Sounding ‘Black’
Posted on July 9th, 2008 by Tariq Nelson
According to this study, a person (white or black) is likely to earn less if they ’sound black’. This was posted on Freakonomics:
blacks who
Filed under: Race
According to this study, a person (white or black) is likely to earn less if they ’sound black’. This was posted on Freakonomics:
blacks who
Filed under: Race
It really shows the level the intelligence some employers have in determining literally the Sounds of Blackness.
Not applicable here brotha…
What does ’sounding black’ mean?
like dis yo
I figured that but understand that there are many levels of communication and the circumstances dictate the ‘casualness/formality” that one assumes.
If you don’t have command of all of the levels of communication (up and down) you will be limited in your ability to speak/impress/earn etc.
Not only a Black issue (sounding Black) but a universal one….more like ‘Sounding uneducated”.
I gotta say that many times i get my foot in the door because on the phone i sound like a white woman. Ppl tend to say things like, she is well spoken, meaning that i enunciate and use the Queen’s English when i speak. Most ppl equate professionalism and class with your command of the English language.
“Most ppl equate professionalism and class with your command of the English language.”
I tend to do this as well (for native english speakers only generally). I think its one thing to use a whole bunch of slang and lingo that is not gramatically correct with your friends when you’re just hanging out, which I do.
But, when it comes time to be interviewed for a job, work in a professional setting, etc you should be able to speak using correct grammar, enunciation, and all that. Isn’t that what people were supposed to have learned in elementary school? I don’t think it’s really too much to ask
For foreigners, because English is not there first language, it is different. They usually obviously have an accent.
Sounding black/ white in America, however, is a stereotype–where the black
their*
I have a cousin who would - when we were young - vehemently deny that blacks and whites sounded any differently. I remember challenging her to a ‘listening contest’ to pick out who was black or white as we listened to the radio. It was a sore point with her and while obvious to just about everyone else, she would never give up on it no matter how blatant differences were.
Perhaps it was because she hated the idea that even dialect could be used to reinforce the idea that black people were inherently less intelligent than white people. I know other blacks like that who are very careful in their diction and hate the idea of sounding ‘black’. The same people don’t like to be associated with ‘niggas’ either and probably would not be caught dead eating a watermelon in ‘mixed’ company. All of that type of thinking is a legacy borne of the realities of American history.
There is a long standing idea that one’s diction is an indication of intelligence. People with deep Southern accents even have a stigma in some circles that they are all ignorant red-necked hicks. The very intelligent owner of this blog has an accent and some would hear him and say ‘countryyyy’!
Verbal expression and intelligence are related perhaps in some ways but a person whose accent or dialect or even vocabulary or lack thereof is not always an indicator of intelligence as much as their level of formal education and cultural background. I know Master’s degree holders who sound ’street’ and wealthy IT professionals who can’t spell. I know people who have a hard time making a smooth grammatical sentence who are more clever and wise than some idiotic Ph.D’s and I am sure you do too.
Someone with poor diction and an unsophisticated vocabulary can be profound and very expressive. As you can see, some of the worst language and even vulgar expression is getting ‘appreciated’ and making some black people millionaires. It has white kids now trying to sound more ‘black’ than ever.
I myself misspeak at times and fumble words especially when angry or nervous. I often cannot think of the right word to save my life yet I bristle when I hear vulgarity and crude language and it takes a lot of patience when I hear people tear up the English language.
The salary difference seems to be evidence of the fact that living in any society, we have to adjust to the various ‘cultures’ within it and know that when speaking in certain contexts we need to ‘adjust’ and it is a long time, long-standing habit among many black people to switch back and forth as automatically and smoothly as a highly tuned Mercedes Benz all day long, every day. Some get tired and drop it in times of anger or ‘being down’ but many simply do not have that ‘down’ side and cannot sound ‘black’ without sounding as silly as Pat Boone trying to sound like Little Richard. (Darn am I telling on my age with THAT analogy or what?)
It would seem that in this day and age the corporate world or whoever could make the distinction between intelligence and dialect just as black people or whoever who went through at least 12 years of schooling and maybe college should be able to demonstrate the ability to use grammatically correct English when they need to. Maybe THAT is what a lot of employers are looking for.
Maybe this generation of black people (or others) don’t care about making those types of ’shifts’ that previous generations felt they had to. Is it because they are just satisfied and more comfortable with who they are than those older generations and not giving a damn about what people think of them or have people just decided there is such a thing as ‘black’ language so deal with it and they force it down others’ throats and expect that big salary anyway?
If people are strictly going on the sound of someone’s voice to determine race, they will be sadly mistaken on many occasions. I work as a secretary and I answer phones and see people all day so I hear different voices and see different faces—- and independent of their races, their speeches all vary.
Abu:
I am a black, born and raised in the country, who is not very careful of my diction but I speak English properly; I think it would be quite unwise to assume every black person who speaks proper English is going through a great deal of trouble to do so.
The entire idea behind
indigo
I was not justifying or arguing right or wrong or personalizing the matter. Just making some observations. It is great that you do not view the matter as many others have or do. I certainly was not defining ‘blackness’. You can’t deny my experience or that of many people because you don’t share the same perspective. Don’t confuse the fact that I mentioned some examples that I agree with all those attitudes or so narrowly define what it means to be a black person along old stereotypes. I have been around a long time and have known a gamut of types of black people. Even that experience does not mean I know all about all black people and my comments certainly were not about you. You went off on the ‘N’ word and I don’t think I ever referred to it. Take it easy. Unfortunately, even now in this time people still have the issue of sounding white or black around their necks and attach meaning to it whether you have that issue or not.
Peace
I see where I did refer to the ‘N’ term using the vernacular spelling. That was in no way agreeing with its usage but to make a point that some do use it and refer to black people they do not like to associate with in those terms. I in fact deplore the word and could relate many tales of my encounters with it in the Muslim world not to mention the world I grew up in where we used it in anger and as a term of endearment believe it or not, but it really wasn’t my main point so I guess that is why I did not even recall writing it. My apologies if using it at all offended anyone.
I’m curious.I’m a Southerner( born, raised and never lived outside the South). Even though I’m very proud to be one, I must admit, depending on the level of the accent, I don’t find them to be that attractive. Even my folks never wanted us to have it.
I remembered.being in kindergarten and I had a teacher. She was a Southern woman from Molena, Georgia. She was good as gold, but when it came for her to help her class with grammar , we all struggled to understand what she was saying. For example(s), if you said the word ” White” , she would pronoune it as ” Wy-att” or basically ” What”. We used to call her Miss Elephant. We wasn’t trying to make fun of her. She had a French like name that, with the Southern accent, made it sound close to sounding like Elephant. On the other hand, our other teacher, was Guyanese we were able to understand her , even wiith her slight accent.
This is the problem that I have when employer use that method. to screen people. I could care less what kind of accent they have as long as they are qualified for the job. To some people, the Southern accent is an unsophisticated accent, but there are a lot of smart Southern people who have them.This is why such methods in screening out the color of their employees is ignorant.
Abu Abdillah -
You have got to be kidding. Right?
Have you ever had a conversation with a black person raised in Newport beach and surronded by white people all their life?
What about blacks who go to exclusive private schools in wealthy neighborhoods?
What about the millions of white people in the South who love fried chicken and collard greens?
Salaam
Abu:
I never dismissed your observations; I merely gave you an objective point of view/perspective as yours was obviously narrow and extremely subjective.
Look folks chill! It is undeniable that black people have distinct speech patterns. Not ALL black people! Not all black people sound the same any more than all whites do. What is all this accusation of being narrow? Of course there are millions of blacks who neither eat or like the same foods and there are millions of non blacks who love ’soul’ food! I know PLENTY of blacks who have no remnants of ANY of the speech patterns I alluded to in my original post. My original personal anecdote was something that happened nearly 40 years ago! Read it again. That incident with my cousin aside, probably few things irked me as much as growing up in a time when having good diction would get one accused of sounding ‘white’ and what’s worse is I have heard black children saying the same thing today!
Why you thought I was trying to put all blacks or whites into one box I can only attribute to your sensitivity to the issue. No matter WHAT your sensitivity the survey itself bears out that unfortunately some people do make an issue of these differences, like it or not.
Abu Abdilah -
Let me break this down for you real quick.
Some Blacks may have distinct speech patterns but that is only a small percentage.
Now, I will concede that blacks as a whole have a different pitch and tone in their voice which is quite distinctive fron nonblacks. This is what leads to identification of a black sound or voice.
The main reason for this is because black people have greater diversity than other people on the planet in most things anyway. For example, you can find black people grouped together over 5′10″ and then find a group of black people grouped together under 5′2″. Unlike many other groups it is usually one or the other.
If people want to make an issue over these differences that is cool. I just would like a little accuracy thats all.
By the way, I love my black voice (deep broad) and only use my white voice (nasal) to have fun.
These various pitches that blacks have are the reason why blacks can sing so well.
I appreciate the differences between races and unlike others love discussing them.
Salaam
Sounding black, and Jewish, and …
http://www.studio360.org/episodes/2008/07/18
Sorry to drag this on but I just listened to an appalling radio segment on the Micheal Baisden Show where he had a gaggle of black lawyers, author, a youth and they were on the subject of ’sounding white’. The appalling part was when some kid called and insisted in a nearly unintelligible mumble that he considered to be sounding ‘black’ that to go to school AND BE SMART in school and to talk ‘proper’ was trying to be ‘white’. The host incredulously asked if the caller really understood or meant what he was saying. Namely, that he was equating being ‘un- or under educated and not using clear or grammatical English with being ‘black’. They challenged him by asking if he understood the implication that being dumb or stupid was being ‘black’ and if being ’smart’ was being white. Well the boy was stumped.
Furthermore, Baisden asked the caller if running a successful business to support himself and his mother required that he get more education and learn to speak ‘proper’ if he would refuse to do so on the grounds that it would mean he was trying to be white, the caller was again stumped but unfortunately not swift enough to be silent.
If that caller was an example of ANY segment of black people, then one can see some correlation between a biased view against certain speech patterns associated with being ‘black’. Namely, the BLACK youth equated being dumb and inarticulate with ‘blackness’ and the opposite with ‘whiteness’! I wrote that I had experienced this attitude with other youth today and I was frankly saddened as I had encountered the same forty years ago. While listening I was in one of those situations caught between wanting to laugh and cry at the same time because it truly was not funny.
Perhaps there will be some sort of webcast of that segment and you can really get the full effect of the asinine and truly sad contribution of that individual. Needless to say, Baisden and his other guests were dumbfounded and you could ‘hear’ them shaking their heads.