"sounding black"

[Dennis R. Preston]

Get in touch with John Baugh (at Stanford) who can give you a
complete report of his experimental as well as "call in" tests on
what he calls "linguistic profiling."

dInIs

>HELP!
>
>I am a student at the University of Washington, School of Law.  I am
>currently writing my analytic on a Kentucky case that admitted
>testimony of a police officer that the defendant "sounded black".
>The only man that was black in a house was arrested based on the
>police officers "description".  The police officer never saw the
>defendant until trial.  The defendant was convicted based on this
>"identification".  Outrageous, no!?!
>
>My contention is that whoever the police officer heard "sounded
>inner-city".  I am looking for studies that have run blind tests to
>identify the race of American dialect speakers and any associated
>articles.  I know that some blacks can "sound white" and some whites
>(specifically inner-city) do "sound black".  (Whatever that really
>means).
>
>Time is of the essence.  Any help you can give me would be greatly
>appreciated.
>
>Sincerely,
>
>Laurie Owens