Respondents were recruited by an online survey research company and paid $5 for participation. They were randomly selected from a panel of 2.5 million respondents matched to the 2000 United States Census on gender, age, and education level. Mirroring national trends for White and Black Americans, the two samples differed on age, and education, such that the White sample was slightly older and more educated (see Table 1). The two groups did not differ on gender composition. Respondents were asked to "indicate how much you think Blacks [Whites] were/are the victims of discrimination in the United States in each of the following decades." They began with the 1950s and proceeded through the 2000s, rating racism against Blacks in each decade and then racism against Whites in each decade.Also of note - "In accordance with our policy, as a condition of publication, the authors have agreed to make their full data set available to others."
I think maybe a lot of us white men who aren't domestically violent or racist resent the systemic suspicion that we are not to be trusted because "men are the violent ones" or "whites are the racist ones" - not to belittle non-white or non-men's similar problems, mind you.Ooh, this kind of is about something important. The big problem isn't so much you in particular being "racist" and if you stay out of the white hoods, don't burn any crosses, and don't say any N-words, then everything is cool.
Four experiments investigate a modern paradox: White Americans harbor racial prejudice, but view themselves as unprejudiced. We hypothesized that social representations of prejudice available in American culture lead many Whites to conclude that they are relatively unprejudiced. In Experiment 1, participants primed with the bigot stereotype viewed themselves as less prejudiced. In Experiments 2 and 3, participants exposed to media representations of racists viewed themselves as less prejudiced. In Experiment 4, participants sought exposure to media representations of prejudice after a threat to their unprejudiced self-image. These experiments suggest that representations of prejudice in American culture lead prejudiced individuals to view themselves as unprejudiced, and the effect of these representations on people's unprejudiced self-images can be passive or intentional.The paper examines physiological responses, implicit attitudes, self-report and behavioral data backed up by a small mountain of cited literature. I haven't even gotten through all of it but it is a really interesting piece.
Individual in Group A: "I don't like it when people say 'As are like this.'" Someone else: "Take it up with the As who really are like that!"...it's not hard to figure out how this can go off the rails.
Muslim: "I don't like it when people say 'Muslims are terrorists.'" Someone else: "Take it up with the Muslims who are terrorists!"Despite the existence of academic definitions of racism that include a power element, and that operate on a societal level, plenty of people still think of racism as one person discriminating against another person on the basis of race. So when someone says "white people are racist, and minorities can't be," people with that understanding automatically think the speaker is some crazy racist discriminating against whites, despite any of the speaker's good intentions and subsequent valid points.
ferromagnetic material : minority groups
applied magnetic field : explicitly racist policies from back in the day
magnetic domains : life aspects of minority group members
co-orientation of magnetic domains : mutual influence of life aspects*
residual magnetic field : lingering effects of old policies
*(e.g. need money to get an education, need an education to get higher wages)
In short, affirmative action may be necessary to disrupt a feedback network of suck that stabilizes the historical influences on minority groups' well-being.« Older An oldie but a goodie: Don Reese, then of the San ... | I’d always dismissed the idea ... Newer »
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posted by GenjiandProust at 8:48 AM on May 24, 2011 [31 favorites]