"Empire" star Grace Byers speaks in her native accent for National Caribbean Heritage Month

[jemgirl90]

It was Grace Byers' husband Trai who encouraged her to stop hiding her Caymanian accent and worrying about what other people would say about it. https://t.co/bLU01capDq
- MadameNoire (@MadameNoire) June 6, 2019
- "Empire" star Grace Byers was born in Pennsylvania to a Caymanian mom and American dad. They moved to the Cayman Islands when she was a

Comments

[trueloveisrarex]

I was born in America and both my parents are Jamaican/speak patois but my accent really only comes out when I pronounce certain words lol

[nomorefrostbite]

Her normal Caymanian accent sounds completely understandable?! Like there's absolutely nothing about it that is difficult to get. Tbh there are plenty of regional accents here in the UK that you just can't understand wtf they're saying half the time, far more so than even thick Caymanian accents.
SOME people do have a certain way of like obtusely almost deliberately just refusing to even listen to someone with an accent they don't personally get/like, especially if it's considered 'ethnic' by them and foreign in some manner. Then being like "BUT I JUST CAN'T UNDERSTAND YOU!!" When actually they're willfully refusing to understand cos they're an asshole.

It completely makes sense though that she changed her accent to fit in more, especially as a black WOC who will already be fighting harder for limited opportunities. Shouldn't be the case at all, of course :(

And to answer the question, i'm constantly shifting the way I sound to fit in with my surroundings (socially and professionally).

[flyevita]

i have some coworkers like that... my job outsources some work to India, so we communicate fairly often with a few team members there. when we schedule conference calls with them, a couple people in my office will always say "i just can't understand them!!?!!?" when they full & well speak perfect English. its SO INFURIATING.

my mom is Tanzanian, and my siblings and i all have no idea what her accent sounds like lol. i can imitate my aunties and decipher other East/West African accents, but its so weird, i cannot tell mimic my mom's accent at all hahaha

[nomorefrostbite]

Some people are admittedly terrible at understanding English spoken with ANY accent, but those people are imho few and far between compared to all the dicks who claim they ~jUSt CaNt UnDeRsTaNd!!! Like, have some respect and make some kind of effort, and if you genuinely can't then don't complain about it in that way cos you just sound lowkey racist!? Especially in a professional setting wow.

Whenever i'm talking with anyone who doesn't have English as a first language, or has a heavy foreign accent, if they at ANY point apologise for it it makes me so sad for them, cos like, nobody should have to apologise for annyyyy of that. They can all speak 100000000% better English than I can speak their own language, so! And accents are accents, like whatever.

(That being said, I used to live up near Newcastle, and some real thick Geordie accents are indecipherable to like ALL of humanity, so they don't count lmao. Sorry ONTD Geordies!)

[umilicious]

Yeah, I feel a strong way about accents and work. Even my manager (who emigrated here and has an accent) says that she can’t understand this older gentleman, but I don’t get it. He’s Filipino and has a very strong accent, but it’s not mushy-mouthed or anything. It’s more that he’s shy and it comes through when he speaks. They all started talking about how strong his accent was, and then I said “I can understand him just fine” and shut the room down.

[teaaet]

what an interesting accent... it sounds almost british at certain points. i understand everything she says in the video. she speaks english better than many americans.

[juunanagou18]

I got that Houston drawl, so yes, I do make a conscious effort to downplay my accent. Living in Boston means I have to repeat myself often.

However, it comes out when I'm more comfortable with someone or if I'm mad as hell.

[mondetriste]

I’m really bad at understanding accents but since I’m Carribean that’s the one lone group of accents I can understand (sans jamaican or Haitian patois). Matter of fact, I don’t think I stopped pronouncing “bathe” like “bade” until I was six lmao.

But for real there are UK accents that are 700% more indecipherable than her accent but it’s always interesting how some accents are more “acceptable” than others.