Can you tell someone's race by their voice?

[julez]

I went to a meeting in place of my boss today because she's sick. She called in to tell me who I'm meeting so that I knew who to look for at the coffee shop. She's never met this woman, but (I thought) she must have seen a pic or was told by the woman herself who to look for.

Boss told me to look for a black woman wearing a red top.

I walk into the coffee shop and there's a woman there in a red top, but she's white. I snag a table and wait and wait and wait. Finally, after 15 minutes, white woman in a red top approaches me and she's the woman I'm supposed to meet.

When I got back to work, I called my boss and told her that Client is not black, but white, and what made her tell me that Client was black?

"Oh, when I've been talking to her on the phone for months - and she sounded black! I'm sorry".

W. T. F. :-|

[flex]

Sometimes I can.

[broc]

This happens to my BIL a lot. He's adopted from South Korea, and the ILs gave him a 'white' name, so when an Asian dude turns up people sometimes double take.

[LLL]

sometimes, yes.

[EmilieMadison]

Sometimes, yes.

[Deleted]

Yeah. Not always, but sometimes.

[kellbell191]

Sometimes. Definitely not always.

[bleubook]

so...did she "sound black" in person?
I'm just curious what your boss meant by his description.
I mean if she had a Jamaican accent I might think she was black...

[hisno1girl]

I can, sometimes.

I've thrown people for a loop after speaking with them on the phone. They come in and see me and I know they were expecting someone white.

Lots of people say I sound white on the phone. Whatever that means.

[alleycat]

she quoted Confucius!

[SKP82]

I had a coworker who is black and she said people were always surprised to find that out based on how she sounded on the phone (she sounded like she was white).

[Deleted]

If people can look to be a certain race, they can sound to be a certain race. The quality of a voice can be just as physiological as skin color or facial features. It was dumb for her to count on her interpretation though.

[eightangryreindeer]

Aug 13, 2012 10:52:15 GMT -5 @tambcat said:

Donna Chang.

lol

[julez]

She didn't have an accent at all. Well, to be fair, she did say, "a boat" instead of "about". So a little MN twang in there.

I will admit that when I listen to a certain radio station I automatically picture some of the deejays as black men/women based on their voices.

I just don't know that I would own up to the voice/race correlation in a work setting - and certainly not with the certainty that my boss did. It just seemed... not right, I guess, and now that you're all saying that you can sometimes tell, it's making me think that I'm probably being pearl-clutchy for being kind of aghast.

[hubes]

I'm 10000% certain that I sound white. Other than that...

[Deleted]

Aug 13, 2012 10:52:15 GMT -5 @tambcat said:

Donna Chang.

FTW.

I can't stop laughing at the original story here.

Just great.

If someone has a strong accent -- like an ASIAN accent -- yeah, I can guess that the person is Asian. LOL.

[Deleted]

Aug 13, 2012 10:59:37 GMT -5 @stellasmom said:

If people can look to be a certain race, they can sound to be a certain race. The quality of a voice can be just as physiological as skin color or facial features. It was dumb for her to count on her interpretation though.

So wait -- when you talk to a black British person, can you tell they're black??

[sonrisa]

I will have a picture of someone in my head from a voice and am sometimes surprised or validated by appearance, but it isn't strong enough that I'd tell someone else. I feel like gender is really the only thing you can really judge from voice, then age, then perhaps a bit about their heritage, but that has much weaker correlation. (Leaving aside regional accents or diction choices).

[jennysmitten]

Sometimes.

I have been told I sound male. To be fair I was very sick at the time and already have a low voice.