Race & Ethnicity

'aks' and 'liberry.' It used to bug me, but one day I read something that was like, "Do you understand what's being said? Because that's what language is supposed to convey: understanding." After that, I don't care how anyone pronounces anything, as long as I can understand what they're saying. I still mess up but I'm working on it!

Put another way, I'm trying to shift focus onto whoever is speaking to me, to understand what they are saying rather than making it all about my discomfort with the way others express themselves.

Edited to add: the dialect is more pronounced in the Black population here, but the local white kids often speak it, too.