Racism and President Obama

[Prime Junta]

Nicholas Kristof had a very interesting piece about this in NY Times. It was about "racisms without racists" -- the unconscious biases held by many people who do not consider themselves racists.

[ http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/opinion/05kristof.html?ref=opinion ]

Salient points:
* Only about 10% of American whites are conscious racists. They generally wouldn't vote Democrat anyway, so their impact on the race is negligible.
* About 50% of American whites have unconscious bias against blacks, termed "aversive racism," which leads them to discriminate in ambiguous situations.
* The presidential elections are very much an ambiguous situation, with a lot of subjectives involved.
* This "aversive racism" can be teased out in experiments, such as:
- An individual faking a seizure on the street. Roughly 100% of white passers-by will call for help regardless of the victim's race if they're alone. But if they're in a group, which lowers the pressure for personal responsibility, 75% of them will call for help if the victim is white, but only 38% if he's black.
- When asked whether they would hire a highly qualified applicant, almost all whites would recommend him regardless of race. But when asked whether they would hire an applicant with borderline qualifications, they would recommend a white applicant 76% of the time, but a black applicant with the same qualifications only 45% of the time.

Even though he didn't post references, I have no reason to doubt his data. This is the kind of thing blacks in the US (and Roma in Europe, and Chechens in Russia, and non-Han in China, etc. etc.) have to deal with. It's insidious, because it's unconscious, manifests itself in subtle, carefully rationalized ways, and is therefore very hard to deal with. I get a vibe that a whiff of it may be floating even on this thread.

Kristof claims that the effect of this "aversive racism" is about a 6% hit on Obama's popularity, although I have no idea how he came up with this. He also draws a parallel with John F. Kennedy -- when he was running, Catholics faced very similar "aversive" prejudice, but his campaign, victory, and presidency went a long way towards dispelling it. He finishes off with a pious wish that Obama might do the same for blacks.

 

[magerette]

Some good points, Prime J. I'd say this "aversive" stuff is far far more common than flat out racism, and in this race, it's manifested in all the doubts about what Obama is "really" like. You can't really trust him, because like the black applicant with borderline qualifications, he just may embody some additional racial stereotypes that aren't immediately visible, whereas the vices and virtues of the white guy seem more familiar and predictable (whether or not he turns out to be an egregious asshat or a secretive gun hoarder who blows up his co-workers later down the line.) Really, all strangers are the unknown, but we feel far more comfortable with those on whom we can project ourselves.

That's why Ayers is more sinister than the Alaskan Independence Party, or Wright than Sarah's Muthee. I have no doubt we'll be seeing race as a factor in the final numbers, and indeed, I'm sure it already has been, as in the perennial pundit question "Why isn't Obama further ahead?".