Bias and Accents

[edfix]

Bias is like an accent. Throughout my 20 years in the Air Force, and in other travels, I have worked with people from all over the country, and I am used to dealing with varying regional accents. On a few occasions, the conversation actually turned to accents, and my laugh line (or at least polite chuckle line) was, "I'm from the midwest, so I don't have an accent."

That is pretty much anyone's gut reaction to hearing a different accent. "I don't have an accent, you do." "I talk normal; you talk different." If someone grows up hearing only his own regional accent, or is in a situation where he hears only his own accent, that can turn into, "I talk right, you talk wrong."

If you talk to someone like that about his accent, his reaction is a baffled, "Accent? I don't have an accent." If you talk to someone in the legacy media about his bias, his reaction is, "Bias? I don't have a bias." He has only correct, normal opinions.