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

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.

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 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

In spite of the Native Americans, Bison were hunted near extinction in the 19th century. Stats show that bison population decreases in the late 1880s. They were hunted for fur, with the rest of the animal left behind to decay in the ground. After they rotted their bones were found packaged and shipped East. Main purpose the U.S. military hunted buffalo was to deprive Native Americans of food because that was what they lived off of, also to clear the great plains and make space for railroads. In 2005 hunting buffalo became illegal, U.S. Senate offered each states American tribes two hunters license each however if citizens are caught hunting Bison a reduced fee will be paid. Female buffalo are around five feet tall and weigh between 800-1000

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

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

It has grown unnoticed and unchecked, and it can lead to biased and untrue answers of public opinion polls. The authors of “Has Racism Declined in America?” explore this area of society. They conclude that racism has in fact declined in America as well as racial stereotypes, however, this may

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

“I remained too much inside my head and ended up losing my mind”-Edgar Allan Poe

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

Racism is a serious problem in the United States because there are many immigrant people who live there (Welch, 2007). There are two effective ways to solve the problem of stereotyping African American as

Ongoing research efforts continue to focus on the cognitive processes involved in the perpetuation of intergroup biases as well as techniques that can be used to reduce racial prejudice (Stewart, Latu, Branscombe, Phillips & Denney, 2012). Descriptive studies (Neville, Lilly, Lee, Duran & Browne, 2000) and experimental investigations (Branscombe, Schmitt & Schiffhaurer, 2006) have found a significant relationship between the awareness of white privilege and the reduction of negative racial attitudes. In this research, I aim to extend the quantitative recorded results of these suggested findings and examine the role other interactive variables may have on the results.

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

Where do you think the world would be without the major development of horror and detective genres? The one person that included majorly in the push towards evolving the growth of the horror and detective genre based stories we have come to love is from Edgar Allan Poe. Born in January 19, 1809 and later dying in October 7, 1849 Edgar Allan Poe spent most his life indulged in bad happenings such as his loved ones including his mom dying from tuberculosis. Continuing in the future he started to wright and produce short stories in the horror and detective. He furthered the investment of people’s minds into the new set of horror and detective story genres by the influence of his books, that inspired many to become great writers in the future.