Use of Black English and Racial Discrimination in Urban Housing Markets

Abstract

The authors argue that racial discrimination in housing markets need not involve personal contact between agents and renters. Research indicates that Americans can infer race from speech patterns alone, thus offering rental agents an opportunity to discriminate over the phone. To test this hypothesis, the authors designed an audit study to compare male and female speakers of White Middle-Class English, Black Accented English, and Black English Vernacular. The study was conducted during the spring of 1999 in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. The authors found significant racial discrimination that was often exacerbated by class and gender. Poor black women, in particular, experienced the greatest discrimination.