I grew up mostly in the southeastern U.S. and have a very slight accent, to the extent that only someone else who grew up in Appalachia would likely notice. This article made me pause for a second, because of all the dozens of different accents from around the world I heard while working at a FANG company, I cannot recall one other person having a southern accent (I'm sure there were others — I just never ran into them).

My wife has a much more pronounced southern accent than I do, and I remember that on the occasions when she would visit the campus to have lunch with me, a lot of heads would turn to see who was speaking. I kind of doubt this was due to any negative connotation with southern accents though — I think it was just unusual to hear one there.