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Accents Do Not Equal Citizenship
- Luciana Antezana
- 7 days ago
- 2 min read
Everyone has an accent.
Coming back from the holidays is usually a time of transition and fresh energy. This year, we are returning to a heightened state of tension and hostility. It’s heavy. In times like this, we need to ground ourselves in what we know to be scientifically clear: how we sound is a reflection of the communities that raised us. Our accents aren’t a “lack” of anything; they reflect the experience and identity of a life lived between languages and varieties.
From a speech-language science perspective, the variation in our voices is exactly what we expect to see. The brain learns through exposure, and in communities like ours in the borderlands, that means mapping out multiple phonological (or sound) systems. Our speech production reflects a high level of cognitive flexibility. We aren’t confused; we are adaptive. We carry the sounds of our homes, our schools, and our ancestors all at once. That is a skill, not a deficit.
But our community sees what’s happening. We see how our voices are being used as an excuse for harassment and questioning and how these actions are being justified (or unacknowledged) by many in the majority. When federal agents use an accent to decide who “belongs” or who is “legal,” they are practicing linguistic profiling. It isn’t science and it isn’t accurate. It’s just bias disguised as authority. They are using a natural biological process as a tool for exclusion.
For our gente, language has always been a way to find each other and protect each other. Our accents are a record of our survival, our history, and our cultura. We can’t let our voices be used to divide us.
We don’t need to “fix” how we talk to be worthy of respect or safety. Your accent is your story. One of persistence and one of resilience. It is not a legal document, and it doesn’t determine your right to be here. We stand by our accented voices, and we stand by our gente. We move through these times together.
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