“White Voice”: Code Switching for Success
My mother named me Enjonai Jenkins. It's obvious that whenever my name has come across the desk of any employer, teacher, or Census worker, these people were not fooled into thinking my race was anything other than ‘Black, African American.’ I didn’t grow up knowing the lack of race anonymity in comparison to my peers due to my moniker, but once I grew to that conclusion, I simply utilized the resources that I had at my disposal to influence deceive those who I needed in my favor. My biggest weapon was my “white voice.” It didn’t start off that way though. I didn’t particularly notice that I “talked white” until I was well into elementary school. Oddly enough, the first person to point it out was the same person who forced proper enunciation on me as I grew up, my dad. “Why do you talk so white? You talk so fast, just like a little white girl,” he would pester as my voice rang out in flute-like melodies and the words sprinted through my open lips. Apparently, the only compara...
