Iowa first lady slammed blacks, Easterners and Southerners as bad speakers

By David R. Guarino
Boston Herald

Iowa First Lady Christie Vilsack, a key factor in John Kerry's primary sweep and the primetime convention speaker tomorrow, has derided blacks, southerners and easterners as bad speakers because she couldn't understand them.

In inflammatory columns for her local newspaper obtained by the Herald, the normally soft-spoken Vilsack tore into several minority and ethnic groups while lampooning non-midwesterners for regional dialects.

"I am fascinated at the way some African-Americans speak to each other in an English I struggle to understand, then switch to standard English when the situation requires,'' Vilsack wrote in a 1994 column in the Mount Pleasant News, while her husband, Tom, was a state senator.

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Comments

[Ruth Ferguson]

First - wonderful website glad I found it. Secondly, just glancing over the article I do not believe it was intended as a slight. Even if she was dissing members of the black community - for those in our community who choose this form of speaking - do they not bring it on themselves?

[niq]

Now, I confess to not knowing a ton about Christie Vilsack's background. But this article is not even the entire op-ed. There's nothing to suggest that she was looking down on southerners, blacks, Eastern Pennsylvanians. It's entirely possible that the tone of the article was "Oh gosh, Tom. I had never heard anyone talk like that. It was so ... unexpected! And kind of interesting!"

The Herald is the Boston equivalent of the Post, for whatever that's worth.

Personally, I find the multitide of American English dialects a sign of comfort.

[ronn]

In many Black communities, what she wrote is the truth. Ain't nothing derivise or divisive about that.

[Dee]

I really don't spend much time on the ignorance of others. This woman is first and foremost from Iowa!!! How many African-Americans, Southerners, and Easterners are even routinely aware of Iowa's existence. WE really should appreciate regional differences in language and speech as a testament to diversity. I'm sure I would know she was from Iowa within seconds of a conversation with her. I would not, however, allow my prejudices to lead to stupid assumptions about others.
---D

[Lester K. Spence]

I read the article, and she was derisive of white ethnics. But I didn't see her comments as derisive of blacks at all. She didn't accuse them of speaking bad english, nor did she accuse them of being bad speakers. Did I miss something?