<p>A new study published Thursday in the journal Science suggests many people unconsciously harbor racist attitudes, even though they see themselves as tolerant and egalitarian.</p>
<p>“This study, and a lot of research in social psychology, suggests that there are still really a lot of negative associations with blacks,” said Kerry Kawakami, associate professor of psychology at York University in Toronto, Ontario, and lead author of the study. “People are willing to tolerate racism and not stand up against it.”
[You</a> may be more racist than you think, study says - CNN.com](<a href=“http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/01/07/racism.study/index.html]You”>You may be more racist than you think, study says - CNN.com)</p>
<p>Wow, what a surprise! Who would have thought?</p>
<p>Of course, that study was done in Canada, and there’s probably only 2 or 3 black people who actually live in Canada. </p>
<p>I’ve got news for you: as long as the question comes up, its alive. Leslie Fiedler pretty much had the first and last word on race in America as far as that goes.</p>
<p>If I had a dollar for every person I’ve heard declare themselves completely racism free, when I have seen or heard them do something overtly racist, I’d be rich.</p>
<p>I grew up white in America. I think undoing that in regards to race will be a lifelong process. I do agree with the article that parents make a difference. My parents made a decision to raise us differently than they had been raised. I think it gave me the gift of being genuinely shocked by a lot of overtly racist language and behavior. If something becomes normal, you just don’t notice it.</p>
<p>I have dial up so I haven’t read article yet- but I expect if they tested minority participants they would find racism
After all we have women who are anti feminism, economically disadvantaged folks who think that being poor is a moral failing,( how else do you explain the #'s voting for Bush/Reagan) why wouldn’t we have ethnic minorities who distrust other minorities?</p>
<p>Ive had an interesting few days.
Last night I attended this school board meeting in Seattle- ( where the bulk of top administration are minority- AA actually)- Seattle is closing at least 5 schools to save money-( prompted by an external audit) however 4 out of the 5 schools are heavily low income/minority- including a school which is K-12 and has three SPED programs.- These students will be scattered to the wind and little regard has been shown to these high need students.
(At the same time- the district wants to spend $1.5 million on a newish building to upgrade the airconditioning in anticipation of future need.)
can you say vomit?* I know I can.</p>
<p>However- while the district wants to close buildings in communities that need them- another building will now remain open after parents offered to pay for maintainance.
( not saying connected- but in a neighborhood of well off UW profs and sports stars)
They could not get me to believe that these choices are not connected to race & socioeconomic power if they were standing on their heads.</p>
<p>Then tonight I attended a talk hosted by the exec director of Class Action- a group focused on social justice and economic equity, ( & I met Mini and his wife- which was really neat)
[Class</a> Action - Classism issues, Consulting, Seminars about race, gender, and poverty](<a href=“classism.org”>classism.org)
it was interesting particularly when we broke into small groups- but extremely frustrating because for instance- everyone was caucasian- all as far as I could tell ( except for me) had at least a BA, and many , much more than that- most were well traveled, well read etc.
But the white.
I really do not see how you can talk about economic power in this country with only white people.
racism/sexism/classism are intertwined, IMO.
its like talking about baking bread- but only talking about the yeast.</p>
<p>It reminded me of something one of my daughters friends said. She was in Americorps and they were getting " diversity training".
She and another woman were the only non whites in the room - her friend is lowish income, the facilitators were not.</p>
<p>Yes I am irritated by diversity trainings led by African Americans who state that all whites are racist and that only whites are racist ( paid by my tax dollars- can. you.dig. it? ) :rolleyes:</p>
<p>But diversity trainings led by those who have read a ton of books but haven’t actually listened to anyone without a master’s degree for years- sucks all the oxygen out of my blood. ( of course- those attributes are held by black/white as well)</p>
<p>This strikes me as…“Water is still wet, News at 11.” I probably have more social psych and general cog sci background than your average person, though. It’s probably just as well to get this out there since so many people think that racism (and sexism, etc) is dead.</p>
<p>Because the “social scientists” are themselves either ignorant or racist. They presume that blacks cannot be racist. It would not have been a good story it they had included blacks and it turned out that the blacks were as or more racist than the non-blacks. </p>
<p>And how can anyone draw any reasonable conclusions from a study involving 120 people who may very well be Canadian? </p>
<p>The study and article are just a bunch of garbage for the media to spread around.</p>
<p>Wow, Why are you all suprised? I grew up in Northeast and still today I feel the subliminal expression of racism all around me, even in my some of my own friends and colleagues. When dealing with people one on one and those who know me they are very cordial and nice, but some of the things that come out of their mouths and they way they treat some people are downright racist. They are totally unaware and they believe that they are not racist at all. I have a running joke with one of my colleagues and I call her “Archie Bunker”. When getting into a conversation with an MD that I work with and whom I admire(not a mean bone in his body)he really honestly believes that people are not racistrs anymore. Just proves that we have a long way to go.
Just on a side note, I have seen my boss not hire people because of her preconceived notions about a particular ethnic group. This is a woman who has her Master and is the Director of a very large department. Some of the people that she doesn’t even give the time of day, I would hire in a heartbeat because of my observation of their work ethic.</p>
<p>“… I have seen my boss not hire people because of her preconceived notions about a particular ethnic group.”</p>
<p>Venture out on the ocean and you’ll encounter high seas. I’ve seen people hired because of their college, their smile, their clothes, their ethnic background, their gender, etc. And I’ve seen people NOT hired because of their college, their smile, their clothes, their ethnic background, their gender, etc. That’s life (or maybe it’s a grand conspiracy organized by Satan to convince us that there’s no use TRYING to make the world a little fairer.)</p>
My boss doesn’t hire based upon weight. Even the receptionist can look at the candidate and say “absolutely no” before my boss even greets the candidate if he or she is heavy.</p>
<p>“Would other races have similar reactions in similar circumstances?”</p>
<p>The research I’ve seen indicates that black people in the U.S. have negative associations with black people, too. Old ideas of a racial hierarchy run very, very deep in this country.</p>
<p>zm-Chris Christie announced a run for NJ governor yesterday. First few comments I heard- he better lose some weight. It will hurt him if he stays as heavy as he is- he will lose votes bcause of his weight.</p>
<p>I assume the research had a narrow focus, which is typical when researchers start investigating a topic. They may expand the focus in later projects.</p>
<p>zm- yes it is a shame. Christie did a great job as the Federal Prosecutor. He is smart. He seems to have guts to push back against the entrenched interests. It would be a shame if we did not vote for someone based on a physical characteristic.</p>
<p>It’s been my experience that black people absolutely can be racists, but that more often than not, the group they harbor the most racist attitudes about, are black people :eek: (if racism is defined as the attitude that some races are inherently inferior to others, and that this inferiority accounts for behavioral differences, social inequities, etc. This is why, in my opinion, so many blacks still persist in using the “n” word in reference to themselves and others of their kind—they’ve internalized centuries of historical racism, a legacy passed down from generation to generation—which is also why the latest “doll test” results vary virtually not one wit from those of the 1950’s:()</p>
<p>I’ve met precious few blacks who actually believe that blacks are “superior” to whites, Asians or other racial groups. But over the years, I’ve seen a lot of rage and resentment toward whites (and sometimes, Asians) on the part of some blacks because of the presumption that these groups view them as inferior—I call it “preemptive hostility”, or the “I hate you, because I know that you hate me first.” attitude.</p>
<p>Would weight be a problem with this NJ candidate? I’m thinking of the New Yorker Jerry Nadler (??) was it? He was obese and ran, won and was in office for quite awhile. After a number of years he did lose quite a bit of weight, though. Not sure what happenned to him but he used to be in TV alot. Sorry to digress…</p>
<p>What about Asians in prep schools. They make no bones about pushing everyone out of upper level classes. The only other girl in in my Honors Pre-cal classes refuses to even say hello; after three tries I gave up, and just sit/study with the white boys. God forbid you get stuck with an Asian lab partner - they will savage your work. It is really nasty here.</p>