"Most Whites find it easy to ignore residential segregation. I experienced a good example of this inattention when I told a lunch-table’s worth of White colleagues at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences about the linguist John Baugh’s project on “linguistic profiling” (Baugh 2003). Baugh has developed a matched-guise test in which a single speaker uses a “White professional,” a “Latino,” or a “Black” voice in making telephone inquiries about the availability of advertised rentals in the San Francisco Bay area. The “White professional” voice is much more likely to yield an invitation to make an appointment to look at the property, while the other accents are more likely to result in a response that the rental is no longer available. My colleagues, all sophisticated scholars, were genuinely surprised at this result; several mentioned that they had thought that this sort of discrimination had long since disappeared."
—
Jane H. Hill, The Everyday Language of White Racism (via wretchedoftheearth)
*****
This is like when me and my white soon-to-be husband were looking for places. I’d call up and they’d say, “Come on down! Get an application!”. Because I don’t “sound” black.
Then I’d walk in 2 minutes later and they’d be all, “Oh. Sorry, we just rented it.”
Then I’d send him in and he’d get an application.
The best part? Walking back in while he was completing the application. “Oh, they gave you an application? But they told me it was just rented. ODD. THAT. I’m going to report them so let’s just skip this place, m’kay?” The looks on their faces and the pathetic apologies were just too much fun.
Used to deal with the same thing with road trips. Hotels would tell me that there were no vacancies, but my white roommate would go in and get us a room, usually cheaper than advertised.
*****
(via faboomama)
I do similar stuff at restauants and other places of business with my white bf. At least it makes it easier to know where not to go!
(via 23andchildfree)
Reblogging again for the commentary
(via darkjez)
But we’re just supposed to *trust* and think everything is an *isolated* incident.
(via hamburgerjack)
Not so sophisticated scholars, were they? I mean this really, really shouldn’t be all that surprising.
(via stfunithingas)
It shouldn’t be surprising, but I guarantee that most white people find it unbelievable
(via wretchedoftheearth)
I’m going to reblog this every time I see it on my dash. My parents pointed out how this phenomenon worked when we were moving to PA (they’d get steered to crummier neighborhoods and have to insist on being shown others). Housing discrimination is still pretty widespread and the gatekeepers? Tend to either intentionally or due to unchecked bias reinforce the status quo.
(via invisiblelad)
It always floors me the things people are surprised at. Meanwhile, every person of color is sitting here like, “Oh. Must be another day that ends in Y, and in other news, water is wet.” Like, really, people are surprised by this, and whenever they show surprise at learning stuff that we go through, I have to poker face, lest I end up giving them the most disbelieving side eye in history because how do you NOT know this? But then, you know. Some people have the privilege of being able to be unaware it because it’s not a problem they have to deal with. :/ (via lori-jaye)
Reblogged again for commentary
(via covenesque)
Sounds like my friends when they were looking for a place in Midtown memphis(mostly white liberal middle class area)… they said people would invite them to see the places and then would either suddenly become unavailable or they would just ignore their phone calls.. but the Obama’s said “no more excuses.. work harder”…
(via jcoleknowsbest)
#i said this to my professor once in anthro #that black people are less likely to get a loan/mortgage and therefore have to rent #in poor neighborhoods for the rest of their lives #and that can affect whether or not their kids are able to go to college/realize their dreams #and he was like #’oh you can’t just blame society’ #and i just thought oh but yes i fucking can
(via jennyquantums)
Also recall that the primary cause of the great recession was sub-prime lending, and minorities were specifically targeted to fall victim to explicitly predatory lending practices. Screw the whole world economy, screw minorities twice.
(via wired-infornography)
when I was a dumb kid I honestly thought affirmative action was a bad thing, argued against it in school debates and everything, thought giving non-white people an advantage in college apps or job hunting would just reinforce stereotypes, that they were less intelligent or competent if they got in at higher rates but then dropped out more frequently, because the entry requirement was lower, I could not have been more wrong, I mean yeah in an ideal world it would be gone because it wasn’t needed anymore, but having this one thing slanted in favor of racial minorities is absolutely fucking vital, and doesn’t come anywhere near making up for the bias already built into the system.
(via takashi0)
(via lupinatic)
