Why are we able to tell we’re speaking with a black person on the phone?

[IsThatBrothaMouzone?]

Indians = can sound like white people if they are born/grow up in the West. You'll have no idea they are Indian unless you know their name

Latinos = if they are truly bilingual and speak English/Spanish with equal ability...they almost always have this faint accent where you can tell they are Latino. They don't sound Black but not quite white either

Blacks/whites = old school white men can sound more "black" but Gen X/Millenials and younger always sound "white."

I can speak eloquently but still sound Black. Straight up nerd...like Urkel with more muscles...but NO ONE ever said I was acting or speaking like a white person because I never sounded like a white person. Black people that say that are being disingenuous. Using proper grammar/pronunciation doesn't = talking white....it's literally mimicking speech patterns and intonation of white people.

White people don't "speak properly" they just talk from their nose instead of their throat and chest.

 

[Uchiha God]

This is nonsense. I've met Asians that sound black. They exist everywhere in the south.

Similarly, I have met black men and women (ironically also in the south) who sound indeciferably white. One had a white redneck accent while the other was raised by whites and she sounded like a valley girl (despite being from Kentucky)

While in London, I encountered pakistanis who sound exactly like black londoners .





Anybody of any ethnicity can sound like anybody else, based on whatever culture they choose to partake in. Especially if they do so early in life. Black people obviously partake in black culture and will sound black, but those black people who do not partake, will sound nothing like black people. Folks of nonblack ethnicities can sound like us too, but very few of them embed themselves in our culture , relative to how much they embed themselves into white ones.

I genuinely don’t know what you’re beasting about here. Nothing you said is mutually exclusive with what I said in my post - were you just eager to reply or is it just a poor reading comprehension thing?

Due to my profession I’m often in work calls with professionals from all over the globe, and I said that I’m able to accurately tell the ones that are black with an extremely low margin of error, regardless of where they’re from - and I asked if there’s some sort of scientific grounds for this. I never said that people from other ethnic groups can’t sound like X or Y.

You started your post by dismissing this as nonsense, yet it is a phenomenon many identify and corroborate. A quick glimpse at google will tell you this. Furthermore, there are even academic journals that broach the topic:

https://www.jstor.org/stable/20184481

The Race of Sound: Listening, Timbre, and Vocality in African American Music, by Nina Sun Eidsheim

One of my favorite ways of jump-starting classroom discussions about race and music is to show students “White People Can’t Dance,” a skit from the second season of Chappelle’s Show. In this seven-minute comedic sketch, Black comedian Dave Chappelle and his guest, white guitarist and pop star...

online.ucpress.edu

Nina Sun Eidsheim, The Race of Sound: Listening, Timbre and Vocalit...

The question of how to de-essentialize the concept of the voice may seem a theoretical exercise, but Nina Sun Eidsheim shows in her book The Race of Sound its important political stakes, offering b...

journals.openedition.org

articles from other platforms:



even Reddit anecdotes were people from other countries say the same:

https://www.reddit.com/r/linguistics/s/Kh4h8yr1cn

Again, this isn’t a “cultural” thing per se as it doesn’t pertain to speech patterns, colloquialisms and idioms. It’s simply a “sound” thing.

 

[Hijo de luna]

In my industry 99.999% of the people I talk on the phone to are white. On the rare occasion I speak to a breh or brehette

On the flip side, sometimes I get hit with the "thanks brother "

 

[Uchiha God]

You have to be African American to hear it, not just black. That’s why we know when someone is “ talking white” and please before c00ns come in with y’all’s bullshyt yall know exactly what I mean.

This isn’t true - and not what I’m referring to. In the post above I provided examples where people from other places say the same thing. Google search also says the same.

 

[Sauce and Footwork]

This is nonsense. I've met Asians that sound black. They exist everywhere in the south.

Similarly, I have met black men and women (ironically also in the south) who sound indeciferably white. One had a white redneck accent while the other was raised by whites and she sounded like a valley girl (despite being from Kentucky)

While in London, I encountered pakistanis who sound exactly like black londoners .





Anybody of any ethnicity can sound like anybody else, based on whatever culture they choose to partake in. Especially if they do so early in life. Black people obviously partake in black culture and will sound black, but those black people who do not partake, will sound nothing like black people. Folks of nonblack ethnicities can sound like us too, but very few of them embed themselves in our culture , relative to how much they embed themselves into white ones.

He never said any of the things you are talking about. It’s a fact that we can 9 times out of 10 tell of a black person is on the other side of the line. He never said all the time or that someone else can’t sound black

 

[Billie Jean]

Breh every time. Its like we say syllables a certain way and theres no fakeness. The confidence is different too

 

[gogogubari]

Different cadence. We don't pronounce English words the same. For example, the word “Nobody”
Black people: NO-bahdy
Non- black/assimilators: Nobuddie

Of course, accents matter.

To me, it almost sounds like singing when we speak, especially around family and friends when we can really run all our words together.

 

[Sauce and Footwork]

I genuinely don’t know what you’re beasting about here. Nothing you said is mutually exclusive with what I said in my post - were you just eager to reply or is it just a poor reading comprehension thing?

Due to my profession I’m often in work calls with professionals from all over the globe, and I said that I’m able to accurately tell the ones that are black with an extremely low margin of error, regardless of where they’re from - and I asked if there’s some sort of scientific grounds for this. I never said that people from other ethnic groups can’t sound like X or Y.

You started your post by dismissing this as nonsense, yet it is a phenomenon many identify and corroborate. A quick glimpse at google will tell you this. Furthermore, there are even academic journals that broach the topic:

https://www.jstor.org/stable/20184481

The Race of Sound: Listening, Timbre, and Vocality in African American Music, by Nina Sun Eidsheim

One of my favorite ways of jump-starting classroom discussions about race and music is to show students “White People Can’t Dance,” a skit from the second season of Chappelle’s Show. In this seven-minute comedic sketch, Black comedian Dave Chappelle and his guest, white guitarist and pop star...

online.ucpress.edu

Nina Sun Eidsheim, The Race of Sound: Listening, Timbre and Vocalit...

The question of how to de-essentialize the concept of the voice may seem a theoretical exercise, but Nina Sun Eidsheim shows in her book The Race of Sound its important political stakes, offering b...

journals.openedition.org

articles from other platforms:



even Reddit anecdotes were people from other countries say the same:

https://www.reddit.com/r/linguistics/s/Kh4h8yr1cn

Again, this isn’t a “cultural” thing per se as it doesn’t pertain to speech patterns, colloquialisms and idioms. It’s simply a “sound” thing.

You right breh. Most black people agree with this. That’s not a bad thing either. Pretty dope we that in tune with each other

 

[Family Lives Matter]

It's hilarious to argue against a race of people sounding a way by saying I know of another race that sounds like black people so your theory is incorrect

 

[Mr. Manhattan]

what kinda dumb ass question is this

 

[thelonious21]

Them southern whites sound black at times..

For the most part.. idk.

The tone?

I work on the phones and you can tell IMMEDIATELY I'm blek

 

[CrushedGroove]

When listening to me over the phone, most people assume I look like Dennis Haysbert. In reality I'm mixed, about 5'10, and look like Chris Brown when he had weight on him.

I can tell when I'm talking to someone Black or not. The only time I was ever thrown off was my first time hearing Paul Wall.

 

[TEH]

And we SUPER bad!!

This is nonsense. I've met Asians that sound black. They exist everywhere in the south.

Similarly, I have met black men and women (ironically also in the south) who sound indeciferably white. One had a white redneck accent while the other was raised by whites and she sounded like a valley girl (despite being from Kentucky)

While in London, I encountered pakistanis who sound exactly like black londoners .





Anybody of any ethnicity can sound like anybody else, based on whatever culture they choose to partake in. Especially if they do so early in life. Black people obviously partake in black culture and will sound black, but those black people who do not partake, will sound nothing like black people. Folks of nonblack ethnicities can sound like us too, but very few of them embed themselves in our culture , relative to how much they embed themselves into white ones.

Just say you can’t tell

It isn’t nonsense

 

[skylove4]

This isn’t true - and not what I’m referring to. In the post above I provided examples where people from other places say the same thing. Google search also says the same.

It is true

 

[BobbyWojak]

Similarly, I have met black men and women (ironically also in the south) who sound indeciferably white.

I feel like I can tell if someone is Black even if they have a 'white voice'.