Fascinating new research by my University of Chicago colleague, Jeffrey Grogger, compares the wages of people who “sound black” when they talk to those who do not.
His main finding: blacks who “sound black” earn salaries that are 10 percent lower than blacks who do not “sound black,” even after controlling for measures of intelligence, experience in the work force, and other factors that influence how much people earn. (For what it is worth, whites who “sound black” earn 6 percent lower than other whites.)
![](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_madyzqmHA2o/SHSn8a4_zCI/AAAAAAAABXU/gyES7WeAuyo/s400/Eliza+Doolittle.jpg)
I have met an awful lot of incredibly smart people who "sound black" or "southern" or have some imagined speech pattern that is supposed to indicate a lower level of intelligence, and I've worked -- more's the pity -- with a lot of really dumb people who are smooth talkers and bear no trace of any accent whatsoever. (As a corollary, I've met a lot of people who are proud of their accent and resent any suggestion that speaking more "genteel," as Eliza Doolittle says, will help them get a better job.) I have a lot more respect for someone who cares more about what they're saying than how it sounds when they say it.
I suppose what this research proves is that we still harbor these irrational barriers that are based on little more than prejudice and the snobbery that comes with the human nature of looking down on people who aren't the same as we are. As Steve Levitt says, "Tru dat."
(Cross-posted.)
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