Housing

Purnell, T., Idsardi, W., & Baugh, J. (1999). Perceptual and phonetic experiments on American English dialect identification. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 18(1), 10-30.

A series of four studies investigated the relationship between the use of acoustic-phonetic features associated with particular social dialects and housing accessibility. In particular, the article sought to determine whether and to what extent speakers of ‘African American Vernacular English’ and ‘Chicano English’ experience discrimination in seeking housing opportunities relative to speakers of ‘Standard American English’. In the first study, a single tri-dialectal speaker called landlords in five regions of the Bay Area in California to inquire about apartment rental advertisements in local newspapers. The use of linguistic features associated with African American and Chicano English resulted in fewer rental appointments. Three subsequent lab-based experiments showed that listeners rapidly assign racial and ethnic identities to speakers on the basis of subtle acoustic-phonetic cues. These results suggest that landlords may discriminate against African American and Chicano renters on the basis of auditory information alone.

 

Massey, D. S., & Lundy, G. (2001). Use of Black English and racial discrimination in urban housing markets: New methods and findings. Urban Affairs Review, 36(4), 452-469.

This study examined the intersecting effects of socioeconomic status, racial identity, and gender identity on the relation between dialect and housing discrimination. Three dialects were used to index race and socioeconomic status: ‘Black English Vernacular’ (associated with Black speakers with a lower socioeconomic status), ‘Black Accented English’ (associated with middle-class black speakers), and ‘White Middle-Class English’ (associated with middle-class White speakers). Speakers of these dialects used a script to call realtors and rental agents in the Philadelphia area to inquire about apartment rentals. Speakers who used Black English Vernacular and speakers identified as female had to make more calls to reach an agent and were informed of availability less often than White Middle-Class English speakers, Middle-Class speakers overall, and speakers identified as male.  Access was also substantially lower for Black English Vernacular speakers identified as female relative to White Middle-Class English speakers identified as men. Sociolinguistic factors further interacted in credit evaluation requests: White Middle-Class English speakers identified as male were asked about their credit history less often and were charged lower fees for credit evaluations than other renters, while Black English Vernacular speakers identified as female were asked most often and charged the highest fees. Overall, this study provides evidence for telephone-based discrimination based on acoustic-phonetic cues associated with socioeconomic status, racial identity, and gender identity.

 

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