Can you tell a person's race by their voice?
futurebird
Here is an interesting question: how did the man in this video
( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YRQlUsdA3U ) know the callers on C-
SPAN were black? (In the video, a caller complains that there are too
many Black people calling in to the show.) It was probably because of
the way that they spoke. I doubt that any of the callers were speaking
full on AAVE (African American Vernacular English) on a radio show
(most black people today, speak a subdued version, and tone it down or
"switch" when talking to people outside of the community.) But, most
of us can still be identified as black by voice due to an accent.
There are some who hide it better than others. We surprise people when
we show up in person "Oh didn't know you were black!" But, for me at
least, totally hiding my race when I speak takes conscious effort. I
can do it, but, more and more, I don't want to do it. As long as I'm
speaking the grammar of standard English I don't think it should
matter. **
When in the company of family and friends I speak in a more relaxed
way. My grandmother speaks AAVE, no just in terms of accent, but in
terms of grammar, word choice, and meaning. She has never had cause to
"switch." Her voice, to me, is warm and wise. This is why I regard
AAVE is the language of wisdom. My parent's generation switches all
the time. When I was little they tried to keep me from hearing AAVE.
They spoke in stilted grammatically perfect standard English at all
times. It was not just standard English, but academic standard
English. They thought that speaking that way was important since
showed that they were educated and it gave them a slim chance of not
being painted with as many negative black stereotypes by white people.
They wanted me to do the same.
I remember my mother saying to one of my uncles "Don't speak in that
way in front of her. We want her to know proper English." -- but, my
mother and father would never say something like that to grandma. And,
from time to time, they would relax and speak to each other in AAVE
when they thought I was not listening... So, I learned some AAVE, not
enough to speak as beautifully as grandma, but enough that I sound
like a black person. And as I got older that became more important to
hold on to this since I realized that so many people thought that AAVE
was just "gangsta' talk" or "ghetto speaking" that it was inferior and
insufficient, that it was mentally stunting, and not worth
remembering. Like the man in that video they didn't want to hear our
black voices, no matter what we had to say.
Even the mild accent, carries a stigma in the minds of some people. I
can't fix this. But, I can hold on to what little I know of AAVE,
avoid bleaching my way of speaking and deliver my calculus lessons to
my students with hints of some of the same tones my grandmother used
to share her wisdom with me. AAVE can be a language of wisdom where
important ideas are conveyed. It's not the full vernacular that I
speak, but I will keep the accent-- it's as old as any other American
way of speaking it's just as useful, and I will prove it by using it.
I say "ax" instead of "ask" (unless I think about it.) And after
reading a news article about how the way that black people say that
word was being used for linguistic profiling I briefly became self-
conscious. I didn't want to sound "ignorant" --but, then it hit me why
is such a small thing a hallmark of ignorance when no one would say
the way white people from Boston say "park the car" is a hallmark of
ignorance? It's just a hallmark of being from Boston. But, "sounding
black" is the same thing as sounding ignorant to some people.
A colleague of mine sounds like the streets of Brooklyn when he opens
his mouth, he's an amazing mathematician, another colleague, totally,
talks like a valley girl, for sure. English is a beautiful and diverse
language and I love all these variations that you can find in our
country. And my Black-sounding voice can carry the language of
mathematics just as well as any other way of speaking. I only 'ax'
that you listen to what I'm saying, rather than have prejudices about
how I say it.
**Don't get confused about this post, I think it is fair that everyone
must learn to speak with certain grammar and within certain lose
constraints for the workplace. AAVE has variations in sentence
construction that I think are very lovely, but are best used in music,
poetry, writing and at home-- mostly, so we can all communicate
clearly to each other. That said, I don't want to see these variations
"educated" out of existence. I don't agree with what my parents were
trying to do. We still teach young people "that is wrong" -- rather
than "that's wrong for writing an essay or work."
william mulligan
Your question is not answered yet. In america are we selling out when we speak without a ghetto accent? Is it time to stop doing what we got to do the get the job? There are some fine examples of brothers on air (cnn) who maintained there natural delivery and still, they got the job! maybe things are changing. do we all need to sound alike? is it not enough to just understand what i am saying? it sure is worth a good session with the dept of education and mainstream media. Finally. Check out the delivery of our current President and First Lady. Its all good! Paul
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