STL To Do: Classical concert in the Cathedral Basilica

Don’t miss this beautiful classical concert in the Cathedral Basilica, featuring St. Louis’ world-renowned orchestra and choir. With an 8-second sound delay in the hall, the music of Bruckner, Vaughan Williams and Messiaen literally will be bouncing off the walls, immersing you in sound.

Linguistic profiling: The sound of your voice may determine if you get that apartment or not

Many Americans can guess a caller’s ethnic background from their first hello on the telephone. Can the sound of your voice be used against you?However, the inventor of the term “linguistic profiling” has found that when a voice sounds African-American or Mexican-American, racial discrimination may follow. In studying this phenomenon through hundreds of test phone calls, John Baugh, Ph.D., the Margaret Bush Wilson Professor and director of African and African American Studies in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has found that many people made racist, snap judgments about callers with diverse dialects. Some potential employers, real estate agents, loan officers and service providers did it repeatedly, he says. Long before they could evaluate callers’ abilities, accomplishments, credit rating, work ethic or good works, they blocked callers based solely on linguistics.

Public forum on ‘Intolerance and Prejudice’ brings leading scholars to Washington University, April 2

What are the origins of intolerance and prejudice? How are intolerance and prejudice similar, and how are they different? Are there certain people who are more intolerant or more prejudiced than others? How can the social problem of intolerance and prejudice be solved? These are just a few of the questions to be addressed as a panel of internationally recognized scholars assembles at Washington University in St. Louis on April 2 for a an interdisciplinary forum on issues of “Intolerance and Prejudice.”