Colin Powell

[Joel S. Berson]

At 9/8/2011 02:50 PM, Alice Faber wrote:
>And I think we've previously discussed on this list the (in)famous City
>College speech screening and classes, even in my father's day, in the
>30's, more like what we might call accent reduction, though they were
>tinged with a lot of unfortunate assumptions about what constituted
>proper speech.

Even in my day, in the 1950s, and at Columbia College -- although I
was over the bar at the screening (despite growing up in the
Bronx)  and so cannot say anything at all about what the remedial
classes were like.  (My only problem, according to the interviewer,
was too much G in NG.)

I never thought to enquire whether they pre-screened the
freshmen.  E.g., if you came out of Andover, Exeter, Groton, Milton
Academy, et al., and were white (and didn't say "Hahvahd Yahd", I
suppose), you passed through without having to orate.  If you were
from the Bronx or Brooklyn, or Jewish, or black, you had to go
through the vetting.

Joel

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