Sonic double consciousness: public radio voices of color

This article draws on 75 interviews with people of color employed in the public radio industry to analyze how cultural workers of color in white racialized organizations may develop a “sonic double consciousness”: an awareness of the racialized evaluation of voice in white institutional space. Cultural workers of color form or further develop this awareness when producing and voicing stories, due in part to the interactions with the white world that this labor entails. Employees consider existing voice models in the network, audience feedback, and interactions with editors when they reflect on what the dominant voice of the network is. Some cultural workers who do not fit the modal public radio voice react by shifting their performance; others reject directives to conform to a modal voice. Workers of color whose voices match the network’s sonic aesthetic at times question their own relationship to whiteness and reflect on their relative privilege within the organization when compared with colleagues whose voices deviate from a typical public radio sound. In reflecting on these experiences, my interviewees exhibited collective awareness of the sonic color line—a “sonic double consciousness”—through their critiques of the racialized evaluation of voice in the public radio industry.