Why You Shouldn’t Mock, Imitate or Joke About Other People’s Accents
Most people agree that discrimination is bad, this means we shouldn’t mock somebody else’s accent. It is rude, it is offensive, it enforces prejudice, racism, xenophobia, and classism. “But I’m not mocking all the Russians as a group when I make some joke in which I use a fake Russian accent,” some will say. “I’m not insulting anybody, I just made a joke, it is harmless,” they will say. Unfortunately, this is often not how people whose accent was imitated will feel about it. Somebody can perceive suck jokes as offensive. In the worst case scenario it is possible for people to develop anxiety and feelings of insecurity about speaking if others commonly joke about their pronunciation. People can internalize the stigma about their own accents to the point where they hate the way they speak.