private-revolution:

When people say you don’t sound black, what they mean is, “You don’t sound like the caricature of black people I have in my head” and “You don’t sound like you’re about to rob me, so I can tolerate you”. When people say you don’t sound black, what they’re saying is that…

Private-revolution,

By “sound black” do you mean the actual, audible sound of a black person’s voice? I can usually distinguish whether or not I’m hearing a black person speak, not as a result of speech patterns or vernacular, but from the actual sound of his/her voice. I’ve certainly met black people who have a white sounding voice—my wife being one of them, though I think some might disagree.

Regarding the strange idea that black people must have some particular pattern to their speech, I don’t see it as an actual act of racism or even discrimination (in most cases), as often as it is a simple act of assumption based on a stereotype built upon real-life experience and media.

That a unique “black” speech pattern does exist is an indisputable fact. An entire field of linguistics has cropped up around the phenomenon. It includes everything from the dialect known as Ebonics to regular street slang and the type of speech we might see in a movie having an urban setting. I placed the word “black” in quotes, because it’s mostly blacks who share this, though people of other hues, given that they are born and raised in the same areas, also share these very, very intriguing speech patterns.

I once listened to a linguist discuss this in some depth on an NPR program, and he mentioned a peeve of his regarding this stereotype. Surprisingly, his point of annoyance was that, given that most black Americans do live in urban areas and are socialized by popular media targeting young black people, and pre-existing speech patterns of their own environment, that most black folks actually do regularly use what many would consider “black” speaking patterns. In that light, he argued that it isn’t a stereotype, but a generalization.

I see nothing wrong with it. It’s just a symptom of having a living language; and, honestly, should be accepted and embraced. With the internet and the movement of traditionally black media becoming more and more popular among middle class, white teens over the last 15 years, some aspects of these “black” patterns are sneaking into general usage.

I don’t have a habit of trying to make people who assume-before-hearing that a particular black person will sound a certain way when he/she speaks. I understand that they’re simply victims of the perfectly human mistake of applying expectations based on past experience and media filtering to a situation without cause. It isn’t a practical thing to do, but it’s something that everyone is guilty of doing, whether it be assuming someone will speak a certain way, have certain beliefs, hold certain political ideologies, or behave a certain way.

To say that what is really meant when someone says you don’t sound black is, “You don’t sound like you’re about to rob me, so I can tolerate you,” is nothing more than you imposing your own caricature onto the person stating it. Don’t be so desperate to make everyone a closet racist of some sort. You fight assumptions with assumptions of your own, and, regardless of how potent and articulated it may appear, it logically falls flat on its face.

nonplussed,

My wife has been told many times that she doesn’t sound “black enough” by several other black people—mostly men, for some reason. We’ve both always found it peculiar and a little confusing.