Sema Alabama, 1965. Afer having been intimidated by local authoriteis from registring to vote and at least partly due to the inspiration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Huge numbers of the black population in Selma, Alabama began a march from Selma to Hutsville to deliver a petition to then Governor George Wallace demanding that blacks be protected from harm when registring to vote. George Wallace called the march a threat to public safety and called out the state troopers to break it up. There was footage of the violence on national TV, showin troopers beating the crap out of perfectly peaceful innocent blacks and the events of tha day are often referred to as “Bloody Sunday.” It took petitions to the federal courts to allow following marches to happen.
So Selma is a touchstone of the black civil rights movement. And this past week, there was another kind of confrontation in Selma, this time between Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton. As I understand it, the two Democratic Party presidential hopefuls spoke on the same day at two different historically black churches within 300 yards of each other.
I’m not going to comment on the merits of Obama vs Clinton except to note that Hillary Clinton, in true double speak, tried to convince parishoners at the church where she spoke that the events in Selma 4 decades ago were really about women’s right to vote and that the events in selma enabled her to have a prominent role in politics that was previousy unavailable to women, as if Selma was about womens sufferage rather than aout the intimidation of blacks.
Whatver. I don’t have any interest in picking a winner bewteen Obama and Clinton. I actually want to spend a minute defineding Clinton for another bit of spin during her speech. I want to defend her southern drawl.
If you haven’t heard her attempt at a southern drawl during that speech, you’re in luck. Some folks at Vast Right Wing Conspiracy blogs have posted audio clips for everyone to hear for themself. First, listen to a base line for comparison. Here’s a sample of Hilary Clinton’s speech at recent event. Let’s call this clip, Sophisticated Clinton.
Sophisticated Clinton Sound Clip
Smooth, sophisticated, reserved, in control. Now let’s listen to a clip of Clinton at her Selma appearance. Let’s call this clip, Down Home Clinton.
Down Home Clinton Sound Clip
Big differnece eh? Where did she get that accent? Of course Clinton critics were quick to pounce on this as evidence of her sliminess. But I have to stand up for her on this one. Why? Because I’ve done it too.
I grew up in Charlotte NC, which was a reasonably urban city even back in those days and I never thought of myself as having a “southern” accent. But then I went to University at Texas A&M. My roomates used to get a big kick listening to me when I’d call my parents or friends back in North Carolina. They used to tell me I’d slip into southern drawl mode anytime I was taliing on the phone to someone in NC. And honestly. I never noticed myself doing that. But my roomates used to give me a good natured ribbing about it.
Fast forward a few decades to just a few years ago. I started doing the Taproot Radio show. It’s an internet radio show annd the format covers several key generes of music from the deep south and Texas. Southern rock, roots rock, blues, cajun, zydeco, soul music, and yes, even country music, though I tend to lean toward alt.country music. I was listening to a recording of the show one day and what do you know, I heard myself sliping into the southern drawl mode. It was just a few words here and there. For example instead of saying “you’re listieng to WCOM, community powered radio” I’d said “you’re litening to WCOM, community ‘pow’rd’ radio.” I never intended to do that. I just naturally ran the word powered into a one syllable drawl. I didn’t do it all the time. Just a few words here and there throughout the show.
I was amused. So the next week I decided to turn up the twang quotient in my talk sets. and really give the listener the full effect of my new found southern radio voice. To say the least it was embarrassing. I could barely make myself listen to ithe show recording. So that was enough of that. No more forced twangy accents for me. So the rule I set for myself is to not think about it as much as possible. If a slip into a southern drawl every now and then, fine. No big deal. But I never try to force it anymore.
And so that’s why I have to defend Hillary’s Selma speech. If she got caught up in the moment and reverted to a southern twang from back in her Arkansas days, I say fine. Hillary, darlin’, you talk however you want to. There’s nothing wrong with talking like a Down Home Girl one day and a Sophisticated urbanite the next, as long as it’s authentic, as long as it’s not forced. But I have to warn ya. If you’re pandering to your audience with a fake southern drawl, folks are going to notice and it will backfire on you.
Update: Ted Remington of Rhetoric Garage e-mailed me to say that the only part of Clinton’s speech that had the southern drawl was a spot in which she was “directly quoting an African American spiritual.” Ah! I can agree with him that it makes sense to attempt the vernacular of spiritual. But I would disagree that you would have to. It’s still a choice Clinton made. And her ability to sound authentic and establish rapport with the audience was on the line.
