The Economist

70 Books and arts The EconomistAugust 4th 2018

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B

Y COINCIDENCE two big new films

feature race voice and the telephone

in America. In Spike Lee’s “BlacKkKlans-

man” based on a true story a black po-

liceman successfully putting on his whit-

est-sounding voice convinces a Ku Klux

Klansman he is a supporter. (When the

time comes to meet the group in person

he enlists a white partner.) And in Boots

Riley’s “Sorry to Bother You” the down-

on-his-luck young black protagonist Cas-

sius Green (Lakeith Stanfield) takes a job

in telemarketing. A wise old black col-

league (played by Danny Glover) tells

him: “You wanna make some money

here? Use your white voice.” And as if flip-

ping a switch Mr Glover’s character dem-

onstrates it. Cassius learns his own white

voice (played by David Cross a white co-

median) and soon he is on a rocket-ride

to success.

“Sorry to Bother You” is an absurd

magical-realist romp. The truth of race

and voice in America is not. The second

half of the film is more about free-for-all

capitalism than it is about race. But the

thread that links them is that sounding

black is costly.

Americans know instinctively that

“Cassius Green” is more likely to be black

than white and many studies have

shown that applicants with typically

black names get fewer responses from po-

tential employers than otherwise identi-

cal ones with white names. But voices of-

fer clues to race too through timbre and

accent. In 1999 John Baugh a black profes-

sor at Washington University in St Louis

who grew up in Philadelphia and Los An-

geles and has several accents at his com-

mand rang round estate agents and

found that they were less likely to offer

him properties in white or Hispanic

neighbourhoods when he used his black

voice. When he used his white voice he

was mostly offered white neighbourhoods

and when he used his Hispanic voice he

was mostly offered Hispanic ones.

Two decades on Kelly Wright a gradu-

ate student at the University of Michigan

carried out a similar study. Ms Wright is the

daughter of a German mother and an Afri-

can-American-Cherokee father was raised

in Knoxville Tennessee and has a native

command of black standard American

and southern white accents. She made re-

cordings of all three accents and had a

group of 340 subjects rate the person they

heard. Speaking in her black accent she

was judged to be more “difficult” and

“poor” than when she used the other two.

The white accent was considered the most

“pleasant” “educated” “attractive” “confi-

dent” “trustworthy” and “rich”. The

southern accent scored between the two

on most of the rankings. Sounding south-

ern and white costs you a bit; sounding

black costs a lot.

Ms Wright is now updating Mr

Baugh’s study calling property managers

to find out whether they respond with of-

fers enticing information or special deals.

Overt discrimination—“you can’t see the

place”—remains rare she says; subtle

steering towards this or that kind of home

is commoner.

The British discriminate on the basis

of class and region more than race. British

newspapers often report on studies of

which accents sound the most pleasant or

intelligent (Received Pronounciation

south-eastern and posh without being

grand) which the most annoying or ill-

educated (Birmingham Liverpool and

Manchester). Ambitious people from out-

side the south-east are told to “lose their

accents” (speakRP in other words) if they

want to do well.

The consequences of voice discrimi-

nation are profound. Consider those stud-

ies of estate agents. A house in a good area

is a ticket to a good school which allows

your children to mix with the right sort of

people and thus acquire the right accent

so that the virtuous cycle continues. All of

this of course works the other way

around too.

Society can approach this problem in

two ways. One is to expect everyone to

learn the most mainstream least notice-

able accent. Black Americans who sound

like Barack Obama can expect to be con-

descendingly called “articulate” but at

least they will face less discrimination.

Not everyone however has a white par-

ent from whom to learn that accent and

adults can’t easily change the way they

speak. An alternative is for people to stop

judging each other on the basis of their

voices. People can be inarticulate in stan-

dard accents or eloquent in looked-

down-upon minority ones. Accent preju-

dice isn’t just wrong; it’s irrational.

Johnson The cost of an accent

Sounding black has a profound impact on Americans’ lives

Ms Baker draws from a rich stock of un-

published memoirs journals police re-

ports and other documents deploying

fresh material with a light touch. A promi-

nent character is John Auden brother of

poet W.H. Auden a geologist and lonely ju-

nior colonial official in Calcutta who is dis-

enchanted with his duties. He finds so-

lace—and relief from morale-sapping

heat—in trips to the Himalayas. Auden ob-

serves soon after arriving in India that

“most of what he has been told...is useless

or absurd like the lines and props for a

play whose run is long over.”

Auden and Michael Spender a map-

maker mountaineer and younger brother

of Stephen Spender a writer are among

the “lastEnglishmen” of the book’s title. So

too arguably are the Bengalis who rage

against colonial rule during debates at liter-

ary salons and yet feel affinity to some

parts of Britain treasuring its universities

writers and freedoms. They are torn over

the degree to which they should oppose

Britain. At one extreme was Subhas Chan-

dra Bose a charismatic Bengali who fled to

Nazi Germany and fought beside Japanese

forces who invaded India. But many Indi-

ans like Nehru kept some affection for

Britain despite itsnoxious imperial project.

By focusing on less exalted characters

often of a literary bent Ms Baker produces

a highly readable and intimate view of an

unusual time and place. At times her fluent

writing beguiles: it is easy to forget this is

non-fiction and wonder how a novelist

might have invented a more satisfying plot

for her well-sketched characters. Nancy

Spender wife of Michael and a noted

painter would have made a glamorous

foundation for a triangular love story for

instance. Yet as narrative history this is skil-

ful work showing ordinary individuals as

they cope—or buckle—while great geopolit-

ical events twist and shape their lives. 7