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01/15/2009: "Race And Gender Determine How Politicians Speak"
Suleiman and O'Connell compared the language of male and female, and black and white politicians to determine whether ethnicity and gender play a role in the way they speak. They studied transcripts of interviews between Larry King on CNN TV and Madeleine Albright, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice. Specifically, they looked at how the politicians' speech was constructed: the number of syllables spoken, the use of interjections, interruptions, self-referent 'I', non-standard English such as 'gonna', y ' know, and laughter.
Their analysis shows that language reflects a social hierarchy that is not explicitly acknowledged. The "subordinate" roles of black race and female gender are revealed in speech patterns with "dominant" white males. And they are expressed differently in conversations with a white female, a black male and a black female. In effect, a degree of racism and sexism is reproduced by the very people who oppose these societal attitudes.
[ That whetted my appetite for some interesting revelations, but the report fails to expand on this. ]
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090113074427.htm