Speaking Black Dialect in Courtrooms Can Have Striking Consequences

[Eugene]

Source: New York Times

Speaking Black Dialect in Courtrooms Can Have Striking Consequences

By John Eligon
Jan. 25, 2019

“He don’t be in that neighborhood.”

When one court reporter in Philadelphia transcribed that phrase, it turned into this: “We going to be in this neighborhood.” In other words, the opposite of what the phrase actually meant — that someone is not usually in a neighborhood.

That was just one transcription error captured in a soon-to-be published study that found court reporters in Philadelphia regularly made errors in transcribing sentences that were spoken in a dialect that linguists term African-American English.

Researchers played audio recordings of a series of sentences spoken in African-American English and asked 27 stenographers who work in courthouses in Philadelphia to transcribe them. On average, the reporters made errors in two out of every five sentences, according to the study.

The findings could have far-reaching consequences, as errors or misinterpretations in courtroom transcripts can influence the official court record in ways that are harmful to defendants, researchers and lawyers said.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/25/us/black-dialect-courtrooms.html

[hlthe2b]

1. wow... that can't surprise anyone, but heavens, the implications...

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. They need to get transcribers who have lived in the South.

The opposite is also true...we had an AA transcriber who typed up our client chart notes from tape recordings we made, at the Mobile Al. where I worked.

One note described a patient as having "gang green" in his leg.

which, if you think about it, is actually kind of accurate.

[hlthe2b]

3. ha.. yeah... Do you ever watch shows with closed captioning?

OMG, the medical shows end up with hilarious captions...

[Kind of Blue]

4. Wow, this was eye-opening.

I thought that court reporting is verbatim transcription. I understand errors such as transcribing "been" as "Ben", but paraphrasing what someone said in court is not only unprofessional but insane. I thought maybe reporters are allowed to do this but found that there is a code of ethics for them that goes, "The National Court Reporters Association (NCRA) has assembled a Code of Professional Ethics by which court reporters who belong to the association are expected to abide. The very first section of the code states, The Court Reporter is the official reporter/officer creating the verbatim record of a proceeding. In making the official record, a Member should accept only those assignments when the Member’s level of competence will result in the preparation of an accurate transcript. The Member should remove him or herself from an assignment when the Member believes the Member’s abilities are inadequate, recommending or assigning another reporter only if that reporter has the qualifications required for such assignment.” From a good article at https://skreporting.com/is-your-court-reporter-providing-a-verbatim-transcript/

The NYT link to the original article is also very good. It answered my question as how it's possible for AA reporters to make roughly the same amount of errors. First, they're only 26% of the 27 reporters. Second, "Philadelphia court protocols instruct transcriptionists to ask for clarity if they have doubts about what they've heard, but many court reporters told researchers they felt discouraged from doing so."

Thanks for posting!

[Kind of Blue]

5. I'm looking forward to this:Talking Black in America

https://www.talkingblackinamerica.org

especially seeing Rep. Waters in this clip from the '90s.