Housing policy and linguistic profiling: An audit study of three American dialects

The 1968 Fair Housing Act protects consumers from discrimination based on membership in protected classes, such as their gender, race, and ability. There is a large gap, however, between what this policy seeks to protect and the lived experiences of certain individuals, since many listeners continue to link the production of non-Standard speech varieties with social stereotypes. In light of the findings of Purnell et al. (1999), who demonstrated that such judgments negatively affect housing access, this study was designed to determine if linguistic profiling remains observable in the contemporary housing market. Through an audit of ninety publicly listed rental properties in three demographically heterogeneous Knoxville, TN, neighborhoods, the study analyzed the effects of using three different American dialects: African American Language (AAL), Mainstream US English (MUSE), and Southern American (SA). A single, multidialectal speaker asked property managers questions about each unit and neighborhood. The outcomes were assessed in terms of (i) the caller’s success in gaining an appointment to view the property and (ii) the relation of dialect and neighborhood to the phenomenon of local prestige.