05/21/2026
A Latina tells another Latina that her accent made her “difficult to understand and lacks professionalism.
As I reflected on this, I kept thinking…
How did we get to a place where the very evidence of resilience, migration, culture, courage, and bilingualism is treated like a weakness?
An accent is not incompetence. An accent is not lack of intelligence.An accent is not something to be ashamed of.
An accent means you learned another language while carrying your own. It means your tongue learned to survive in two worlds. It means your story traveled.
For many immigrants and children of immigrants, accents hold sacrifice:parents translating paperwork,working double shifts,learning new systems, finding the courage to speak even when people mock the way they sound.
So when we shame someone’s accent, especially within our own community, we are not correcting professionalism. We are reinforcing the idea that proximity to whiteness and “sounding American” determines our value.
It doesn’t.
Some of the most brilliant people I know speak with accents. Some of the strongest women I know still roll their R’s proudly. Some of the most impactful leaders in this country speak English as their second or third language. I proudly declare my own accent.
We should not be teaching our community to shrink themselves to be accepted or to be more “professional“. We should be teaching the world to expand its ears!
Your accent tells me you know more than one language.That is an asset. That is power. That is something to respect.
What are your thoughts on this subject?
