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Arizona's first Chicana representative has been sworn in. She's going to code-switch.
(www.usatoday.com)
this post was submitted on 12 Nov 2025
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Languages and accents/vernacular.
I was pointing this out to my father and youngest brother when this Louisiana politicians ad came on and he sounded like he was from the bayou!
I said something to the effect "I bet he doesn't sound like that at his fund-raising dinners".
And of course they lost there shit and of course my racist father almost immediately says "blacks do it"!
Sigh. Somebody tell me when it'll be ok to hurt these kinds of people.
Personally, I've only ever heard "code-switching" used to refer to switching between different accents/vernacular, I suppose that switching between entirely different languages also checks the boxes to be code-switching, but I don't know, it feels kind of weird to use that term in that case to me.
I feel like the sort of classic code-switching example is a non-white person who speaks very "white" at their job but not otherwise.
But almost everyone does it a bit, I'm a white dude whose accent falls well within the spectrum of standard American English, but I know that I talk differently on the phone at my job than I do with my coworkers sitting at the desk next to me or with my friends and family at home.
I tend to think of "code switching" as tailoring my communication method, but I'm definitely on the spectrum so that has to be taken with a grain of salt.
As I mentioned, I'm from Cajun Louisiana(and made a concerted effort to not sound it thanks in no small part to the Catholic nuns I had as teachers) but I went to grad school in Ohio and it used to startle my housemates when I would speak to my father on the phone. I used to fall into an exaggerated Cajun kind of accent as a way to have fun and in the late 80s/early 90s that wasn't an accent widely known or heard by Ohioans.
To my mind the difference between sitting with coworkers and friends and family and cod switching would mean crossing some kind of barrier, race/class/ethnicity to the local paradigm.
A kid growing up very Cajun/poor but then going to college and becoming a politician who "speaks well" to their constituents but "Cajun" to his family is code switching.
I have to catch myself because I tend to mimic the speaking styles of people if I'm talking to them for extended periods of time and I don't want them to think I'm making fun of them. It's just a technique to be relatable. Otherwise, I'd just sit there quietly.
My dad was a pastor who had lived all over the place growing up. He's really gregarious, and when they lived in the DC area it was always fun to see him adopt the accent of whoever he's talking to within a sentence or two!
People who are naturally social, and who need to connect with people as part of their career, mimic speaking styles as well. I think of it as similar to mirroring the body language of your conversational partner; you'd have to be really exaggerated with it to come across as mocking them.
I've always known it to be broader than that. I did it in middle and high school. With my gaming/scifi/computer friends I was a D&D geek who knew every monty python line and all the talkbacks to Rocky Horror Picture Show. (Cheese shop or "the man you are about to see has no neck", anybody?). With the band/orchestra/stage people, I was an artsyfartsy. With the alt/goth industrial crew, I was all-in on the music.
Code switching is about adapting to the environment. In my case, I did it because I was into all those things.
When used in reference to urban kids, it's unfortunately the way to be taken more seriously by people who have power over you so you aren't too threatening.
First impressions count, and they are good or bad based on the cultural experience of the one forming the impression.
I think you should seduce your father ASAP.