A Human Failing
In the first experiment described in Purnell et al. (1999), Baugh targeted
five specific areas around the San Francisco Bay to see if the
race/ethnicity distributions in those areas would serve as a predictor of
linguistic profiling. The findings are laid out in Figure 17.2
Figure 17.2 Population breakdown in five San Francisco areas by race and ethnicity,
appointments to see apartments confirmed, by race and ethnicity
Note first that for each of the five areas, the population is broken down
by race/ethnicity. So, for example, East Palo Alto has approximately equal
numbers of Anglos, African Americans, and Chicanos/as, with a tendency
toward Anglos. Palo Alto has very small populations of Chicanos/as and
African Americans, and Woodside is even more exclusively Anglo.