Or is this a bit inappropriate?

[Mycatishere]

I was listening to an audiobook today, and I’ve already read the book - wanted something easy to listen to while I got on with other stuff.

So in the book, one of the characters is called Maggie and is half sister to a character named Bonnie. Bonnie is white British and is narrated with a slightly cockney accent (she’s Scottish in the book but anyway …) and she and Maggie have different fathers. But there’s no mention in the book, no hint, of Maggie having grown up anywhere other than uk.

Yet Maggie is narrated with a Jamaican accent am I alone in thinking that’s a bit off, really?

@Keroppi really interesting thanks for thr link.

it's not about audiobooks or actors or even actors getting caught up in cultural appropriation.

The issue is that a white narrator made an ignorant assumption, based on a character's skin colour, an applied a hammy West Indian accent to the character - never for one moment considering that the character might be British and speak with an RP accent.

That's the issue - nothing more, nothing less.

I don't know if it's racist as much as ignorant but it is not right.

Ah, so probably not a case of the narrator randomly choosing to give a Jamaican accent to a mixed race character then? But rather a Jamaican accent to a character from a large Jamaican family. I see no issue with it.

Also, how does the OP know the narrator is white British? That’s not been answered.

What are you actually on?

so would a British Chinese person who was born and bred in Britain be played with a Chinese accent?

don’t be bloody idiotic and ignorant

and no, all black people don’t speak with an accent - why would they if they are as British as I assume you are

or are you suggesting you have met all black people believe that incredibly lazy, racist stereotype

get a grip

OP - yes agreed - it’s disgusting and you should complain to the author or they will not learn

Well, now you seem disingenuous @Mycatishere. The character is described as being from a jamaican family, and being raised in a home like that would legitimately give her a jamaican accent.

You've tried to stir up racism were there wasnt any. They didnt just decide to give the black character a jamaican accent because they were black so couldnt possibly be British. It's because the character is jamaican.

I got annoyed by an audiobooks recently that had a character with a cockney accent and the narrator was struggling to navigate the different accents and characters.

The fact that someone has decided that black = jamaican accent is offensive and racist as well as annoying.

No, well that doesn't sit quite right then, does it?

Is it the Cathy Glass book that was based on a true story? I expect the author knew the accent of the characters.

That’s not at all right (unless she has actually lived for any length of time in Jamaica).

Not all British people have British accents. I think your expectation that everyone British must sound British is xenophobic to be honest. I have many British friends that have a wide variety of accents from Polish to American to Jamaican to Australian to South African to Greek and so on. The reason they have these accents is despite being born and bred in the U.K. is they have been living abroad due to parents in the foreign service or armed forces, or are descended from immigrants or were expats and then returned.

Plus the book you are talking about says the character was raised by a large Jamaican family.

If it is the book that's been mentioned, then the audiobook is narrated by a white Canadian woman in her 60s.

So people are saying the character was raised by a Jamaican family so would not be racist then for the character to have a Jamaican accent ?

Given that it's now been established that the girl has a Jamaican accent because she's from a Jamaican family, are you still crying racism?

So what exactly is wrong with a Jamaican accent??

The character's husband is from a Jamaican family in the present time and the character had a black father (doesn't say Jamaican). The character was brought up in Britain.

"All she knew of Aunt Maggie – apart from that she was married and liked kids – was that she was mixed race. She and Bonnie’s mother had shared the same mother, but Maggie’s father had been black."

"Every evening when Leon, Maggie’s husband, came home from work they ate around a large circular table, with a spotlessly clean tablecloth and cutlery that gleamed."

"Leon did most of the talking and was a great storyteller. Bonnie loved to listen to him; to her, he was a proper dad and far removed from the men her mother had brought home. He was from a large Jamaican family"

Why can't you people read properly? Even in the screenshot it doesn't say Maggie comes from a Jamaican family. All the effort put into trying to convince everyone there's no racism. Imagine if you put that effort into listening or reading.

You do realise that racist means derogatory? What is derogatory about giving someone a Jamaican accent? Whatever their colour?

Wow, this is one of the most ignorant overtly racist posts on here and yet has been largely ignored.

I have never once listened to an audiobook where accent or intonation to differentiate characters has been based on ethnicity - EVER.

Why exactly would a British person, who is mixed race, need to have a Jamaican accent to allow listeners to differentiate her from her white British counterpart? And if not an accent, why on earth would this need to be frequently mentioned ? this is so illogical that it highlights perfectly how deep seated bigotry can be.

Surely character A is given one 'voice' from the start and B another (both British accents, or an accent that relates to wherever THEY are actually from) what difference does it make that one is black and the other white? Why would being given the character background (as in every single book I've ever read / listened to) not be enough to help me associate the given 'voice' with the respective character going forward ?

I think my jaw actually physically dropped in regards to your view on Black British people tending to have a different accent 'maybe not full on Jamaican'. You actually typed the words, posted it - and have come back to defend it. It's always good to stick to your staunch views - wish more people were like this, always better to see you in the open.

To the other posters that will die on the 'but her family..'

How in heavens name does having parents from another country mean that child, having grown up in the UK, will some how take on this accent by default?

Funny then that we don't question or have any expectation of the accent of a British person born to German / French /Austrian / Swiss / Australian etc parents to be anything but British. But, for British ethnic minorities, it can often be so absurd that it boggles the mind when there is no accent extraneous to their home country 'how quaint ... (scramble to reason)... you know your household and family background ' ie 'what kind of ethnic are you that you deceive me so' ?!

Also, as an aside, why is every Black person 'from' Jamaica? That tiny island must have some magic powers of miraculous invisible space extension that we all all unaware of.

Those people deliberately missing the point of the original post are being highly disingenuous.

Why do posts about racism always bring out the undercover racists ? - this question should be up there with the meaning of life. Like a moth to a flame

Also, the Simpsons example is just not relevant. The people of colour in that cartoon were originally put in to be stereotypes who had the piss taken out of them. All a big laugh. Racist.

For years it was used for Religious Studies (it was used by my supervisor when I did a bit of a PGCE.)

I think my jaw actually physically dropped in regards to your view on Black British people tending to have a different accent 'maybe not full on Jamaican'.

@lemonadeandpop This is my experience from living in one of the most ethnically diverse areas of the country, and also in general.

Not everyone has exactly the same accent/voice, and that is not a value judgement or doesn't mean they're any less British.

Also, as I said earlier, in some areas people emphasize their accent to show their subcultural affiliations. For instance in my area a lot of Black British people are into Rastafarianism to some extent (whether they were brought up in it or not.) They will enhance their accent to show their kinship with this belief system and its origins.

If you haven't experienced it then you haven't, but that doesn't mean it isn't a thing.

And if you're saying you can't often tell whether someone is Black British, British Asian, or White British from their accent, I am skeptical as to whether you genuinely believe that.

Not as disbelief-suspension breaking as when I saw The Homecoming a couple of years ago in the West End. One actor was white cockney, and the other black/mixed race. Yet we were supposed to believe they're brothers.

@Jamboree01 thats is Maggie’s husband. Not her dad.

Nothing, if someone is from Jamaica.

When they are not from Jamaica but Britain, but happen to be mixed race, it implies that they aren’t from here. They are foreign.

I didn’t state who anyone was… I asked if this was the book that was referred to.

It doesn't make sense for a character who isn't from Jamaica to have a Jamaican accent in an audiobook. It is a shame the narrator has done that to the book.

The author would have some control over who narrated the audiobook but none over how they chose to do so (and may not have listened to it as it's excruciating listening to your own work being read aloud).

If you can be bothered OP you could post a review on Goodreads or Amazon pointing out that you were puzzled by the narrator's accent choice, as it made no sense within the story – the character was British and would presumably have a British accent.

Pretty disgusted 😂 Fuck me, you sound fun to be around.