Prime Junta
RPGCodex' Little BRO
- Joined
- October 19, 2006
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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.
[ 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.
- Joined
- Oct 19, 2006
- Messages
- 8,540