Charlene White Instagram – “The class system, so quintessentially British, is holding us back from developing more cohesively as a society,” writes Charlene White.
“My mum went to secondary school here, after moving from Jamaica with her parents. Her and her sister’s melodic, beautiful Jamaican dialect immediately prompted assumptions from teachers that they were of low intelligence.
“This meant that when that generation had their own children, they wanted more control over how they were treated. For my parents, making sure my heavy south London twang was slowly but surely softened was part of that.
“I’ve been in journalism for almost 30 years… the blatant classism that exists in parts of this industry even now would have made it nigh on impossible for me to enter with a heavy south London accent.
“We still link how ‘posh’ someone sounds to their intelligence… It would be great if we lived in a society that based its ideas about intelligence on the content of what someone is saying, on someone’s ability to masterfully use the English language, on how messages are conveyed, on how important those messages are – not on the clipped tones in which that message is relayed.”
However, things are changing – both for @charlenewhite and amongst younger generations.
⬆️ Tap the link in @theipaper’s bio to find out why – or comment ‘Read more’ to receive the link in your DMs. | Posted on 17/Feb/2025 20:31:51
