I have a hybrid accent. Though I am from Teesside, I have lived in Leeds for over 25 years and so I have learned to talk more slowly so that people understand me better. (In the North East we talk much faster than people from West Yorkshire). Leeds is a city full of people from all over the world and so I would expect that there would be more tolerance of different accents.
A recent example of accent discrimination: at a restaurant I was at a long table with a party of people . The waitress asked each person in turn for their drink order. I asked for a Corona – I’m aware I pronounce the ‘o’ sound slightly differently being from the north east. Words like ‘moor’ and ‘Coors’ are kind of hilarious to people who don’t share my accent, when I say them. So this time, when I asked for Corona, one man in this party, who I don’t actually know, shouted out loudly “OH! Hear that Yorkshire accent!”
When I looked at him pointedly, he tried to clarify “Well, I look at you, and you look like that, but then you open your mouth and that comes out!”
Which I took to meaning that I might look like everyone else and appear to fit in with the rest of the professional middle class people at the table, but that actually my accent made me ‘other’ and subject to ridicule. I can tolerate not being understood, and I try hard to slow down and enunciate, if I’m talking to someone who seems to find it difficult to understand me. But I don’t expect to be made fun of as it offends my sense of self and belonging. Particularly as I am now in middle class circles professionally and socially and I don’t want to feel shame about my accent that I brought with me from my working class background.
I recently recorded an interview for my work, to be shared online, and I tried to speak with a more RP accent than normal as I’m aware that it will be listened to by an international audience. I feel annoyed that I have to do this, where British people are so used to hearing American accents and seemingly have no issues with understanding them.