The denotation of the word “Race” is a group of people distinguished from one another by physical characteristics, such as hair type, eye color, and skin color. However, human beings are collectively more than just faces. The author of “Hearing Skin Color: The connections between Language and Race,” Nic Subtirelu discusses that people should be assigned to races through language and not physical characteristics. For example, Subtirelu puts forth an experiment that requires listeners to identify the speaker’s race based on their accents, “ Participants were exposed to only the word “hello” and asked to decide what the speaker’s race was. Participants were surprisingly accurate at judging the race of the speaker based only on the word “hello” (lines 20-24 ). In the study, the listeners were particularly correct at judging the race of the speaker of the same color without being shown their appearances. It suggests that listening to words is more precise to appointing people to race. Whereas appearances, blacks would’ve been placed under one category, instead of searching in depth to their origin.
Subtirelu presented another example of how the idea is placed in cartoon characters as well. For instance, the 1994 Lion King Film categorized on the basis of language, “Fairly clear lines are drawn using language between the positive lion characters (for example, Simba and Nala) and the villains (Scar and the hyenas). In particular, the positive characters use ‘standard’ US English (even in cases where they are voiced by African Americans like James Earl Jones)” (Lines 70-73). All the characters are voiced by African Americans, however, the positive characters use standard English. In contrast, the negative characters voices are more diverse. This shows that appearances can be deceiving, a person can look African American but doesn’t have to be. To further emphasize, stereotyping a race on color can take away the existing diversity in the group. Organizing people through language is more specific and accurate, unlike organizing by appearances.
A researcher needs to be aware that the language someone speaks is not determined by genetics. Critics need to be mindful racial profiling isn’t preferences for a particular language but preferences for a particular racial category. As well, people need to be conscious of how the voices are used because it can lead to racial stereotyping. In The Lion King film, hearing voices associated with certain characters can trigger young children's mindset to believe a voice fits a character. In a child’s mind, a harsh grumpy voice would indicate an evil character. Therefore, it’s important to be cautious of carrying out such an experiment. In all, language (not appearances) should be a factor in determining which race category someone belongs to.
https://linguisticpulse.com/2013/09/08/hearing-skin-color-the-connections-between-language-and-race/
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