When Voice Recognition Leads to Bias

Feb. 6 -- When Rosa Rice, an African-American in her 20s, placed a call to inquire about a room for her nephew to rent in Belleville, Ill., she says she was met with hostility.

Since the owner had gone through the trouble to advertise the room in the local newspaper, thought Rice, why would she talk to a prospective renter with a bad attitude and rush her off the phone?

The answer, Rice believes, was simple. "I'm quite sure she picked up that I was black from my voice," she said.

After Rice complained to the St. Louis Equal Housing Opportunity Council, the nonprofit group had black and white anonymous callers inquire about the room by calling the same number that day. According to the housing group, the only people who were invited to look at the room were white.

"The African-American testers were all told nothing was available," said Jamie McFarland, who followed up on Rice's complaint.

Across the country in San Leandro, Calif., James Johnson, a 44-year-old African-American, repeatedly called a number listed on a "For Rent" sign. No one called him back. When the sign was still up months later, he asked a friend — who he believes sounds white — to call and leave a message. Johnson's friend got a call back right away.

Like Rice, Johnson complained to a fair housing agency, which then had five callers, three of whom were white and two who were black, respond to the listing. Only the whites had their calls returned.

Research shows that most Americans can and do infer race based on someone's speech. But it becomes linguistic profiling — which is illegal — when someone is denied a job or apartment, for example, based on that judgment.

Guessing Race, Acting on It

"I can tell you that every time someone calls for an apartment," said Shanna Smith, executive director of the National Fair Housing Alliance, "the person they're talking to is either consciously or unconsciously guessing what their race or national origin is."

Smith clarified that the problem is not in guessing race based on distinctions in people's voices, pronunciation or grammar. "It doesn't mean we're bigots because we do it," said Smith. "It becomes a violation of the Fair Housing Act based on what you do with that information that you've gathered."