TLDR: I faked a foreign accent in a job interview, got the job and kept the accent for two years so far.

I'm only telling y'all this now cuz I'm at a breaking point and need to leave this bitch....the guilt of privilege, imposter syndrome, and other identity issues are all very real and aren't worth the effort at this point.

So, a little over two years ago I held a management position at a small contractor but was basically the right hand man to the director with no direct reports of my own. He was a young guy that was promoted from manager, and I slid up into his spot, but it was obvious that it was as far as I'd go at this company since he wasn't going anytime soon.
And I was happy with it, I had the leeway to do what I wanted and was able to work on my own professional development...certs, degree, etc

I was only really motivated to leave as my daughter was about to enter college and I realized the scholarships werent gonna come in like we thought.

So I started applying to director positions. Actually, folks would reach out to me because I looked good on paper....in the world of construction I had field experience (ex-tradesperson) and corporate experience, the highest certs in the industry, an undergrad degree and was working on a grad degree that was specific to my field.
inevitably though, those convos would get to salary and it would be a dub.
For context, I was making 108k and was looking at a raise that would take me to about 115K, so I wasn't really looking to leave for less than 130, cuz like i said, I had it pretty good....it would be tight for college, but doable.

Anyway, I found a job, applied, got the callback and a scheduled interview...and I had a conversation with a friend about standing out in person the same way that i appeared to stand out on paper, and they suggested jokingly that I should use a foreign accent. At the time it was shits and giggles, so I agreed, but imagine my surprise when 5 minutes into the interview the recruiter tells me he's pushing me through and then spent the next 50 minutes just shooting the shit. it actually started to get a little flirty, but i was widdit...lol

more context, my parents ARE foreign. I'm black and grew up in NYC 30 years ago, so while my passport is not american, EVERYTHING else is. I don't identify with my country of birth, but can play the role, so I did.

I breezed through 3 subsequent interviews in a week and had a job offer two weeks later at 140 and a 25% bonus, even though I asked for 130.

Truthfully, it was all humorous but it also made me mad, it was like wearing a whiteman mask and then hearing everyone talking about "those niggers" over there.

Anyway, I went from a 50/50 field/office split, to a completely corporate environment and all the politics that go with it, but also executive travel and meals and all the perks of corporate privilege.

I've run into old friends while at corporate events and had to switch the accent out both sides of my mouth within the same room, but I've kept the secret for two years now and have essentially doubled my income in the last 3 years, allowing my daughter to graduate this year with no debt, thanks to me paying 50K+ out of pocket.

but jesus, i feel like i sold my soul, yo
I'd take a pay cut to find something I'd be happy with

Anyway, thats it, just wanted to vent and liven the boards a little
AMA, if you want

I mean, if you are from there its more of embellishment than faking it.

but lmao at having to switch at functions while in the same room.

and my friends have said exactly that...."well, it AINT a lie, but..."

I get Costanza, but I guess I'm not up on Friends like that

It's not quite a "Tally ho, pip pip" situation
or a "Me an the mandem, bruv"

Just "regular" english

Americans love a British accent.

starting with girls in HS

in adulthood, it's less about the accent and more about having this "interesting" background

if you wanna get deeper into it, there's a conversation to be had about Black vs black (shoutout to Bin), and what the masses are more comfortable with.

Visually, I'm Black. Verbally, in this case, I'm black. There's no denying that's it's made a difference. None of my credentials changed whatsoever, just the way they were perceived.

from the time i could talk until I was in my teens

but I assimilated to the US and stopped using it
it only usually comes out when I'm speaking with my parents or my family that still lives there
but it's 2nd nature, i don't even think about it

I can hold a phone convo with my mom and an in person convo with my best friend in real time, and switch back and forth without even thinking

#immigrantproblems
but yes, it's sociopath shit too...lol

>from the time i could talk until I was in my teens
>
>but I assimilated to the US and stopped using it
>it only usually comes out when I'm speaking with my parents or
>my family that still lives there
>but it's 2nd nature, i don't even think about it
>
>I can hold a phone convo with my mom and an in person convo
>with my best friend in real time, and switch back and forth
>without even thinking
>
>#immigrantproblems
>but yes, it's sociopath shit too...lol

>from the time i could talk until I was in my teens
>
>but I assimilated to the US and stopped using it
>it only usually comes out when I'm speaking with my parents or
>my family that still lives there
>but it's 2nd nature, i don't even think about it
>
>I can hold a phone convo with my mom and an in person convo
>with my best friend in real time, and switch back and forth
>without even thinking
>
>#immigrantproblems
>but yes, it's sociopath shit too...lol

I would just ween them f**kers off of it. slowly stop doing it and see if people notice. maybe start doing raps and singing without it and say you have been trying to not do the accent anymore.

but my patois is shit and I wouldn't dare to fake that funk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvniUuX3grA

say you took elocution lessons...

It's a British accent

I’m mad you had to do that shit and even madder that upon hearing it you got that “He aint Black BLACK” treatment.

and one of my pet peeves is news folks with UK accents on Fox News talking shit about America. The fucking nerve.. lol.

but anyway.. yeah.. this some bullshit.

but “akuna mutadda.. do what you gotta”

and there's a level of shame too

Worse still, my wife (black american) has been corporate all her life and has struggled to get to director level the whole time.
She was in shock that my path was so fucking easy. 5 years prior to that hire, I was in a ditch pulling string through a pipe as a union worker.

She supports that I did what I had to do and bears me no ill will, but I know that it burns the shit out of her too.

she runs into the same shit.

One time her boss at a cafe was like
dude: what are your parents.
her: Black
dude: mother and father?
her: yup
dude: so.. mother is Black, Father is Black?
her: yes
dude: Black american?
her: yes
dude: both of them?

she was let go like a week later.. smh.

he could not believe she was Black because she had light skin and a hair texture that could go from afro to wavy blowout

When I was in construction, i used to SMH at my wife's corporate stories and think "so glad i'm not in that bullshit"

Now, in the frathouse culture that i work in, i have a greater respect and level of empathy for the bullshit that women, particularly Black women, go through in an office setting.

>I’m mad you had to do that shit and even madder that upon
>hearing it you got that “He aint Black BLACK” treatment.

Week by week, start pronouncing an increasing amount of words with an American accent, pretending that you're becoming more assimilated into the culture, like Wilson's Toupees.


_______________________________
gamblers and masturbators.

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*skatin' the rings of saturn*


..and miles to go before i sleep...

at the next wave of cuts..

don’t do it!!!

I have a couple of companies that i'm interviewing with...hoping I can make that move soon

As a Southern that has moved to the North East, I know Southern Accents are perceived as being not as bright. I got into it real hard with a Nigerian cat who was trying to clown Jim Clyburn for sounding like a slave. FOlks come for Ben Crump all the time despite the crazy verdicts he gets.

Secondly, I know British Accents SKATE at work. Like I've work with 2 of the greatest bullshiters at work and they get to get away with it because they sounds smart with their British Accents.

And not really related, but I hate when British Actors get black American parts and do American accents. Just hire a Black American actor.


Anyway, I feel bad for you. You should link up with a journalist and let them tell the story.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

Growing up in NYC, it was a culture shock when i went to Fayetteville NC to see family (military), and I immediately equated that southern drawl from the locals to slow thinking.

It was dumb thinking on my part at 17 and I recognize it, and I constantly had to check myself as I grew older.

I had considered documenting my experience but I'm not convinced that I'm articulate enough to do it justice

dont tell no one until you retire

fuck that shit.. fake it till you make it, and you MADE it.

people have done so much worse.

And it would be a bigger story about the English Accent Bias at work.

**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

just want to relate what you've said here back to a comment I saw you make in another post about Diddy dating Yung Miami/Caresha from the City Girls:

https://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=4&topic_id=13485724&mesg_id=13485724&page=#13485773

I'm not going to assume you were aware when you wrote that, and maybe this'll soften your judgement of them a little, but one of the reasons that relationship/situationship gets the flack it does (apart from the large age difference) is because of this Southern accent bias you're talking about.

Yung Miami/Caresha is ridiculed a lot because of her thick Florida-south accent and slang. People drag her online taking shots at her IQ and literacy, and imply that she is beneath dating a prominent figure like Diddy simply because of how she sounds. (Meanwhile, they've been involved with each other for years now, and recently attended one of the snobbiest galas in fashion looking happy af, defiant af, Black af, and draped in custom Blackity-Black Sean John https://www.billboard.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/yung-miami-p-diddy-met-gala-2023-billboard-1-1548.jpg )

It's AWFUL and Yung Miami/Caresha has spoken up about the insecurity it gives her:

https://rollingout.com/2023/04/20/yung-miami-voice-illiterate/

Which is too bad, because I actually LOVE listening to her and JT talk bc it's so rare to hear that particular type of southern accent in media compared to even some of the more accepted southern ones (e.g. Texas accents). I also love that Diddy supported the development of her show/podcast Caresha Please to not only grow her platform but showcase her, her personality, other young women like her, and especially her slang and accent. Her story's actually really interesting bc she's overcome a lot in life despite her young age (e.g. https://youtu.be/_DmGbt-GHQI?t=502), and remember that she had to like perform pregnant and handle City Girls business by herself while JT was in prison.

But ya. This type of discrimination sucks. Many of my friends and a couple family members were self-conscious of their African accents for a long time, despite them not even being that thick. But the reverse also happens too (when trying to speak indigenous language with Western accent).

And everything to do with her age and, if I am being honest, her ratchetness. I know that's a different type of bias but I don't think perceived ratchetness has anything to do with intelligence. In fact, the most ratchet girls I knew in college were also the smartest.

I love me a good Southern Accent on a woman.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"It'

But I have it nonetheless.
For a while I was good at what I do based on my ability to connect with others, empathize, and motivate, but I had very little technical knowledge.

Now I have a fair amount of technical knowledge, but sometimes feel as if I’ve just been collecting certificates…I got my associates, bachelors and masters in my 40s, and just don’t feel as qualified as people that have been in a corporate space their whole career.

Imposter syndrome is the feeling of self-doubt in your abilities - in which you feel like a fraud regardless of your accomplishments/achievements. In this case it's gotta feel crazy because in some ways he IS a fraud, but the accent has nothing to do with his actual abilities to be successful in the role and competency.

but he is faking an accent to help get by and distract from his abilities

still smart to do if you can pull it off.

I think of he wasn’t from the UK it would be ridiculous.. and even better.

Oh man, that is a hell of a story.

Then the full story is even better.

Hilarious and disheartening at the same time. My company (American based) have had our last two CEOs from the UK and Australian. I've been in board meetings with the current CEO. He's cool - but man, with that accent and his stature as CEO he can just ask a simple question in a meeting and sound like a genius. It's instant credibility and at a subconscious level. Like I didn't even fully grasp the depth of it until reading THIS post.

who worked for a cybersecurity vendor.

no matter what she was talking about it sounded regal due to her accent.

Also had an old coworker who was just fired who was from Holland. She was crazy. To the point that sometimes I wondered if she really was from Holland or if she just mastered the accent.

She mispronounced Canal but maybe they call them (CAN - NILL) which threw me off.

stop trippin on yourself...
GET DIS MONEY!

and spark a discussion on UK Accents versus everything else.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

and spark a discussion on UK Accents versus everything else.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

from this job?

There's one brother I'll stay in touch with....he's actually not here anymore (laid off) and I owe him a confession.

When I got hired he was hyped cuz there's so few black people in director positions and above
So initially, we sat down and told each other about our professional backgrounds, you know, just feeling each other out.
I could tell that he was hesitant to be on some casual shit with me cuz the accent was fucking with him.
But he grew up in the hood, not far from where my wife grew up, so when he gave the formal name of the neighborhood, i countered it with the "hood" name for it to show him i was down, or at least aware, so to speak.

That shit blew his mind and we been cool ever since, but I was never able to tell him the real deal.
Since then we've kept in touch and i always told myself when i leave i'mma come clean and hopefully he gets a kick out of it like some of you did.

a local community but in a UK accent…

This whole story is just hilarious. It could legit be a movie. You can’t make this ish up!!!

so much so that when i met his wife, he introduced me using the hood name as a reference, which told me that he relayed the story to his wife when it happened.

this shit is fucking hilarious

saying that shit in a UK accent had to be hard too

“oh yah..I’m type familiar with the Boogie Down my guy”

dude is going to be wide eyed like shit.

I'm not in NY anymore, but The Bronx/Boogie Down is a perfect analogy

to the other brother.

This would be so good on a couple of podcasts that I can think of (Heavyweight would be great for the confession episode). Or Normal Gossip.

Shit I could figure out how to get a Peabody from this.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

of this, and likely something pretty common in the past . Her first name given at birth was stereotypically Black. When graduating business school over 20 years ago she wasn’t getting callbacks for interviews. After several months she changed her name on her resume to her middle name and got an interview and hired within a week. She still works for the same company, 20+ years later. She also legally changed her name to her middle name along the way, and goes by that name for everyone in her life except her immediate family.

I say it’s a lightweight version of this because at the time she got that callback it was like “damn, are they setting up the interview and then being surprised that I’m Black?” And in the early years she definitely had some code switch moments where college friends would call her by her government within earshot of coworkers…

Can't front we had light weight jokes about her when we got her name before we met her as a pre-frosh.

Of course it wasn't fair, but now days she professionally goes by Shani.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

Thank you for sharing it.

And maintaining it for two plus years??? This is a film that's gotta get made. I'm already thinking about the casting of the rest of your family...plus the code switching scenes? GOLD.

..someone get him on the line lol.


*skatin' the rings of saturn*


..and miles to go before i sleep...

>Truthfully, it was all humorous but it also made me mad, it
>was like wearing a whiteman mask and then hearing everyone
>talking about "those niggers" over there.


^^^^If this sentence don't say it all. ADOS are "those niggers" but folks wanna pretend when we make this point in the context of reparations and the disadvantages we experience because of our lineage.

I’m not sure that the white community openly talks about it or even acknowledges the bias, but I’ve had it confirmed too many times, even to the point of being told “you’re one of the good ones” which is one of the most fucked up backhanded, well, I can’t even call it a compliment…..the fact that someone would even feel comfortable saying that blows my mind. There’s all sort of implications in there….Jesus, I really DO need to write this script/book

**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

Good Job

Gotta do what you gotta do.

What's the closest you came to being found out? Ever have to talk to someone from the UK while using the accent? Any terms you cringe at while saying more so than others?

A young white woman that grew up not far from where I was born.
She’s new to the states though, while I’ve been here for 30 years so my accent doesn’t match hers but 30 years of American influence will do that, so it’s not an issue.

I feel cringey talking to American Black folks at work cuz I know I’m using the cheat code but I’m not trying to cheat THEM.

Never been caught though, at least not to the point of being called out so I don’t know