# USAmericans: can you reliably determine a person's "race" over the telephone? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 23, 2014, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usamericans-can-you-reliably-determine-a-persons-race-over-the-telephone/689111 "2014-05-23T17:30:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![you\_with\_the\_face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ecccb3/32.png) [@you\_with\_the\_face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/you_with_the_face)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2014, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usamericans-can-you-reliably-determine-a-persons-race-over-the-telephone/689111/61 "2014-05-27T12:39:30Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Well, it wasn’t clear how many races you were supposed to be choosing from, so that’s not a very good test. I haven’t taken the test you’re talking about, but this argument doesn’t make sense to me. It’s not as though in the real world someone describes your set of choices upfront. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2014, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usamericans-can-you-reliably-determine-a-persons-race-over-the-telephone/689111/62 "2014-05-27T13:09:45Z")
> [@you\_with\_the\_face](#): > > I haven’t taken the test you’re talking about, but this argument doesn’t make sense to me. It’s not as though in the real world someone describes your set of choices upfront. Well, there’s a guy with an Indian accent in that link. If you type in “white”, you are told that you’re incorrect. If you type in “Indian” you are told you are correct. “Indian” is not a race. Nor is “Hispanic”. Nor is “Middle Eastern”. Those are all ethnicities, and you need to use them to get the answers right on the test. They might as well have had someone speaking English with a French accent. Was I supposed to say the person was French or white? ---
**Author:** ![you\_with\_the\_face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ecccb3/32.png) [@you\_with\_the\_face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/you_with_the_face)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2014, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usamericans-can-you-reliably-determine-a-persons-race-over-the-telephone/689111/63 "2014-05-27T13:22:50Z")
Okay, so what you’re saying is the test conflates national origin/ethnicity with race. That sounds like a valid complaint to me. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2014, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usamericans-can-you-reliably-determine-a-persons-race-over-the-telephone/689111/64 "2014-05-27T13:30:43Z")
> [@you\_with\_the\_face](#): > > Okay, so what you’re saying is the test conflates national origin/ethnicity with race. That sounds like a valid complaint to me. Actually, re-checking the site it does say “race or ethnicity”. I blame **monstro** for false advertising. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2014, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usamericans-can-you-reliably-determine-a-persons-race-over-the-telephone/689111/65 "2014-05-27T13:54:49Z")
Typically, yes, I can tell the ethnicity of a person over the phone, especially if they are from the Southern US. I got 10 out of 10 on **Monstro** ’s test, although number 8 was a bit ambiguous for me and I had to listen to it three times before becoming confident with my choice. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2014, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usamericans-can-you-reliably-determine-a-persons-race-over-the-telephone/689111/66 "2014-05-27T14:14:10Z")
The idea that everyone in a certain ethnic group has a detectible accent is ludicrous. Some of us are better at identifying accents, but none of us can reliably predict the ethnicity of a random person on the phone. There are too many people in the US who are visually detectible to part of an ethnic group, but who have no identifiable ethnic accent. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2014, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usamericans-can-you-reliably-determine-a-persons-race-over-the-telephone/689111/67 "2014-05-27T15:12:14Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > The idea that everyone in a certain ethnic group has a detectible accent is ludicrous. Some of us are better at identifying accents, but none of us can reliably predict the ethnicity of a random person on the phone. There are too many people in the US who are visually detectible to part of an ethnic group, but who have no identifiable ethnic accent. I think you’re strawmanning here. No one is saying that everyone in an ethnic group sounds the same. But are there identifiable speech/voice features that are associated with ethnic groups? Sure. I don’t know why this is so damn controversial. Ethnic groups (of which “African American” is one) are essentially cultural groups. Why wouldn’t people of a certain culture have identifiable speech patterns? ---
**Author:** ![Brynda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Brynda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynda)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2014, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usamericans-can-you-reliably-determine-a-persons-race-over-the-telephone/689111/68 "2014-05-28T03:38:08Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > May I ask what work you’re doing that your clients volunteer (or you inquire about) their sexual orientation? I’m a therapist, so it’s usually relevant. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![lavenderviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/cdc98d/32.png) [@lavenderviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lavenderviolet)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2014, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usamericans-can-you-reliably-determine-a-persons-race-over-the-telephone/689111/69 "2014-05-29T07:25:46Z")
> [@drewtwo99](#): > > Black and white were really easy for me to identify. I screwed up on all the others. It would have been better if they would have just given us a list to choose from for each of the numbers, I think. I didn’t even know what options I was allowed to type for proper answers (since when is Indian a race?) Yes, I got the Indian one incorrect because I put “Asian” down thinking that’s what they wanted us to call Indian people. 🙂 This test confirmed my perception that I can usually tell. At least in America, there are definitely distinct differences between the way that most black people and most white people speak. It is definitely not 100% true - I know some white people who speak the way black people usually do, and vice versa. I would expect a black person who was adopted by white parents would “sound white”, for example. It’s not like it is an inborn difference - it’s learned. However, I am really surprised that an American would NOT notice there is a cultural/linguistic difference in how black and white people here speak. Noticing there are differences between races doesn’t make you a racist, folks. It’s okay to admit that you notice. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usamericans-can-you-reliably-determine-a-persons-race-over-the-telephone/689111.md?page=3)