Funny that before I completely minimized my Southern accent, people from other areas would sometimes ask me why I talked like a black person.

I used to speak like a rural North Floridian. Still do when I am angry or very tired. While the BEV dialect does exist in rural North Florida, more so than in most places it overlaps heavily (and vice versa) with how white Southerners speak due to the cultures blending and co-existing for so long.

North Florida has a very distinct accent, even as Southern accents go. Sometimes I can’t identify other regional or foreign accents very well, but I can always tell a fellow North Floridian in a few words.

(In fact it is so specific that a woman from Valdosta, Georgia, which is just 40 or 50 miles up the road was able to tell that I was from Lake City, Florida, just by my accent.)

I don’t feel that speaking with a Southern accent (or not) gives me any more authenticity one way or the other. “Real Americans” is a pernicious and terrible concept.

I learned standard American English to avoid people thinking I was stupid; I use the rural North Florida accent when I want people to underestimate me.

Both are how I “really” talk and both are authentic and valid parts of who I am.