Danger Man
February 7th, 2006, 04:54 PM
Caller's voice may trigger racism, limit opportunities, researcher says
Discrimination by vocal profiling is hard case to win
By Eun Kyung Kim
KRT News Service - February 7, 2006
ST. LOUIS - Does black have a sound?
James Robinson says it does. He says his recent inquiry over the telephone about an apartment was rebuffed because of his voice. It made him sound like the black man that he is.
"People understood, under Jim Crow, that was wrong because it was overt," said national linguistic expert John Baugh.
Baugh said many characteristics can be deduced about a person based on a voice over the telephone: gender, relative age, perhaps even what part of the country he or she is from.
And most Americans will assume, correctly, a person's race. That alone isn't racist or discrimination, said Baugh, director of Washington University's African and African-American Studies Program.
It only becomes profiling when someone offering products or services denies them to a caller because of that assumption. It could be a restaurant host turning away a caller seeking a dinner reservation despite availability, or a cab dispatcher telling a caller that the company doesn't service the area when it actually does.
"Many people who engage in this type of discrimination do so with relative impunity because they're doing so in a context that's not face to face," said Baugh.
Last month, a national fair-housing watchdog group filed a complaint with the federal government about apartment complexes in five states that were alleged to have discriminated against black Hurricane Katrina evacuees seeking homes.
Voice profiling cases are tough to win because investigators need a preponderance of evidence to back up claims, said Donna Cavitte, executive director of the Missouri Commission on Human Rights.
Full story here (http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060207/NEWS01/602070338/1150)
Discrimination by vocal profiling is hard case to win
By Eun Kyung Kim
KRT News Service - February 7, 2006
ST. LOUIS - Does black have a sound?
James Robinson says it does. He says his recent inquiry over the telephone about an apartment was rebuffed because of his voice. It made him sound like the black man that he is.
"People understood, under Jim Crow, that was wrong because it was overt," said national linguistic expert John Baugh.
Baugh said many characteristics can be deduced about a person based on a voice over the telephone: gender, relative age, perhaps even what part of the country he or she is from.
And most Americans will assume, correctly, a person's race. That alone isn't racist or discrimination, said Baugh, director of Washington University's African and African-American Studies Program.
It only becomes profiling when someone offering products or services denies them to a caller because of that assumption. It could be a restaurant host turning away a caller seeking a dinner reservation despite availability, or a cab dispatcher telling a caller that the company doesn't service the area when it actually does.
"Many people who engage in this type of discrimination do so with relative impunity because they're doing so in a context that's not face to face," said Baugh.
Last month, a national fair-housing watchdog group filed a complaint with the federal government about apartment complexes in five states that were alleged to have discriminated against black Hurricane Katrina evacuees seeking homes.
Voice profiling cases are tough to win because investigators need a preponderance of evidence to back up claims, said Donna Cavitte, executive director of the Missouri Commission on Human Rights.
Full story here (http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060207/NEWS01/602070338/1150)