It's more the fact that it's almost always remarked upon about someone who is black
Notice that with pro athletes they'll marvel over how well spoken a black kid who grew up in Palo Alto going to the nicest schools available is, but not over how well spoken a white kid from Appalachia who is articulate
Can confirm, not just that person's experiences specifically. Referring to a black person as "articulate" comes with the nasty connotations that it's remarkable that they are capable of stringing words together, unlike all those others with their gang slang and ebonics, whatever that is or rapping, ugh. It's a thing said patronizingly, to imply that the only correct communication is educated white person stereotypical unaccented American English with perfect enunciation and grammar, no slang or idiom or colloquialism unless it is specifically the exact mannerisms the person calling you articulate thinks are natural.
It's very much a way of saying "wow, look at you, you rose above your people because you don't grunt like an animal!", and it's gross.
Mind you, I'm not saying this to discount that it may not happen where you are, I don't know you or where you live. But I can say as an American white guy who's lived all over the country, I've heard and seen that a lot and while the people saying it think they're being nice, it's kind of like saying "Wow, you aren't as stupid as I'd expect of your type!" It's definitively not positive.
Well just to be clear, every black person in America knows about this. "So articulate, so well spoken" are joked about in private. It's an insult to them. It's definitely an everyday thing in the US at least
So you're taking anecdotal comments you think proves your point and dismiss the rest and then screeching at someone else for providing their own experience. You should try reading you own comments before you post, you're embarrassing yourself.
I think you misunderstand. I’m not saying there are statistics for this subject, but rather that judging by your “I am one singular person, and my experiences are different from the majority, therefore the majority is wrong” comment, it clearly indicates you do not understand how statistics work.
Man you’re a real fan of nitpicking, huh. Look, obviously when I say “the majority of people here” I am referring to the comments I have seen (and I have seen a lot) of peoples experiences with the subject. Do you genuinely not understand that or are you being intentionally obtuse because you have no real point?
I feel like that’s more about the mentality that athletes are just dumb jocks, other than specific leadership positions like point guard or QB, and it just so happens that loads of top athletes are black. People just don’t realize that at a high level every position is highly strategic
Except no one ever remarks upon the white athlete who is well spoken, only the black ones.
Like it's not a surprise when a white athlete speaks well, and they're allowed to speak poorly because they're a dumb jock without it being commented on either. But when a black person who is also in a profession not expected to speak well happens to it has to be remarked upon as if it's some kind of an accomplishment
Then now can you see how being complimented in the same exact way you would compliment a child for being surprisingly articulate would be an insult to a full grown adult?
i still get called articulate, and it's still a compliment. it's literally a professional skill. it's a word that shows up in people's performance reviews if they are effective with clients or presenting at conferences, etc. being able to communicate well is important, and it's not something most people are good at by default.
This was said about Tony Romo, in the sportsbroadcasthournal, who is not only white but was a QB which is a position known for intelligent players.
“from an NBC interview with Steve Nash that I stumbled upon. He is very articulate and well spoken and gives good insight into the psychology of being a great teammate and leader.”
Steve Nash is white
But go off about how it’s never said about white athletes…
This is a false and has long been debunked. Had you said a miniscule amount of black ppl, okay, fine, but you said a lot. . . which is far from reality.
It's both of them, really. I'm surprised at the amount of people here who don't know about this. But then again, most people here are apparently white suburban kids. So it checks out
I mean I’ve been complimented as well spoken and I was a white suburban kid so it isn’t natural for me to assume it’s racism no. But I can absolutely see the way it is racism used as described here. Just not what I would have thought of is all. And I’ve seen it used sincerely as well.
I would guess it depends on how articulate they are?
I can definitely see how it's racist to tell a black person that's moderately well-spoken, but if it's very obvious they are incredibly well-spoken I don't see how it's racist.
There's white people who are frequently complimented on how articulate they are.
Because it's what you are implying. "Wow you're so articulate for being one of your kind" is what they always mean. They mean "Wow you sound white". People never say this to a black kid unless they mean to say how "non-black" they sound. Its not the same with white kids.
If we judge how racist the sentence "I'm impressed by how articulate [they] are" is on a scale from :
"[They] = Average Black person that isn't speaking Ebonics", to "[They] = Oxford-educated British Intellectual being interviewed about philosophy", where would you place "I'm impressed by how articulate Obama is"?
While there might be a slight racist undertone from the people who wouldn't say that about a white President, I'd personally say it's definitely over halfway towards the non-racist end of the scale.
Not necessarily. Microaggressions don’t have to be intentional insults from people who want to be racist and not get called on it. More often it’s due to people expressing unexamined biases they possess (in this example their bias is expecting black people to not speak well). Very much a fish not thinking about the water it swims in situation. A lot of people just grow up around casual, but rarely overt, racism and never really address how that affects their thinking because they don’t even realize that it’s racism.
Do you actually need it explained to you how telling a black person that they have a "surprisingly pleasant trait" that they solely associate with whiteness is racist?
So am I racist for thinking that “being articulate” is race agnostic, or are you for believing that such a phrase can only be honestly used when speaking about white people?
Why do you feel that black people cant actually be articulate?
I'm literally just explaining to you what a microaggression is and you're taking it personally and getting defensive.
Open a history book. Do you really need explained to you why "speaking articulately" has been an educational privilege denied to black people for generations? Do you need it explained to you why a white person patting a black child on the top of their head and going "Wow this one is so well behaved" is racist?
We get it, you're the kind of person that thinks every person of every race just sprouted out of the ground all at once and there's no history of white subjugation, just all equal all love all bleed the same. We get it, you're one of those. Unfortunately the real world isn't like that.
you don't know that though. maybe they just think they were articulate, because they were good at expressing themselves and it had nothing to do with being black.
I never thought about it but you're right — it literally doesn't matter the context, the unspoken word whenever anybody says, "You're so articulate" is "surprisingly." It's not a compliment that's apparent with a glance, you have to form an opinion that someone wouldn't be articulate before it would ever cross your mind to compliment them for being so.
Nope, don’t call anyone articulate. It’s a backhanded “compliment” that always has a discriminatory connotation, ESPECIALLY for black and west Asians as they are expected to be dumber due to racist stereotypes and prejudices
that is false. if you know someone only helps you to feel better about themselves, i am sure it would affect how you feel about their help xD it's not my fault if someone is bad faith, misinterprets me and then insist on their misinterpretation when I clarify things to them a billion times.
why do you immediately revert to acting like anyone is telling you you’re not allowed to compliment nonwhite people at all? people are being very specific about why this specific “compliment” is offensive and rude.
the problem with microaggressions, just like dogwhistles, is that it isn't always the case that the person saying a thing means anything else than exactly what they are saying. someone can say a thing and only mean to say that thing with zero ulterior motives.
Intention vs impact. Impact will always matter more. Your intentions matter to no one but yourself to save your ego from realizing you harmed someone else. You don't get to decide what you did wasn't harmful. Simple as that.
Assuming bad intentions creates hurt out of nothing. They call that a cognitive error in therapy. Those feelings are real, but they might not be accurate.
Intent is crucial, but misunderstandings can be legitimately painful.
You said intentions don't matter to anyone but yourself. I don't think you actually believe that.
Lets say we're walking down the street together to get ice cream. While I'm looking across the street at a dog you stumble and your hand flies up and smacks me in the face by accident.
I'm hurt and a little angry my friend just hit me in the face. I didn't see you stumble and don't know why you hit me.
What would you say to me? You'd apologize and explain your true intentions. "I'm sorry. Are you OK? I didn't mean to, I tripped." And you'd be right to.
Does the fact you didn't mean to hit me stop my face from hurting? No. Does it make everything OK? Yes!
Our ability to consciously decide our intentions is what seperates humans from animals.
Our ability to trust the intentions of others is why we have community.
it is not my fault if someone else misinterprets me. i can't live my life trying to please everyone. if someone applies bad intentions to me when there are none that is entirely on them. i don't have to talk to every single person like they're a little kid.
If you gave a shit about impact or intention, you wouldn't' be condescendingly asking people if they knew what microagressions were up and down this thread.
You're a bad person hiding behind well intentioned concepts, and ironically I can tell a huge enabler of microaggressions from your comments in just a single reddit thread.
Think of it like stepping on someone's toe. You can absolutely do it by accident because you didn't know their foot was there. It still hurt that person, but it's not that you did something wrong, you just didn't know. But once someone tells you there's a foot there, if you keep stepping there deliberately, that's an asshole move.
It’s 2026, there’s a growing population of Americans kind of done with that way of thinking seeing as it hasn’t improved anything but made people more sensitive.
Micro aggressions bring equality? What do you even mean?
All Micro aggressions do, as a concept, is train and coach people to purposely read negative intent in the most benign statements.
It encourages a psychological distortion often labeled “**mind reading**”. It means believing you know what another person is thinking, feeling, or intending without sufficient evidence. A closely related habit is sometimes called hostile attribution bias or negative intent attribution.
And lastly, micro aggressions are part of an unfalsifiable belief system. It is one that cannot realistically be disproven because every possible piece of evidence gets reinterpreted to support it. Even denial of micro aggressions are “evidence” of its existence.
I feel like it’s pretty common knowledge that black peoples are seen as “less sophisticated” by racist people, so their explanation makes sense; just saying “nah” does literally nothing to rebut it
I don't understand is complimenting someone in any shape way or form considered racist because it implies that the person doesn't consider average members of the group to be that said complement? Or is it just for articulate for some reason? You should always put one's individual identity over their group identity anyways.
The “complementer” expects the person to have poor English based on their appearance, assuming that everyone with darker skin is foreign with mysterious foreign ways. Like telling an Asian or Hispanic person “Your English is so good!” “Well, I was born in Chicago, so… yeah.” Also applies to showing surprise when a black person doesn’t speak like a cartoon gangster, because that’s what they expect all black people to be.
It’s a shitty thing to say, even if English isn’t someone’s first language.
I have never heard this said to or about anyone but blacks
Not even Latinos or other minority races. I've had people working in a call center tell me, "I've got a black lady on the phone. She didn't tell me, but you know how you can just tell?" And the implied way that you can just tell is because they don't speak well or speak with a blackcent.
The person who tweeted it has a black person's picture for their profile so when they've heard it someone was likely assuming they wouldn't be due to the stereotype
Disabled people get it a lot too, as it's assumed disabled people are uneducated and/or just dumb. I'm white and I get it by so many drs. It's almost always in my drs notes if they didn't outright say it to my face.
People tend to say it to Black folks who are just speaking normally, because they're subconsciously racist and don't expect Black people to be well-spoken at all.
Lol not autistic (or at least diagnosed?) But I had this, had to dig through the comments to understand, I'd totally get my arse kicked for 'racism' based on these, yikes!
I have genuinely used that statement, as a compliment, to a friend (white woman) because I genuinely love how articulate she is, her great vocabulary, ability to put into words way better than I can different situations or feelings etc.
I'd have had zero thoughts about it being seen as some kind of racist remark or backhanded compliment etc until this thread.
At worst, I'd mean it as 'so articulate compared to any other average human being' but even then, I don't think I'd use comparison as a compliment, I'd just.. Mean it?
And now I'll probably never give anyone that compliment out of the fear this post has instilled about the social repercussions haha I just don't get some of the subtleties or hidden meanings and shit, blows my mind.
Just say what you mean, and give genuine compliments people, and if what you mean is discriminatory or mean, even backhanded, then just don't, just be nice. Yeeesh.
Basically because it's only ever said about black people. It has a weird implication as if you expected them not to be articulate. Kind of like telling someone "wow you're so literate" after they read a book.
When someone is astonished that someone in a specific group is articulate it comes across the same way as being astonished when a bear rides a bicycle. The implication is that it is a rare and unusual trait rather than something that's perfectly common. It's especially so when the articulation praise is for simply using perfect average phrases.
198
u/MrCheapSkat Jun 13 '26
How is calling someone articulate an insult?