[Thor]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

Being well spoken is a bad thing these days? I guess the West peaked in the 20th century and has begun it's decline.

Its an old racist trope said to black Americans, I'd highly recommend reading this article when Corey Booker was called well spoken.

https://www.aaihs.org/inarticulate-while-black/

I imagine that there are people who believe that Black people are too sensitive. When Blacks are called “well-spoken,” or “articulate,” they may say to themselves that this is not the worse thing that one can be called. After all Mayor Bloomberg, they might say, most likely intended to be complimentary when he said Cory Booker was well-spoken. Despite learning racism’s three card monte— pocketing the term “uppity” and replacing it with the charge of being “too sensitive” —these people have not, in their hearts, learned to replace the idea that Black people are some type of way.

The observation, and especially the pleasantly surprised tone in which it is usually offered, reveals that the speaker subscribes to a way of thinking that holds that Black people are typically inarticulate. “Articulate” Blacks are therefore a welcome exception to the rule. Subject to the delusion that a person’s vocabulary reflects their intelligence or cognitive power, they hold that the articulate (in standard English) Black person is evidence that not all Blacks are illiterate or incapable of speech. Their being witness to this proof, while white, is the compliment on offer.