Glasgow Week 9: Y'ALL

I'll be honest, I'm getting bored of writing these weekly updates, but I do like them because they show the passage of time.  But rule one of writing: if I'm bored while writing it, y'all will be bored while reading it.

So I'm going to discuss what I've been thinking about recently...

Accents, economic class, and intelligence.

I have a slight Southern accent, I realize this.  My dad is from Georgia, and my mom's side of the family is a mix of coastal Virginians and North Carolinians.  Europeans always, and I mean ALWAYS, comment when I say "y'all."  But funnily enough, I've gotten the most shit for how I talk from Americans who are from the Northeast.  The occasional teasing is fine, I'll comment on my friend's Long Island accent sometimes, but people apparently have to say something almost every single time I open my mouth.  With some of them, the Northeasterners, I can tell that their teasing doesn't come from a good-hearted place.  You can tell that they think I'm dumb, or slow, or have worse manners, just from the way I talk.  They act surprised after they ask my major and I say "Neuroscience and English" as if someone who says y'all or exclaims "oh my stars!" can't do calculus or scientific research or comprehend Shakespeare.  They hesitate every time they mention Trump and look at me shiftily as if I must support him since doesn't everyone from the South?

I'm starting to understand my granddad's hostility towards "those damn Yankees."

I don't want to change the way I talk, though.  I don't even notice I have an accent (in the grand scheme of the South my accent is VERY mild), but it would kill me to alter myself because New Englanders still equate the Southern accent with stupidity.  It's just ridiculous, that's all.  Just plain ridiculous that the South is always ridiculed for being less intelligent and ignorant.  You'd think the "advanced coastal elites" would know better by now.  But it's not my problem what they think about me; if they wanted to hold on to antiquated ideas, then that'll just hurt them in the long run.  Hopefully, their travels in Europe will help them broaden their quaint worldviews.

And that's all I have to say about that.