Source: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
Heard but not Seen
John Baugh is a sociolinguist and a professor of linguistics whose primary
research areas have to do with the social stratification of English (with a
focus on African American Vernacular English) and with discriminatory
practices toward individuals and groups who do not command the
dominant linguistic norms of their communities.
Some years ago Baugh began looking for an apartment for himself and
his family in the vicinity of Stanford University, calling telephone
numbers listed on real estate advertisements, in the usual way of things.
Baugh is African American; he grew up in urban Los Angeles and
Philadelphia with parents who were both university professors, and thus
grew up comfortable in a variety of language communities. In his youth
and adolescence Baugh acquired three varieties of English: he is a native
speaker of a formal, academic English, of AAVE, and he also has a
command of Chicano English.
In contacting landlords about advertised rental properties by phone,
Baugh used more formal, academic English and he was told that yes, he
could come see the apartment. Only to be turned away with excuses once
the landlord saw him in person.
Baugh was the same person on the phone and off, but the perception of
him had shifted from a well-spoken, educated Anglo to a well-spoken,
educated African American. With that shift, the apartment he wanted to
see was no longer available.
Here is direct evidence that the language subordination model is built
on deception. The ideology says: sound like us and you’ll be one of us, no