5 ms·

Sounding black hurts your income; so does sounding southern

12 points by emmett 18y ago

utnick 18y ago
After browsing the paper... it seems his sample was 300 random kids 19-25 average age 22, the avg income in the study was 11$ an hour...and the difference in wage from sounding black to not sounding black was 8%... unless I am missing something this study sounds very meaningless due to the small sample size of the subgroups of the sample, and the pointlessness of comparing 22 year old wages.
- pchristensen 18y ago
  8% of $11 meaning that you make $0.88 less an hour? Wow, earth shattering.
  - hugh 18y ago
    When you're only making $10.12 an hour, it probably is.
  - qwph 18y ago
    Assuming 40 hours a week, an extra $0.88 an hour works out at $152.53 a month.
cperciva 18y ago
Accents are shaped by environment. In my case, people often tell me that I have a very clear British accent; but when I ask them to pin down what sounds so particularly British, I often flounder about and eventually answer along the lines of "well, you speak very precisely and in a very educated manner" -- which says something about our (or at least, Canadians') stereotypes about the British! In light of this, I wonder to what extent the judgements made about whether people "sounded black" or "sounded southern" were in fact merely that people were picking up voices which sounded uneducated -- and having subconscious racism translate that into a sense of blackness or southernness.
- byrneseyeview 18y ago
  I think "British accent" can be a placeholder for "Big words in complete sentences." When I lived in Texas, people asked if I was British -- I'm from the Midwest.
  - pchristensen 18y ago
    What I love is in any movie not set in America, people speak in an English accent because it's foreign. Doesn't matter if it's France or Outer Space, it sounds English.
  - fallentimes 18y ago
    Or "pronouncing words properly". I'm originally from the Midwest too and have received similar responses. Although I've never been accused of having a British accent - just "an accent" that can't be pinned down.
- pchristensen 18y ago
  Call centers handle that uneducated/prejudice problem since everyone reads the same script. The three big "accents" accents I've come across are southern, black, and Indian (other places with distinctive accents like Boston, Australia, etc don't have a lot of call centers). It's not hard to spot any of those 3, although anyone with those accents can learn to speak in "unaccented American".
  - hugh 18y ago
    "unaccented American" I think you mean "with a generic region-free American accent".
    - pchristensen 18y ago
      Yeah, I rewrote that comment a bunch of times trying to get a phrase that wasn't too long or too offensive. But yes, that's exactly what I was trying to say.
- 18y ago
deleted 18y ago
[deleted]
fallentimes 18y ago
For better or worse, I think sounding "anything that could be perceived as uneducated" hurts your income. This could include any type of accent (Boston, Southern, Indian), which leads to pronouncing words wrong (e.g Wata vs Water, Y'all vs You all).
- nonrecursive 18y ago
  My last name is "Higginbotham", I have a very slight Southern accent and say "y'all", and I look very Asian because I'm half Vietnamese. Most of the people I do work for I never see in person, but it's often amusing when I do meet them.
  - schtog 18y ago
    Higginbotham is an awesome name!
turnstile 18y ago
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-dHl0c9S98 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-dHl0c9S98

12 points by emmett 18y ago

After browsing the paper... it seems his sample was 300 random kids 19-25 average age 22, the avg income in the study was 11$ an hour...and the difference in wage from sounding black to not sounding black was 8%... unless I am missing something this study sounds very meaningless due to the small sample size of the subgroups of the sample, and the pointlessness of comparing 22 year old wages.

pchristensen 18y ago
8% of $11 meaning that you make $0.88 less an hour? Wow, earth shattering.
- hugh 18y ago
  When you're only making $10.12 an hour, it probably is.
- qwph 18y ago
  Assuming 40 hours a week, an extra $0.88 an hour works out at $152.53 a month.

cperciva 18y ago

Accents are shaped by environment. In my case, people often tell me that I have a very clear British accent; but when I ask them to pin down what sounds so particularly British, I often flounder about and eventually answer along the lines of "well, you speak very precisely and in a very educated manner" -- which says something about our (or at least, Canadians') stereotypes about the British! In light of this, I wonder to what extent the judgements made about whether people "sounded black" or "sounded southern" were in fact merely that people were picking up voices which sounded uneducated -- and having subconscious racism translate that into a sense of blackness or southernness.

byrneseyeview 18y ago
I think "British accent" can be a placeholder for "Big words in complete sentences." When I lived in Texas, people asked if I was British -- I'm from the Midwest.
- pchristensen 18y ago
  What I love is in any movie not set in America, people speak in an English accent because it's foreign. Doesn't matter if it's France or Outer Space, it sounds English.
- fallentimes 18y ago
  Or "pronouncing words properly". I'm originally from the Midwest too and have received similar responses. Although I've never been accused of having a British accent - just "an accent" that can't be pinned down.
pchristensen 18y ago
Call centers handle that uneducated/prejudice problem since everyone reads the same script. The three big "accents" accents I've come across are southern, black, and Indian (other places with distinctive accents like Boston, Australia, etc don't have a lot of call centers). It's not hard to spot any of those 3, although anyone with those accents can learn to speak in "unaccented American".
- hugh 18y ago
  "unaccented American" I think you mean "with a generic region-free American accent".
  - pchristensen 18y ago
    Yeah, I rewrote that comment a bunch of times trying to get a phrase that wasn't too long or too offensive. But yes, that's exactly what I was trying to say.
18y ago

deleted 18y ago

[deleted]

fallentimes 18y ago

For better or worse, I think sounding "anything that could be perceived as uneducated" hurts your income. This could include any type of accent (Boston, Southern, Indian), which leads to pronouncing words wrong (e.g Wata vs Water, Y'all vs You all).

nonrecursive 18y ago
My last name is "Higginbotham", I have a very slight Southern accent and say "y'all", and I look very Asian because I'm half Vietnamese. Most of the people I do work for I never see in person, but it's often amusing when I do meet them.
- schtog 18y ago
  Higginbotham is an awesome name!

turnstile 18y ago

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-dHl0c9S98 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-dHl0c9S98