Are accent impressions racist?

[Currywurst and Chips]

As a Londoner I'm used to all sorts of people doing a willy Van Dykeesque accent that I don't have, which is fine.

If I do, an American accent, nobody bats an eyelid so "foreign" accents can't be the line

However once you get into the realms of doing a Polish voice the racism accusations begin. Then if you're doing Nigerian/Pakistani you're 100% racist.


So.... Where is the line?

[Beradogs]

Context old boy. If I said bot bot ding ding move along the bus please. That would imply Pakistanis only do menial jobs like bus conductors ergo it is racist. If I did an impression of a Pakistani by saying bot bot ding ding and left it at that then it is fine. Glad to be of assistance.

[Long slender neck]

That's not fine.

[Chicken Dhansak]

Oh! Do me a favour with it all. Where the fcuk does it stop.

[Currywurst and Chips]

Context old boy. If I said bot bot ding ding move along the bus please. That would imply Pakistanis only do menial jobs like bus conductors ergo it is racist. If I did an impression of a Pakistani by saying bot bot ding ding and left it at that then it is fine. Glad to be of assistance.

Unfortunately you're wrong there

I'm assuming you're white and therefore saying bot bot ding in a Pakistani accent is considered (or is) racist regardless of the context.

[Rich Tea Wellin]

[Ornchurch]

Oh! Do me a favour with it all. Where the fcuk does it stop.

Oh goodness gracious me.

[Orient_Man_And_Boy]

Oh! Do me a favour with it all. Where the fcuk does it stop.

Oh goodness gracious me.

I loved that. Especially “Going out for an English”.

[Dohnut]

So is having a Brazilian racist?

[PutneyO]

Some people may say .. "only if its an Afro-Caribbean accent" ?

[StockholmO]

One of my best friends was born and bred from Glasgow and speaks with a broad Glaswegian accent but his parents are from the Punjab.

The more he has to drink the more Indian accent comes out. The same with my wife, She’s from Aberdeenshire and all very posh (Dollar Academy girl) until she’s been drinking, and then goes full on Doric.

[Beradogs]

Context old boy. If I said bot bot ding ding move along the bus please. That would imply Pakistanis only do menial jobs like bus conductors ergo it is racist. If I did an impression of a Pakistani by saying bot bot ding ding and left it at that then it is fine. Glad to be of assistance.

Unfortunately you're wrong there

I'm assuming you're white and therefore saying bot bot ding in a Pakistani accent is considered (or is) racist regardless of the context.

How do you do a Pakistani or insert any other nationality impression without sounding like them then? Perhaps you can’t anymore. To be honest I don’t want to know the answer. I am a stale pale male. It’s best I don’t know or me and my blood pressure will start to fall out again.

[Disoriented]

Boarding WUM fail already.

[Beradogs]

Who is winding up whom? The thread was started by someone asking if it is racist doing accents of other nationalities now? Clearly it is worth debating as it may be. We all learn in life and even if it was just the usual suspects that are offended that would be enough for me to desist in doing it. Not that I walk around doing impressions of people anyway. I did a great Kevin Keegan in 1977 but have stopped since.

[Currywurst and Chips]

Context old boy. If I said bot bot ding ding move along the bus please. That would imply Pakistanis only do menial jobs like bus conductors ergo it is racist. If I did an impression of a Pakistani by saying bot bot ding ding and left it at that then it is fine. Glad to be of assistance.

Unfortunately you're wrong there

I'm assuming you're white and therefore saying bot bot ding in a Pakistani accent is considered (or is) racist regardless of the context.

How do you do a Pakistani or insert any other nationality impression without sounding like them then? Perhaps you can’t anymore. To be honest I don’t want to know the answer. I am a stale pale male. It’s best I don’t know or me and my blood pressure will start to fall out again.

That's the thing it's not "Insert nationality" there seems to be different rules

Certain ones like Pakistani, Nigerian, Indian seem to be off limits entirely.

Then you've got the dicey ones like South African or Polish where some people will cry racism

Then you've got Australian, American where nobody will bat an eyelid

Tough to work out where the line is

[Long slender neck]

You can't do ones of minorities

[Currywurst and Chips]

That's pretty clear

But why then is doing a Polish or Romanian accent unacceptable yet Australian perfectly fine?

[Currywurst and Chips]

Note the difference reactions from the crowd (clearly racist) and the rest of the panel to Micky Flanagan doing Nigerian

[Ronnie Hotdogs]

It’s a minefield, isn’t it.

[Beradogs]

It’s a difficult one. I guess the answer is to work out which countries have a majority non white population and discount them straight away if the person doing the impression is white. Majority white countries are fine unless Poland as doing a Polish accent may imply you don’t want them here. American is ok unless unless it’s tinted with Hispanic which is probably not. A hint of Afro Caribbean is most certainly not ok. It’s the countries with a high proportion of BAME that are difficult. If you are from outside the uk doing a english impression that is tricky. Posh is obviously fine, you can take the piss out of them all day. Doesn’t matter if they have mental health problems etc. In fact, you could add that into the joke. Cockney is fine as are northerners. Fertile ground. Southerners and northerners that are first generation immigrants I would steer clear. South east Asia is ok eg Singaporean but as a rule of thumb are off limits. South American is generally ok except Spanish in relation to Mexico. Brazilian Portuguese is fine. Eastern Europe is ripe for picking except Poland as previously discussed.

[Currywurst and Chips]

I think that's pretty close to the rules.

When it comes to BAME people and comedians doing "white" accents, Cockney seems to be the go--to if the thrust of what is being said is this person is chavvy/feckless. I guess classism is in the Ryman Premier when it comes to the Ism hierarchy these days though.

[Wally Banter]

Surely there's a bunch of factors involved? Like:

- any intrinsic power imbalance between the accent doer and the subject
- whether the particular accent has a history of being used to cause harm or offence
- the intention behind doing the accent
- whether doing the accent is perpetuating some kind of stereotype or inequality

[Constanza]

I never do any Irish accents twice over here just to be sure to be sure.

Clearly the answer to the question is yes, they are racist.

[Ronnie Hotdogs]

Surely there's a bunch of factors involved? Like:

- any intrinsic power imbalance between the accent doer and the subject
- whether the particular accent has a history of being used to cause harm or offence
- the intention behind doing the accent
- whether doing the accent is perpetuating some kind of stereotype or inequality

Get to it guys, you've got one.

[Wally Banter]

I'm killing them with reasonableness.