Way back in 2019, New York Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez spoke during Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network convention. During her speech, she rebutted critics who said her past employment as a bartender meant she was not qualified to be a lawmaker. While that was quite a fair point she made, what made the speech wild is that AOC imitated a black souther preacher during her rebuttal.
During the speech, she said, slipping into the shocking black southern preacher accent while doing so, “I’m proud to be a bartender. Ain’t nothing wrong with that. There’s nothing wrong with working retail folding clothes for other people to buy. There is nothing wrong with preparing the food that your neighbors will eat. There is nothing wrong with driving the buses that take your family to work. There is nothing wrong with being a working person in the United States of America. And there is everything dignified about it.”
Defending her use of the dialect on Twitter later, AOC said, “Folks talking about my voice can step right off. Women’s March & Kavanaugh speech, same. Any kid who grew up in a distinct linguistic culture & had to learn to navigate class enviros at school/work knows what’s up.”
Adding to that defense of her use of the dialect, AOC said, “As much as the right wants to distort & deflect, I am from the Bronx. I act & talk like it, *especially* when I’m fired up and especially when I’m home. It is so hurtful to see how every aspect of my life is weaponized against me, yet somehow asserted as false at the same time.”
Well, the internet and political sphere were not buying that AOC-issued defense and skewered AOC for her use of the dialect both when it happened and years after the event, particularly when the video began resurfacing in the spring of 2023.