Unobtrusive Attitudes

In Vernā Myers’ TED Talk “How to overcome our biases? Walk boldly towards them,” originally presented at TEDxBeaconStreet, diversity advocate Myers argues that peoples’ subconscious attitudes are affecting the prospering of black people in society. She also proposes three ideas on how to overcome our biases, which will open a world of possibilities where everyone no matters his or her ethnicity or race has equal opportunities to succeed in this constantly changing environment. According to Myers, the first step to overcome our prejudices is to acknowledge the biases that subconsciously influence our attitudes towards black people. According to Myers, “our default is white,” this demonstrates that people are more likely to trust white people

One common theme throughout the reading is that “…systemic racist attitudes and negative depictions of people of colour by whites persist” (Feagin & Elias, 2013, p. 937). The historical trajectory of research methods are deeply rooted with systemic forms of racism, which is reflected in literature that was published centuries ago and can still be found in current literature today. Some of the articles that were assigned reference opinions and other forms of literature that state that white Americans believe that race and racism are a thing of the past, while others continue

The idea of racism has evolved and has become less prevalent throughout the last century. Schools and public areas are unsegregated, voting rights, racial slurs being considered as unacceptable behavior etc. American sociologist and race theorist, Howard Winant states that’s “The ensuing approaches increased recognition of racial injustice and inequality, but did not overcome the discriminatory processes” (Winant,2000)Although the United states has come a long way to try to end racism, one cannot ignore the fact that it still exists. It is something that may seem invisible in society, but everybody knows that it still thrives and that it’s racial attitudes affect the way our society functions. One of these invisible forms of

The intended audience for this article is people of Caucasian descent. “Yes, we all have unconscious biases, but white people 's biases support a racist system”(Blake, 4). In America, the Civil Rights movement was about freedom of people of color from white supremacy. While people of color are able to enjoy freedoms that they were not able to enjoy in previous centuries, there are still remnants of racial prejudices that exist. The author argues that while everyone stereotypes, racism continues to persist because of the stereotypes of prominent white persons.

Much of society would have us believe that racism is no longer prevalent in today’s world. But, if this is true, why is there still such a societal gap between black and white? One lasting aspect of racism comes from the association of “negative traits” with a

As society has progressed towards non violence, racism has changed into a different form, with harsher psychological effects. A main cause of this psychological effect of racism is the stereotyping that society has accepted as normal (Anderson). Although it may be unintentional, it is easy to deny stereotyping exists, but difficult to prove that it does not exist. As Griffin recounts, “white society had everything sewed up. If you didn’t...say yes, you were in deep trouble. If you did, then you allowed [them] to go...on believing in the stereotype” (Griffin 167). He explains the idea society had created of a “good Negro” and a “bad Negro,” and reveals that African-Americans

The Implicit Association Test (IAT) was done again in relation to race by Project Implicit or PI which supports a collaborative network of researchers interested in basic and applied research concerning implicit social cognition and hosts data collection for many online research projects worldwide, in addition to providing demonstration IATs, such as the Race IAT, for racial implicit biases for educational uses (Xu, et. al.). This test was taken online by 2 million people nationally and researchers suggest they are more liberal and younger demographic, indicating that if the older and more right wing Americans took the test at higher rates the results would differ. “The Project Implicit test takers trend younger than average, as well as towards liberal political beliefs and higher levels of education. But other research has suggested that older Americans past the age of 65, in particular, tend to have higher IAT (D) scores” (Xu). For unknown reasons the rate of racial bias was the highest in the southeast and eastern portion of the country, which could possibly come from the historical racial issues that occurred in these areas for decades, such as civil war history. The bottom line is that research suggests that white Americans including police officers have a high possibility of subconscious negative feelings towards minorities supported by a chart from The Reverse Racism Effect article by Lois James depicting the negative connotations felt by 96% of white participants in the IAT

Research shows that even people who state that they lack negative racial attitude may demonstrate racist behavior unconsciously (Steed, 2014). This unconscious behavior caused by unconscious beliefs affects many African Americans today by creating many racial disparities that are harder to explain using racism as a factor to its existence.

In these chapters, Sensoy and DiAngelo argue that race is socially constructed and therefore, racism is a form of oppression towards people of color created by whites. The authors also argue that racism is not something that is possessed individually, but rather as a system. The authors support their argument by providing examples where white individuals may state that they are not racist, so they have no need to be concerned. However, all people hold prejudices and this denial just supports whites, rather than the ones affected by racism. Although a white person may not feel “racist,” they are a part of the bigger system which benefits them (whites) and oppresses people of color. The authors continue to support their argument by discussing how “reverse racism” does not exist. People of color do hold racial prejudices, but they do not have the institutionalized power to be racist, they cannot benefit from their racial prejudices in the system controlled by whites.

Richard T. Schaefer, in his book, Racial and Ethnic Groups, defines prejudice as “a negative attitude toward an entire category of people such as a racial or ethnic minority” (1979, p. 33). Additionally, Schaeffer defines discrimination as, “the denial of opportunities and equal rights to individual and groups because of the prejudice of for other arbitrary reason” (1979, p. 34). It is no secret that the African American community has suffered from an obscene amount of prejudice and discrimination over the years. However, some individuals believe that the discrimination against the African American community has long been resolved and that it does not exist any longer. Sadly, this is untrue. We as a nation would like to think that we have

Devine, P. (1989). Stereotypes and prejudice: Their automatic and controlled components. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 5-18.

What factors determine the level of discomfort (implicit attitudes) of a White American in an interview with an African American?

When focusing specifically on the discrimination of African-Americans. Racism is distinguished by three core characteristics: “denial that discrimination against African American is still a social problem; resentment about the social, educational, and political gains of minorities; and antagonism toward programs that promote social equality” (Hogan and Mallot, 2005). Hogan and Mallot use this modern racism scale to assess the impact of education and personality variables on college student’s prejudice attitudes towards African Americans. This study is interesting because it examines the type of education received among these college students and assessed whether or not the lack of diversity courses in a student’s curriculum enhanced prejudice. There was a group that had completed the race and gender course before the semester of assessment, a group that had a race a gender course in progress and a group that had not completed any type of diversity course.

Racial equality means different things to different people. Often people aren’t aware that unconsciously they have developed preconceived ideas about race and equality. Ethnic groups, who’ve not experience race as an issue, don’t feel it’s a problem that needs addressing. However, identifying some of the characteristics of bias behavior based on race or ethnicity is the first step in minimizing the problem.