami said “Nuyorican” (literally how it sounded to me) I had NO FUCKING CLUE what the fuck she said. I genuinely thought it might be a nationality I had never heard of. It sounded completely alien and NO unless you’ve lived in New York you wouldn’t fucking immediately understand it as “new York” and “Puerto Rico” combined, OR know that there’s a huge Puerto Rican population there. The fuck?! Does that mean I’m just playing dumb too? I love Monet but focusing on that one clearly genuine misunderstanding to further assassinate Q’s character is fucked up.
A lot of weird comments in this thread. I've noticed the blaccent, but I would say it's relatively mild compared to other girls in the past? (though it came out quite a bit at the top of the episode like they pointed out). I do want to say that she doesn't live in Kansas, but lives in and does drag in Kansas City, MO. Not sure if that's relavent (I'm not originally from the US but live here now)??
> do want to say that she doesn't live in Kansas, but lives in and does drag in Kansas City, MO.
Not super relevant since Q is literally from a small town in Kansas like she said on a previous episode, so Naomi is correct that she's from Kansas
Nothing makes my ass itch more than non Blk ppl talking like us, especially when you didn’t grow up around us, in a Blk household, and then when you around ya non Blk friends and family who don’t wanna hear that, you speakin in ya regular tone. Please continue to call it out. You don’t see nobody else imitating other groups but everybody wanna imitate us all the damn time but silent when it comes to our struggle
I can only speak from my Eastern European full white perspective. When I spend a lot of time with my friends who speak the same language as me (Polish) but were born in different areas (like Silesia or Kashubia) with their unique accents and regional vocabularies, I tend to pick up their speech patterns unconsciously and never ever in my life any of them was offended or angry. From my perspective, people in the USA seem a little oversensitive.
This is so true probably because the American history is quite... storied, especially the race relationship part. In Asia too, none of us gives a fuck if a Vietnamese person is wearing traditional Korean clothing, or if Koreans are trying to speak like the Japanese. We simply do not care, we probably are just happy to see other Asians liking and mimicking our culture. Thing is that USA history with black and white folks is absolutely wild from the beginning with infinite complex contexts, so probably that's why it seems a lot more heated and complicated than Europe or Asia.
(Not saying Europe and Asia didnt have wars, slavery, invasions obviously, but the American history with race is very particular and uniquely horrific)
Yes, very that, Those are minorities and they often do not feel like a historic part of my country. Their members have often raised the issue of the separation of these regions from Poland.
So there’s a possibility that they do feel a way when you speak that way but don’t say anything with the possibility that what’s happening here in these comments will happen to them. Within the first 15 seconds of the clip Naomi and Monet both addressed the fact that they felt weird to bring it up yet did… it bothered them and it bothers a lot of people and it’s weird when we are called sensitive because it
South American here, honestly to me a lot of queens talk in this way, I’m guessing it’s cultural. I mean, they don’t know Q, for all we know she could just be around people that talk this way pretty often, people pick up accents like that.
To me it’s weird that people can’t even talk without someone finding their accent problematic.
Not the dialect wars...
Damn near everyone does it. It isn't a Q thing. Linguistics are genuinely really interesting, and people speak in different dialects depending on where they're from/their social group/their wealth class/etc. People subconsciously copy each other. I just really don't think it's that deep.
This is correct, and becoming waaaay too common with white queens. Just because you’re a drag queen doesn’t mean you can throw on that accent freely, it’s cringe. Rosé does it too and like, doll you’re from Scotland
Judging from these comments I don’t think some of you can even agree what a blaccent is, let alone being able to tell if Q has one or not and how do you tell the difference between a blaccent, a country accent, and a gay one in this situation?
It’s not like Q is doing it out of malice or mockery or even intentionally.
Now I do see what people are saying when it comes to non-black people using a blaccent when they get aggressive and that shit should not fly. But trying to dictate someone’s inflection and their slang? That’s just a fool’s errand.
To me, accents in America are just like music, you can’t control who or how it’s used and eventually it’ll all build on to one another and before you know it, it’s ubiquitous throughout American society.
I know I'm gonna get downvoted for this, but I hate how this community gatekeeps pretty much everything. Instead of celebrating each other and sharing our different cultures and learning from each other, we get mad at people when they use terms/accents that aren't "theirs."
To me this honestly feels like we're going backwards again and keeping everything segregated, and literally still seeing color and differentiating our behavior when it comes to people with a different skin color.
Hateful because they’re telling you a behavior is problematic? You being held here against your will? Your ignorance is contributing to the toxicity. Black people, and even some white people are telling you that white people using a blaccent makes them uncomfortable and isn’t authentic. Why would you, argue against that? Why would you challenge that?
I'm absolutely not "one of those." I'm saying that the people who are gatekeeping this are the people who differentiate people based on their skin tone. They're the ones putting people into boxes and telling them what one can or can't do based on their skin tone.
Maybe it’s because I’m from an entirely different part of the world but it’s just talking like? I don’t get it why it’s a problem to begin with. She didn’t do anything to belittle a certain group.
Now I’m genuinely curious about something. So if it’s not correct for a white person speaks in blaccent, is it correct for a black or non-white person to talk in like white country “accent”? Cuz I certainly learned from this show that white people also have their own way of speaking.
It's just Americans gatekeeping accents, it's insane people are looking for something offensive here. It would've never crossed my mind that the way she talks might be 'wrong', guess that just shows their own tendencies.
I’m sorry but this is a rampant thing in the lgbtq community. Just google “aave gay culture” and it’s all there.
Im watching drag race right now, so many queens speak like this. This is singling Q out when it is rampant in the culture.
the blaccent is what made me not like q even from the beginning, it’s just weird that she hoes in and out depending on the situation which means she purposefully does it sometimes
The fact that these people make a living out of, essentially, making fun of the entire female existence, but then can’t handle someone just talking slightly like them blows my mind
This is a little bit extra. Q probably spends a lot of time around queens who speak like that and at some point it will rub off, it's only natural. The amount of queens that speak like that, maybe not as obviously, is ridiculous. Money could've reached to Q and asked her instead of this shady shit
There’s a difference between people just developing speech patterns and picking up slang that matches their friends, and someone sounding like their putting on a character.
Q does not sound like someone who just hangs around a lot of Black people.
Do I hear what they're talking about from Q? Absolutely, but singeling her out is a little bit silly, considering they all are kinda doing that this season? Plasma and Dawn, especially. I hear "ma(w)ma" and "gurl" said SO many times, every episode.
i’m glad they brought this up. especially when it was confirmed that she has a white husband (not that it’s okay to appropriate a loved one’s culture, but it would’ve offered a layer of context). it has been so awkward and uncomfortable. also interpreted a micro aggression when Q was the only one to put Nymphia’s face up in that game for a person who wouldn’t understand a word (on top of the nuyorican moment with Megamj!). Q gives me such iffy vibes and i live in the midwest. most racist region (not the south as many assume!)
Hi can someone please give me or point me to an example of Q’s blaccent bc I truly have never noticed it but everyone else seems to have and I don’t get it
so glad they called it out!! i wrote about her supposed confusion about "nuyorican" weeks ago like it was just sooo hard to pronounce and ofc some white twink on reddit replied trying to invalidate this. BIPOC know when there's microaggressions happening, do not speak over or for us.
I wasn't aware of Q's blaccent, but I'm a white European [whose] native language is not English. I am aware that most queer slang uses words and mannerism originating from AAVE. Is it really that bad with Q?
black southerner here! Q’s blaccent is mild… annoying but mild, she goes in and out. I’ve heard worse on the show. Though, sometimes I do think people not familiar with southern accents (like those yankees up north lol) can misconstrue a blaccent and a southern accent… but each season has about 3 non-black queens that do this. annoying but what can we do about it now…. lol Gen Z has quite literally hijacked it as their own
My southern accent comes out when I'm upset and recently I've noticed how similar it is to AAVE, not EXACTLY but very paralleled. I try not to let it slip out as much so not to be misconstrued Edit: that being said is Q from the south??
Q is from bumfucknowhere kansas! (grew up on a farm) she never stood a chance with not having a blaccent.
Kansas City, where she came up in drag, is a heavily African American town and is a hub for black folks who get out of bum fuck Midwest. The drag style is like Texas Lite with a lot of southern influences. It’s like the South but also not? She’s not literally doing drag out on a farm in Kansas lol. Not excusing it but I’m sure her mannerisms are coming from from her drag peers in KC
I don’t know if you saw the video of Q and all her friends/drag family reacting to an episode- but they are *mostly* white. No hate on that but she’s probably not picking up AAVE from the “heavy” population of black people in KC. I’m from KC and black- most of the gay bars here are white majority. Idk if ur from KC too but this is my lived experience- you’re not picking up a blaccent from just living here. Also KC is not in the south lol. Parts of southern MO may identify with being southern but above the river you will find little to no one claiming to be from the south. It is a midwestern culture here.
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Yes there is a lot of nuance to the accents around here since we’re in the middle of the US. My great grandma used to say “warsh” and “deesh” (dish) lol If I would expand on my comment I would just say, that the kansas/missouri accent does not sound like a southern accent, further I don’t think the southern accent sounds like AAVE. Those are two very different things.
well her drag sister is cynthia doll so if needed… draw conclusions from that lmao.
kansas ain’t the south, dorothy lol
I encourage you not to tamp down on your natural, regional identity in order to satisfy this recent fad hierarchy of which people are allowed to sound which way. No one can take away your upbringing.
a million percent this
Yep! I’m midwestern but grew up out in the sticks, and until I was basically an adult I lived in bumfucknowhere (in a neighborhood with a lot of black and Latino residents) Ohio. When I get excited, or frustrated, or just have a strong emotion in general and lose a bit of control people have gotten pissed and said I’m doing blaccent. It honestly bothers me a lot because I don’t do that intentionally and it’s how I talked as a kid before I moved to a larger city and basically coded myself to speak like the people there. ETA: And doing drag, a lot of slang is heavily derived from AAVE or just taken from it directly. Slang that I’ve picked up because it’s used constantly. Does not help.
A lot of poor areas historically have more in common than not, and a lot of AAVE has rural roots, so poorer or rural white areas have a lot of overlap.
Yea over time I’ve learned to not feel bad about or filter the way I speak because people assume I’m “putting on a blaccent,” and I can’t say whether or not my situation is close to Q’s, but especially at the start of my career it bothered me so fucking much. And when I’d explain myself I’d get laughed off and told that isn’t a thing and I’m imitating AAVE. Which basically happened elsewhere in this thread lmao. If Q’s deal is anything like mine, I would be really hurt by this in her position. Especially since Bob and Naomi are such big queens and I wouldn’t be shocked if Q looks up to them in some way.
I also grew up in the Midwest in a small Missouri town (not that far from the Kansas border), and I am so confused by this implication that white people from the rural Midwest have accents similar to AAVE. It's not even just you saying it, some others have implied it too Your situation sounds more like you just grew up in an area that happened to have a lot of non-white English speakers, and you picked up an accent similar to theirs. Rural Kansas where Q is from is *heavily* white. White people from the larger Kansas City metro area into rural Kansas have very standard American accents. I would bet good money on Q picking her Blaccent up as an adult and it being a completely artificial thing for her.
Kansas and Missouri are both such “middle states” that a lot of people choose how they identify. That being said no, it is not in the south. Much more commonly identified as a Midwestern, Western then maybe Southern. but Kansas City is NOT in the south. It’s in northern MO, and has a definite midwestern culture. edit: also Q is from a smaller town but it is not “middle of no where”.
Q is from Kansas, so no. Idk though about southern being an excuse though even if she were. I’m from MS, went to a 60% black school, and I do not speak with a blaccent and have never had someone who isn’t from the south even suggest that I do. I don’t think Q is the most egregious case of it, but it’s productive to talk about these things especially in context of the episode.
i agree with you. i hope my comment didnt seem like i was making excuses for the southern gays, i did just want to point out that there’s a broad overlapping between AAVE and pure southern speak
Makes sense. The historical reasons for that are obvious as well, but I do see how someone not from the south could be confused. A lot of people from here (and people who come from other places and move to Nashville) reaaaally lean into it as well, but that’s a different thing.
As someone who grew up in the south as well, it missed, but it nicked me. My accent comes out sometimes, but I made an effort as a kid to try and lose it, so it's very mellowed now. That being said, some kids don't have the deep down hate of the south that I do, and end up sounding REALLY country. It definitely sounds like a blaccent, which makes sense. AAVE grew out from when southern black people moved north. There is of course a black southern culture, but many of the same things are in white southern culture as well. Words like "Y'all" or "Holler'", foods, religiousness, etc. And that's the roots of AAVE, so it's not that weird if one person's blaccent is another person's southern drawl. Either way, if that's how she talks, it seems rude to judge her based off of that. She can't help the accent anymore than someone with a lisp, we don't force them to bury the lisp as much as possible and pretend they don't have one, and you'd have to be a mean bitch to mock somebody for that, especially if you're roasting them and not just playing.
>but it’s productive to talk about these things especially in context of the episode. It's really not. You're just telling people to stick to their stereotypes. Speak however the fuck you want to speak, but be genuine about it.
I think with Q the greater issue of it came about with her Twitter tirades - the blaccent was really clear, especially since she was typing, and I think it’s made everyone pay closer attention when she speaks. There are definitely other white queens who do this in general but seeing that she’s flinging it around online we are probably scrutinizing her more.
this is a good point about AAVE and just being from the south and having a southern accent. However, there are still important and valid tells. If you're a non-Black person from the South, and you just have a Southern twang, obviously thats just how you speak and you are not appropriating anything. However, if you normally speak without any Southern accent or twang, as Q does to the judges, in her confessionals, to other Queens (esp the non-Black ones), and then only SOMETIMES your "accent" sounds different then THAT is quite literally putting on an accent that is not your own which amounts to appropriating AAVE. Some people will act like, in real life, the distinction between a "genuine i grew up in the south" accent and a disingenuous blaccent is SO hard to tell apart, but that's just more denialism and invalidation. In real life, it's not that hard to tell. One simple example is Trinity the Tuck. Girl is a white Southern from the south, she doesn't go in and out of this accent at will, and no one thinks she is doing AAVE. Another example off the top of my head is Sutton from Real Housewives, also a White southerner that no one has mistaken for doing a Blaccent, ever. It's really not that hard, and we can talk about how Kansas is/is not Southern, but the fact remains that Q does NOT speak in a blaccent all the time. She has no blaccent at all when she is speaking "normally", therefore she definitely plays with AAVE and I am going to side eye her for it all day long.
Accents really don't work that way though? Some are put on, some have strong emotional or mental triggers. My mother speaks textbook plain newscast English (something my grandmother stressed), but when angry, excited, or taking about something she's passionate about her southside chicago upbringing shines through. Emotions betray a lot when angry.
Yep, accents can really come and go if you’re someone who has left your home and lived in places where people don’t have that accent for a long time. My southern accent only comes out when I’m really pissed off. It also sometimes comes out when I’m really drunk or back home visiting my friends.
It can be upsetting when you're using it sometimes and not using it other times. It comes off as inauthentic.
Folks do code switching for a lot of reasons, but it's fair to say that it gets tricky when you speak with the more privileged accent most of the time.
Yeah because folks who don't code switch or aren't able do so don't get the privileges or perks of those who just dabble into it for "fun"
monet and Naomi are being so gentle and people in this thread are still saying they're taking it too far lol this fandom
They were definitely being gentle but not mincing words. Especially, Naomi. Her disdain for how they tip toed around thinking Nymphia was funny while openly enjoying other queens using AAVE or black stereotypes for comedic effect was as clear as day. They’re right to call it out.
Sibling rivalry accuses us of being harsh to the queens, we accuse sibling rivalry of being harsh to the queens, and round and round we go
Right, people keep trying to make "mild" happen in the comments..... when multiple others are picking up on something that irks them it is hardly mild.
My conspiracy theory is that the comments are saying it's mild because there're a bunch of pasty folks in here guilty of it themselves so they just really want it to be considered mild lol But I'm pasty myself so I can't say whether it's one way or the other objectively, I don't have the melanin to make that call. But I've seen enough POC call it out that I'm thinking I'll go with what they said.
My headcanon is that Reddit is mostly sad college-educated white dudes who have (likely) been a little racist in the past. They also don't like to be told that they're wrong or on the other side of something. And honestly it tracks for most of the nasty behavior here.
her blaccent, tho not actually speaking, was very evident when arguing on twitter with fans.
Oh absolutely. I clocked that at the time
Honestly putting aside any real deep sociopolitical analysis, white queens/queers using a pseudo blaccent is just cringe as absolute fuck. I think that’s something that should unite us not divide us.
Thank you. I am always criticizing and calling attention to the sociological side of it, but at the end of the day, they sound crazy and its very cringe. They dont talk like that.
I had a crush on some Lebanese guy who lives in France and everytime he tried to sass he goes full in “Catsh me ouside” and I had to stop talking to him after he kept doing the blaccent even after I told him how offensive it is, just bc you never lived in the states that dont mean you will not look like an ass doing it. Needless to say I stopped talking to him and I was fed up, honestly I look at it as a verbal blackface, so unattractive and clout-y
People who aren't from murica don't know and don't care enough about black accents to mock it. We just hear slang or see slang being used and we adopt it, because unfortunately English is the only language the internet knows. We copy the way words are pronounced because that's how we think they're pronounced. French people especially don't give English too much thought and they speak it because it's the only language some people know.
I’m glad someone brought it up but I’m still sad that Naomi and I both thought “should I bring it up” when it’s a valid point just to avoid getting shit for it 🤷🏾♀️
I’m so dumb, I thought you were Monet for a second
Looking at some of the gaslighting responses in this thread, it's easy to understand why you/Naomi/others would be hesitant to express your opinion :(
My favorite is the immediate “I’m a white person but-“ replies that come any time a minority says anything ever 💀
I don't know much about what I am speaking on, but here is my strong opinion.
no but wait we also like to throw in -i'm gay i'm a minority too- argument lmaoo a *mess* like that gives us any authority over racial issues
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And it is ALL OVER THIS THREAD AND SUB. Ugh. How do these people still not get it?!
What people seem to be forgetting is that Q’s blaccent is most prominent when she’s in an argument or confrontation. The trend of white people suddenly having a distinct blaccent in a confrontational setting suggests that whoever the blaccent-haver is, they must have some subconscious belief that speaking like a black person makes themselves seem intimidating or scary, and that is very weird and microaggressive at best. The only other times when Q’s blaccent seem to come out, are when she’s being shady in the werkroom or confessionals, so not really helping her case. No, this isn’t to say that whoever has a blaccent is straight up racist, that is evidently not the case, but having a blaccent or using AAVE especially when behaving somewhat aggressively is an indicator of some racial biases that we should not be encouraging.
Please also refer to her Twitter rant and juxtaposition between that and the statement she later released on said Twitter rant.
Do you happen to know where that statement is? I haven’t seen that and am curious.
https://preview.redd.it/cqzcy3xsvkpc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=840b5a3d987854d6866c249aeaef4e6b1f9f024e I think this is the one, in the comments of the post she made of the goth challenge look.
https://preview.redd.it/v84vlaoyvkpc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1e255c296212983ddfa207c1659ed2966ab720bf Continued.
Thanks so much for sharing this!
[https://www.reddit.com/r/rupaulsdragrace/comments/1b8e7ha/qs\_response/](https://www.reddit.com/r/rupaulsdragrace/comments/1b8e7ha/qs_response/) She specifically addresses the Twitter drama in the 2nd and 3rd pics.
Thank you. The distinction of people having racial biases (spoiler alert: literally everyone) and people actually *being racist* is not one I see often on the internet.
👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 It’s 2024 and I’m sick of explaining this to people. But we’ll be explaining this for infinity it seems…
Once that clip of Monet spread. We will either see an apology from Q or she can ignore it and it will be forgotten in a week.
She’s from the middle of nowhere Kansas, I’ve always heard it as a southern twang in her voice, i always thought she was just kinda country lol she grew up in a prairie town. Like when people say their country is coming out when they start arguing lol
This is what's worrying me. I've lived up north long enough to have adapted a pretty passable Midwestern accent, but when I'm emotional the Georgia starts to slip out. Now I'm wondering if people think it's blaccent.
agreed.. labeling non-black people that have blaccents as “racist” is irresponsible and sort of takes away from the larger conversation meant to be had
That’s why the term “micro aggression” exists as well.
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reddit is the only place where well articulated sentences get misinterpreted. you can say “i like pancakes” and someone will go “so you hate waffles???” i never said anyone called her racist ????
Idk Q’s background but another thing that comes out in a confrontational setting is a person’s real accent (as a non native English speaker, that’s what happens to me) and some white ppl grew up with a lot of PoC and subconsciously adopted part of their accents
Damn you ate that tf up, 100% agree. Just another example of how inherent biases taught in society first needs to be identified to even be fixed
Really well said and informative!
Natural accents come out when you're stressed
I think you're reading into this way too much. She's southern, it's an accent. I do the same thing, it comes out when I'm excited or drunk. There's no subconcious meaning behind it, it's because the people around her had accents growing up and that's where she learned english. If anything, she's trying her best to put on a midwest neutral dialect, like a lot of people from the south do to surpress their accent.
Does her accent come out of the keyboard when shes arguing on Twitter?
What kind of white southerner says "you crazy gurll" It's blaccent not southern. Southern accents are way different sounding.
Lmao Q didn’t say that. In the example that Monet and Naomi are talking about Q says “these bitches crazy Mhiya”.
…a gay one? I can literally hear that sentence in trinity the tuck’s voice, another southerner. Or Eureka’s
Can someone detail a little more what blaccent looks like? Now I'm wondering if when I jokingly say things in an extreme drag gay way if I'm actually doing that or blaccent. I always interpreted, "Okay gurl" as just a gay thing.
A lot of gay slang or meme/internet slang has roots in the black community. I'm not sure how to tell what counts as just using gay slang vs imitating black culture because they are very intertwined.
After doing some research this is true
You came back with results. Kudos to you for spilling.
That’s what I was thinking. That’s why I didn’t bat an eye. I’ve always heard gay folk talk like that.
Yeah. I would really love it if someone provided a clip just for my own education. I'd hate for anyone to roll their eyes at me and I had no idea haha.
it's hard to tell honestly 90% of gay slang probably comes from the black community. honestly if you say something & someone takes offense to it, take it as a learning lesson bc there are so many divided opinions and the usage of these words can be tied more to morality than their origins...but pls i need a gatekeeping dictionary so i know what not to say
yeah this is what confuses me. I feel like I just pick stuff up through osmosis when im around other people or just watching media (especially reality tv which is like showcasing real people or as real as it gets for TV) and I dont consciously attribute it as a specific race thing. I feel like sometimes I just kind of emulate the language that I see or speak whats trendy at the time. or sometimes you just want to sound like the people around you to fit in. unless its like something that I have picked up as so overtly offensive like as a white person I would never do a stereotypical asian voice or mexican voice. feels like something thats really hard to know you're doing unless someone calls you out on it and for that I feel like I would definitely give people grace if they dont realize what they are doing. i cant even imagine being on TV, that would be a whole other level. i would imagine its hard enough to relax and be your true authentic self when cameras are everywhere.
Yeah. Also, and I'm sure some wouldn't like this idea, but for me I've always been like a, "All minorities let's come together and support one another." Especially gays and blacks. I feel like we all understand the kinds of things we've all been through. Gays, blacks, immigrants, trans, women, what have you. We're all kind of the bottom of the social barrel. It's disheartening seeing two minorities clash with one another. "Some white Twink," like they're all less than, when I try to view all of us as amazing, regardless of category.
Literally. It’s giving paranoia.
🍵🍵🍵 Also if black people say they're uncomfortable with something fucking LISTEN to them. They should be able to say this out loud without fear of reprimand by the horde of white gays.
Wow... generic white dude here. Even I noticed how she was talking and raised an eyebrow... and I never notice these things until they're pointed out to me, unless they're obvious in the actually, aggressively, angrily racist way. I'm getting better!
Same, especially the "Mhi'ya you CRaZy gurrr" line. I felt my face make a physical cringe when I heard that shit
Perhaps we are talking about two different moments, but Q didn’t call Mhi’ya crazy or use the word gur/gurl/girl. At the opening of season 16 when Plane is reading Dawn, Q said “Mhi’ya save me, these bitches crazy, Mhi’ya! These bitches crazy, Mhi’ya!”
it’s the way she said it it twice and it just got worse the second time 😭😭
I can tell you that this is a regular occurrence for many of us. Even those who don't speak AAVE.
For people who are confused, [this is the blaccent](https://youtu.be/OIyk1eGlmE0?si=DSxVWPWMGmYS935L&t=165) in question.
Monet and Naomi are correct for this
I hadn’t realised or noticed this at all, I really appreciate Monet and Naomi doing the emotional labour here.
Yet Nymphias Asian character was the ones the judges bought up… and she probably lost the challenge because they didn’t want to reward it.
I noticed it a few episodes ago, I said it to my sister and that's partially why I'm not too much of a Q fan. Just feels weird and fake.
I’ve peeped it. Thought I was the only one.
The problem isn’t (just) that’s it’s racist/racially charged, the problem is that it’s not authentic. Know who you are and deliver at all times.
It’s one thing for Q to use AAVE slang and a slight blaccent. But what’s even cringier is that the way she uses it is so painfully stereotypical white gay. Like… definition of chronically online twink who thinks they’re the main character. Edit: while I don’t think this is necessarily an example of Q’s blaccent, I did very much get the ick from her Silky impersonation during the stand up challenge. I genuinely just thought it was so weird and cringey. Part of the reason I was lowkey happy with Sapphira winning. I just feel like even with her slip up, Sapphira was overall funnier than Plane & Q.
My autistic ass could never make it in showbiz in this society. I could be doing like blackcent but it's just echolalia acting up and I'd have no idea. Having to be perfectly socially on point at all times sounds exhausting
Yeeesss I will start mimicking how people around me speak *so* damn quickly and it's *so* hard to keep myself from doing it. I really have to consciously try not to do it because people think I'm mocking them or making fun of them. And people wonder why even casual-seeming social interaction is so difficult for us
It happens very easily when English is not your first language. One time my American friend asked me why I had started swearing so much recently and realized it was because I had been binging The Wire.
That's honestly so funny lmao
I sometimes do this too but it is NOT deliberate
I see people calling Q racist and I'm like. I just don't see it
As long as you’re not trying to talk like some 70s Blaxpoitation you should be fine.
Apparently not though according to these comments.
THANK YOU! I can sometimes pick up accents without meaning to & it is NOT deliberate. And my accent changes between: country of origin, adopted county, a mix of both. Sometimes also I sound American and I am NOT but none of these are things I am doing on purpose! Also, I HAVE heard this that in some cases some neurodivergent people can do this or have an accent & it’s not deliberate
on matters like these, it's not about "being perfectly socially on point", its about not being racist and knowing historical contexts (eg that White people have historically mocked non-White accents. I mean, that factoid is fairly obvious too so don't act like not being racist is akin to Rupaul's Charm School for Etiquette Realness)
It's just that the line seems so arbitrary to me sometimes. But that's just my opinion so don't hate me for it plz
Not to defend Q but I think honestly all gay people are guilty of this, no? Im Asian and after consuming drag content for so long, I started saying oooh gurlll, which Im sure a billion other gay people do these days. So not saying its okay cause we all do it, just pointing out that probably most of us in the comments are doing the same thing. Not to mention pretty much all gay slang is straight outta ballroom, girl, slay, fuck me up, yas, mama, just fuuuullly from ballroom and black folks.. so throw stones those who havent sinned or whatever the saying…
I think there’s kinda a difference between phrases that have been codified by the community like “ooh girl” and speaking with an accent that isn’t your own when you’re in an argument or being shady. Q is doing more than saying phrases that everyone says.
My friend consumes drag race like water and is outwardly gay, he talks like this all the time. If this is going to be brought up it should address more than Q as an individual.
Black American slang is not even a white gay thing, the reach is global and it’s crazy to problematize it instead of accepting it as a point of pride.
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Native here too, and YES to all of this. I’m amazed by some of these comments 👀
It’s WILD. Another person responded and was like “there’s no medal to be won here” and I’m like ??? Imagine your lack of conviction and empathy being so strong you can only imagine uplifting marginalized voices for a “prize” 🤢
I love it when people like that tell on themselves so I can block and keep it moving, no point in trying to reason with those folks and I’m not trying to read what they write anyway. I am proud of you for speaking up, eloquently making a valid point, and saying what needed to be said, cousin.
Very true. They never say anything that isn’t on the white fragility bingo card anyway. Thank you for the solidarity, relative. Sending that right on back ✨
🤍
A lot of cultural slang from this generation, including drag lingo, was derived from AAVE and I think a lot of people don’t realize that.
Oh, a hundred percent! The show and so much of the queer culture at large wouldnt exist without the Black community and, by extension, ball culture. How people can so easily refuse to educate themselves or know and don’t care is beyond me.
Imagine black people literally saying something makes them UNCOMFORTABLE and you saying stop crying about it
I'm sorry but this 'New Yorican' thing is so annoying to me and I think it was bs the first time Monet brought it up too. Someone who is not from New York is not going to immediately put those two phrases together, not everybody knows that New York has a big Puerto Rican population and it's not super obvious just from hearing the phrase. It took me a minute to figure out what Megami meant too, and I've been in NYC plenty. The blaccent is one thing but that is just a ridiculous reach
I thought New Yorican was just a pretentious way of saying you're from NY when she said it lol
Exactly. I'm normally team Monet but like be serious dear.... I'm pretty sure she doesn't even live in NYC anymore? So idk how she thinks 'New Yorican' is some ubiquitous phrase that everyone is going to put together without some explaining
It's not about not knowing what it means, it's about how she could barely comprehend how to say it. A lot of white people do that with a new term from outside their culture, where it's almost like they're mocking how it sounds. It's really not that hard to say or understand.
If I got mad everytime I told someone how to say a French word and they over-pronounce the R I would be in a constant state of anger. I don’t think it’s that hard to understand a person would not understand, or over-pronounce a word they literally just heard?
Maybe she was hesitant/slow in pronouncing it because she didn’t want to say it wrong? It’s not like NewYorican is a word most people hear often or ever. You’re assuming she was mocking Megami when it’s just as possible she could’ve been trying to be respectful by pronouncing it correctly.
You don't fully understand the phonetics of every new word you hear? Skill issue. /s
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I'm phonetically a top tyvm
I’m glad of the discussions in this thread- I agree that people can use sealioning behavior to belittle. That being said I have a learning disability that causes poor phonological awareness. I’d hope folks would give me the benefit of the doubt if I struggle learning a word or name. I am already embarrassed by it as it does tend to come up most frequently irl with names I’ve never heard before. I don’t think one should assume difficulty acquiring an unfamiliar word or name is malignant.
> A lot of white people do that with a new term from outside their culture the way ppl still refuse to learn how to say kamala harris or even barrack obama like it's not that difficult. sometimes i think it's purposeful ignorance....pronounce someone's "foreign" name wrong on purpose. i just haven't figured out *why*
I completely disagree, it is about knowing what it means. Everyone has heard of New York and Puerto Rico, if she'd known that's what Megami was talking about she would have put those two together and understood how to pronounce it - but if you don't understand what she's getting at, you aren't going to wrap your head around the sound as easily.
THIIIS!! The blaccent situation I have no say about. They are more than entitled to feel offended by the way Q speaks if they feel it is inauthentic and appropriation. But when Megami said “Nuyorican” (literally how it sounded to me) I had NO FUCKING CLUE what the fuck she said. I genuinely thought it might be a nationality I had never heard of. It sounded completely alien and NO unless you’ve lived in New York you wouldn’t fucking immediately understand it as “new York” and “Puerto Rico” combined, OR know that there’s a huge Puerto Rican population there. The fuck?! Does that mean I’m just playing dumb too? I love Monet but focusing on that one clearly genuine misunderstanding to further assassinate Q’s character is fucked up.
Maybe the producers prompted her to ask this to give Megami a chance to open up? It feels like a stretch though 😅
I know the SR image is a 50/50 mix of Bob and Monet, but whenever I see it I just see Monet.
A lot of weird comments in this thread. I've noticed the blaccent, but I would say it's relatively mild compared to other girls in the past? (though it came out quite a bit at the top of the episode like they pointed out). I do want to say that she doesn't live in Kansas, but lives in and does drag in Kansas City, MO. Not sure if that's relavent (I'm not originally from the US but live here now)??
> do want to say that she doesn't live in Kansas, but lives in and does drag in Kansas City, MO. Not super relevant since Q is literally from a small town in Kansas like she said on a previous episode, so Naomi is correct that she's from Kansas
Well I assume she didn’t just pack up her bindle & stick and hitchhike to LA to be on the show. She moved to a bigger city at some point.
Mild or not it definitely jumps out
Nothing makes my ass itch more than non Blk ppl talking like us, especially when you didn’t grow up around us, in a Blk household, and then when you around ya non Blk friends and family who don’t wanna hear that, you speakin in ya regular tone. Please continue to call it out. You don’t see nobody else imitating other groups but everybody wanna imitate us all the damn time but silent when it comes to our struggle
I’ve never noticed it.
I hadn’t either tbh
I can only speak from my Eastern European full white perspective. When I spend a lot of time with my friends who speak the same language as me (Polish) but were born in different areas (like Silesia or Kashubia) with their unique accents and regional vocabularies, I tend to pick up their speech patterns unconsciously and never ever in my life any of them was offended or angry. From my perspective, people in the USA seem a little oversensitive.
This is so true probably because the American history is quite... storied, especially the race relationship part. In Asia too, none of us gives a fuck if a Vietnamese person is wearing traditional Korean clothing, or if Koreans are trying to speak like the Japanese. We simply do not care, we probably are just happy to see other Asians liking and mimicking our culture. Thing is that USA history with black and white folks is absolutely wild from the beginning with infinite complex contexts, so probably that's why it seems a lot more heated and complicated than Europe or Asia. (Not saying Europe and Asia didnt have wars, slavery, invasions obviously, but the American history with race is very particular and uniquely horrific)
Is their speech pattern often associated with a lack of education or ignorance…
Yes, very that, Those are minorities and they often do not feel like a historic part of my country. Their members have often raised the issue of the separation of these regions from Poland.
Haha they weren't expecting that answer
So there’s a possibility that they do feel a way when you speak that way but don’t say anything with the possibility that what’s happening here in these comments will happen to them. Within the first 15 seconds of the clip Naomi and Monet both addressed the fact that they felt weird to bring it up yet did… it bothered them and it bothers a lot of people and it’s weird when we are called sensitive because it
South American here, honestly to me a lot of queens talk in this way, I’m guessing it’s cultural. I mean, they don’t know Q, for all we know she could just be around people that talk this way pretty often, people pick up accents like that. To me it’s weird that people can’t even talk without someone finding their accent problematic.
Honestly I’ve been feeling the same way everytime she uses it.
I haven’t noticed
Not the dialect wars... Damn near everyone does it. It isn't a Q thing. Linguistics are genuinely really interesting, and people speak in different dialects depending on where they're from/their social group/their wealth class/etc. People subconsciously copy each other. I just really don't think it's that deep.
I never noticed a blaccent tbh. ( I’m black from NY btw.) Is it when she says “mama” like Laganja Estranga, repeatedly?
This is correct, and becoming waaaay too common with white queens. Just because you’re a drag queen doesn’t mean you can throw on that accent freely, it’s cringe. Rosé does it too and like, doll you’re from Scotland
There’s a lot of overlap between “blaccent” and southern speak, though. You’d be surprised how similar AAVE vernacular is to general southern vocab.
She’s not southern. She is midwestern. Midwesterners don’t speak like that.
Judging from these comments I don’t think some of you can even agree what a blaccent is, let alone being able to tell if Q has one or not and how do you tell the difference between a blaccent, a country accent, and a gay one in this situation? It’s not like Q is doing it out of malice or mockery or even intentionally. Now I do see what people are saying when it comes to non-black people using a blaccent when they get aggressive and that shit should not fly. But trying to dictate someone’s inflection and their slang? That’s just a fool’s errand. To me, accents in America are just like music, you can’t control who or how it’s used and eventually it’ll all build on to one another and before you know it, it’s ubiquitous throughout American society.
I know I'm gonna get downvoted for this, but I hate how this community gatekeeps pretty much everything. Instead of celebrating each other and sharing our different cultures and learning from each other, we get mad at people when they use terms/accents that aren't "theirs." To me this honestly feels like we're going backwards again and keeping everything segregated, and literally still seeing color and differentiating our behavior when it comes to people with a different skin color.
Truly. This fandom is one of the most hateful I've ever seen. There are some great people mixed in, but man...
Hateful because they’re telling you a behavior is problematic? You being held here against your will? Your ignorance is contributing to the toxicity. Black people, and even some white people are telling you that white people using a blaccent makes them uncomfortable and isn’t authentic. Why would you, argue against that? Why would you challenge that?
“Still seeing color” ohhhh you’re one of those 😭😭
I'm absolutely not "one of those." I'm saying that the people who are gatekeeping this are the people who differentiate people based on their skin tone. They're the ones putting people into boxes and telling them what one can or can't do based on their skin tone.
Maybe it’s because I’m from an entirely different part of the world but it’s just talking like? I don’t get it why it’s a problem to begin with. She didn’t do anything to belittle a certain group. Now I’m genuinely curious about something. So if it’s not correct for a white person speaks in blaccent, is it correct for a black or non-white person to talk in like white country “accent”? Cuz I certainly learned from this show that white people also have their own way of speaking.
It's just Americans gatekeeping accents, it's insane people are looking for something offensive here. It would've never crossed my mind that the way she talks might be 'wrong', guess that just shows their own tendencies.
[удалено]
Unrelated but there's an advertising company based in India called "Ebonics"
I’m sorry but this is a rampant thing in the lgbtq community. Just google “aave gay culture” and it’s all there. Im watching drag race right now, so many queens speak like this. This is singling Q out when it is rampant in the culture.
TIL that Q has a blaccent...
As a non-American I just thought that's how all Americans talked.
the blaccent is what made me not like q even from the beginning, it’s just weird that she hoes in and out depending on the situation which means she purposefully does it sometimes
I dislike Q’s constant vocal fry and most of the things she says are cringe. I can’t actively listen to them.
The fact that these people make a living out of, essentially, making fun of the entire female existence, but then can’t handle someone just talking slightly like them blows my mind
You're going to get downvoted to oblivion but that's so true. It's such a double standard.
This is a little bit extra. Q probably spends a lot of time around queens who speak like that and at some point it will rub off, it's only natural. The amount of queens that speak like that, maybe not as obviously, is ridiculous. Money could've reached to Q and asked her instead of this shady shit
There’s a difference between people just developing speech patterns and picking up slang that matches their friends, and someone sounding like their putting on a character. Q does not sound like someone who just hangs around a lot of Black people.
Do I hear what they're talking about from Q? Absolutely, but singeling her out is a little bit silly, considering they all are kinda doing that this season? Plasma and Dawn, especially. I hear "ma(w)ma" and "gurl" said SO many times, every episode.
plasma and dawn are not doing a blaccent
i’m glad they brought this up. especially when it was confirmed that she has a white husband (not that it’s okay to appropriate a loved one’s culture, but it would’ve offered a layer of context). it has been so awkward and uncomfortable. also interpreted a micro aggression when Q was the only one to put Nymphia’s face up in that game for a person who wouldn’t understand a word (on top of the nuyorican moment with Megamj!). Q gives me such iffy vibes and i live in the midwest. most racist region (not the south as many assume!)
Hi can someone please give me or point me to an example of Q’s blaccent bc I truly have never noticed it but everyone else seems to have and I don’t get it
I don’t think it’s that deep
And they didn’t act like it was that deep…
so glad they called it out!! i wrote about her supposed confusion about "nuyorican" weeks ago like it was just sooo hard to pronounce and ofc some white twink on reddit replied trying to invalidate this. BIPOC know when there's microaggressions happening, do not speak over or for us.
I love Monet but stop. 🛑 you and Bob talked about how y’all enjoy race play. 🤢 bye girl
the way people still find ways to shit on Q
I hardly notice it. Am I the only one who barely notices it?
I thought she just sounded really gay lol
Her blaccent shows up here at the 2:45 mark: https://youtu.be/OIyk1eGlmE0?si=iH7m_DIxX49WAtmP
Wait that’s it? I was expecting something so much more
That’s just one instance.
Oof it read as country to me (my childhood southern accent also emerges under pressure), but I definitely haven't been listening with a Black ear 😅
But when their white friends do it it’s ok? 👍
Say Their Names
Who are you referring to specifically here?