Cringe or comfort? Why some Black people ‘code switch’ their accents

Dialects are powerful identifiers, especially when you’re from an ethnic minority

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There are times on The Long Wave desk when a conversation sparks a sort of group therapy session. A few weeks ago, Jason came back from a reporting trip to Barbados and made a comment about how some Bajans thought he was from the Caribbean, because his accent changed when he was there. This was fascinating to me. The ensuing discussion made me realise that all of us had shifted our accents at various times, which got me thinking about all the unconscious ways in which we “code switch”, alternating between different identities.