When my mother was at Columbia U, she also took elocution classes, she said, to "soften" her East Louisiana drawl. She’d observed that non-Southerners "hear a southern accent and subtract IQ points".

Throughout her life she spoke with a rather impressive neutral accent—unless she was with her siblings, or angry. 😄

Pet Peeve:

People like Kid Rock who's from a rich family in Michigan putting on a faux "redneck shtkicker" persona to sell records making sane Southerners look bad when he isn't from there