You May Be More Racist Than You Think

Posted by Alex in Everything Else on January 10, 2009 at 7:38 am



Soon to be an ex-racist

Are you a racist? While most people don’t view themselves as prejudiced, a surprising new study revealed that many unknowingly have racist views:

The authors divided 120 non-black participants into the roles of "experiencers" and "forecasters." The "experiencers" were placed in a room with a white person and a black person, who played out pre-arranged scenarios for the experiment. The scenarios began when the black role-player bumped the white role-player’s knee when leaving the room.

In the first scenario, the white person did not comment afterwards. In the "moderate" case, the white person said, "Typical, I hate it when black people do that," after the black person left the room. In the "extreme" case, the white person remarked, "Clumsy n****r."

The "forecasters," meanwhile, predicted how they would feel in these situations.

The magnitude of the results surprised even the authors, Kawakami said. Experiencers reported little distress in all three scenarios, much less than the forecasters did in the moderate and severe situations.

"Even using that most extreme comment didn’t lead people to be particularly upset," said co-author Elizabeth Dunn, assistant professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

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Previously on Neatorama: How Racist Are You? Take the test!


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39 comments to "You May Be More Racist Than You Think"

  1. Machael Artzen
    January 10th, 2009 at 9:13 am

    Interesting that only white racism was the subject of this study. Black racism is just as prevalent in today's world, if not more so. I suspect that the "investigators" very well may have been racists, themselves (and most likely black). Over 95% of blacks voted for Obama, and we don't deplore that as racism? Face it people, racism is a part of our world, and well may be for several generations to come. Unfortunate, but true.

  2. blah
    January 10th, 2009 at 9:27 am

    Sorry, why would I confront this person?

    Were they going to hurt the other person? I read it as the person had left the room, why would I risk a possible violent encounter when I know I'm not going to change anyone's mind?

  3. Geekazoid
    January 10th, 2009 at 9:45 am

    Echoing Machael's statement, these racial studies ALWAYS seem to be of the perspective of white racism.

  4. Cumbiero
    January 10th, 2009 at 10:36 am

    Great photo!
    The problem is not the racism, the true problem is the ignorace, the love ignorace.
    Without love we have fear, reject, low selfsteem and stupid feelings. Its so easy to say that is other peoples fault what happend around us, specially when this other people looks different to us, when come from other countries, have a different religion, culture, sex or whatever...
    Forget about racism, think about love.
    (did i write it well? i´m not an english speaker).

  5. LisaL
    January 10th, 2009 at 10:43 am

    Ditto what Machael Artzen said.
    Why was it only non-black participants?
    I hate admitting it b/c I hate that I feel this way, but I am a little bit prejudiced. It's not really against anyone, but how unfair it is that only white people seem to be the only ones that have to walk on eggshells around everyone else.
    How about a study that shows just how racist black people can be for a change. Specially against other black people who they consider to be "sellouts" or thinking they're trying to "be white" just b/c they succeed in life and don't talk like a stereotypical black person.
    Want some evidence of this racism, just take a look at some of the African American movies out there where whitey is the devil and out to get them every chance they get. Or how the white guy is always some idiot, etc etc etc.
    Hell I remember a show that used to come on for a short while. It was kind of like a Tales from the Crypt.
    And surprise surprise, almost all of the stories were how the white man was trying to keep the black man down.....
    Or look at almost any african american oriented show. There's always that one black guy who doesn't act "cool" aka white or nerdy... & he's usually the comic relief or a comic relief bad guy.
    Just.... UGH.

  6. Jasper
    January 10th, 2009 at 10:57 am

    I, too, reject the researcher's premise that failure to "be upset" or "say something" equates to racism. There must be something unexpected, unusual or extreme to surprise and upset people enough to cause them to speak out, and unfortunately that comment would not qualify as special enough to warrant action, especially in a one-on-one scenario. Sorry, but IMHO the experiment is a FAIL.

  7. wpdunn71901
    January 10th, 2009 at 11:08 am

    Simple Answer

    Perpetuating Racism = More Govt Cheese for Race Hustlers

  8. Gauldar
    January 10th, 2009 at 12:21 pm

    I LOL'd at the expression on the black womans face... then I saw the cone head on the opperating table and LOL'd even harder.

  9. goofy scooter
    January 10th, 2009 at 12:37 pm

    all you have to do is listen to the "tom joyner morning show" and you will realize that blacks are the racists.

  10. Nic M.
    January 10th, 2009 at 1:08 pm

    Any serious, sober-minded sociological analysis of what 'racism' is concludes that it is first and foremost a set of institutional and systemic privileges that accrue to a designated social group, and denied to other(s).

    It follows that while oppressed minority groups may, on occasion, express antipathy towards the majority group, since they are not in a position to sustain a set of anti-majority institutional privilege a minority cannot be 'racist' in the same way.

    In other words, there is no serious anti-white 'racism', because racism is more than individual people's attitudes and antipathies: it is a larger and systematic framework of privilege.

    I suggest that posters here educate themselves. This is just embarassing.

    Incidentally, 90%+ of African Americans vote democrat, no matter the candidate, every time. There's nothing racial about it. If you recall the NAACP at first endorsed Hillary Clinton in the primaries--not Obama.

  11. dd
    January 10th, 2009 at 1:15 pm

    They weren't judged on whether or not they said anything in the room. They were judged on the amount of "distress" they reported afterward that they'd felt.

    Which isn't a great way to measure racism. While MY racism may distress me, YOUR racism is not particularly distressing.

    However, I don't fault the researchers for studying this area. I do agree actually that most of us are more racist than we'd like to admit (black, white, and others alike) and the degree to which our perceptions differ from our reality is an interesting question.

  12. Kevin
    January 10th, 2009 at 1:56 pm

    Black people experience no racist thoughts, ever, obviously. :-)

  13. Oliver
    January 10th, 2009 at 2:07 pm

    It's funny how if you post anything related to race on the internet, you are flooded with white people calling "foul".

    It's funny how the fact that anyone of any race can be racist is trotted out in defense of white-against-black racism.

    Yes, anyone can be racist against any race. Chinese people can be racist, blacks can be racist, Mexicans can be racist. So can white people. So what? Do you want our scientific studies, and our movies to be forced into a quota system to keep it all equal?

    So long as we behave tribally, minorities (I mean that as a number, not an ethnicity) will always fare worse than majority groups. This is game theory. They have less connections.

    While movie and news, etc., might be often slanted towards making saints out of minorities and criminals out of white people, that doesn't mean that those minorities have a huge life advantage over whites. It means there is a cultural backlash to what the status quo has been for so long. Minorities still have, on average, shorter and poorer lives.

    This is a very useful study to see how our minds work. The bottom line is that we have a hard time predicting how we will feel and act in sensitive situations. White Americans in practice may not be as distressed by witnessing racist behavior, as they think they are. This is interesting.

    So knock it off with all the race-related generalizations. Judge people as individuals based on their individual actions. Evolve.

  14. Sofar
    January 10th, 2009 at 2:21 pm

    Alright fine. Everyone's trying to convince me I'm a racist, I guess they can't all be wrong. But someone answer this question, if I were one of the participants in one of these many many many studies, and I were proven to be a racist even though I was certain I wasn't, what the hell should I do about it?

  15. Steohawk
    January 10th, 2009 at 2:32 pm

    Nic M:
    It's important to remember that there's a difference between racism and the anger that an underprivileged minority feels. When a minority is angry about his/her bad social conditions that result from racism, then he/she isn't necessarily racist. However, when a minority feels hatred toward ALL white people for the harm that only some white people cause, then he/she is racist.

    To quote Oliver: "So knock it off with all the race-related generalizations. Judge people as individuals based on their individual actions. Evolve."

  16. sour60
    January 10th, 2009 at 3:09 pm

    Thanks for your posts Nic M and Oliver; glad to see some levity in the conversation. And to Machael Artzen; what percentage of McCain voters were white? Were they racist? What a weird line a rationale.

  17. violet
    January 10th, 2009 at 3:21 pm

    Thank you Nic M. It IS embarrassing. How difficult would it be to read, like, ONE book on sociology or something before settling on the most convenient, self-serving, uninformed, ignorant appraisal? God, it's scary.

  18. Jerse
    January 10th, 2009 at 3:38 pm

    Wheel of Fortune

    People you hate:

    N_GGERS

    it's naggers....

  19. eh
    January 10th, 2009 at 3:45 pm

    According to Nic M., "In other words, there is no serious anti-white ‘racism’, because racism is more than individual people’s attitudes and antipathies: it is a larger and systematic framework of privilege." So the individuals in this study are NOT racists? And black individuals CAN'T be racist? I get what you're saying but it's just semantics.

    The fact is it is ignorant to pretend only white people have negative views and treatment of blacks and not the other way around, whatever word you want to use for it!

  20. ~Emma
    January 10th, 2009 at 4:39 pm

    Ah, as my dear ol' dad used to say...

    "I'm not prejudice, I hate everyone."

  21. goofy scooter
    January 10th, 2009 at 6:30 pm

    i'm sick and tired of the media telling me i'm racist simply because i'm white. i guess slavery was just abolished about 20 years ago and segregation ended sometime last november.

  22. wyrda
    January 10th, 2009 at 6:57 pm

    For the first test - lots of people see racism daily. You have to get used to it or move to a town mostly made up of your own race.

    Second test - People naturally want to be with people like themselves. It's instinct.

    The tests basically proved nothing

  23. Lunaca
    January 10th, 2009 at 8:04 pm

    Where is that photo from?

  24. Rozeilla
    January 10th, 2009 at 9:56 pm

    Dude, just because you don't say anything doesn't mean that you're racist.

    If someone had said "dumb nigger" I'd probably give them the stink eye, but thats about it. I'm not going to place myself in a situation where I'm going to get into a confrontation about moral issues with a complete fucking stranger. Its not my job. If they're racist, especially as an adult, who the hell am I to say anything? ESPECIALLY if I'm not black (as in this scenario). RACISM IS BAD MMKAY!?

    Unless you're actively participating in curbing racism (which is a very small segment of the population), you would never have any need to say anything to the man. He would just become a mark on that douchebag list I keep in the back of my mind.

    Now, if the guy had pushed the subject... I would have said something. If he had said it to me directly, I would have said something (and maybe not in the second case, just shrug and look away).

    Seriously though, I don't think that makes anyone racist. Socially submissive, maybe, but not racist.

    Necessarily. I mean, they could have been.

  25. rabbitspade
    January 10th, 2009 at 10:15 pm

    Imagine conducting the same experiment with littering. Have a non-litterer observing someone littering, then measure how upset they are. BEWARE THE SHOCKING RESULTS THAT MOST PEOPLE ARE LITTER-SYMPATHIZERS.

  26. Miranda
    January 10th, 2009 at 11:48 pm

    @GoofyScooter:

    Schools were still desegregating in the 70s: http://www.altlaw.org/v1/cases/529748

    The civil rights movement wasn't that long ago, it's only been a few decades. Black slaves weren't "freed" until 1865 and that was only 144 years ago while black slavery lasted 400 years.

    Not yesterday but not at all that long ago either - definitely not long enough for the wounds to heal.

    If you say you aren't racist then of course one would have to take your word for it but you have to understand dismissing racism, slavery and segregation like it seemed you just did doesn't exactly... read well.

  27. Mike-Lynn
    January 11th, 2009 at 12:38 am

    To Machael, most of the people who voted for McCain were white. By your line of thinking, isn't that also racist? I happen to be of the brown persuasion, and I voted for Obama not because he's black, but because he supports everything that I'm for. McCain's views, however, were the complete opposite of mine. I didn't care what color the candidates were, I intended to vote for whoever supported the issues that I did.

  28. Johnny Cat
    January 11th, 2009 at 12:51 am

    Lunaca: check Snopes for the story http://www.snopes.com/photos/medical/klaner.asp

    Miranda: GoofyScooter made sense to me, because I am fluent in sarcasm.

  29. Trumbull
    January 11th, 2009 at 2:23 am

    You can't speak to this supposed institutional racism when our President is black and the last two Secretaries of State have been black.

    Stop whining about slavery. the average black person today doesn't know anything more than the average white person does about slavery.

    Black people can be, and very often are - very racist. Furthermore, most white people are not descended from slave masters so there is no reason to feel guilty about slavery. It was bad, mmmkay but get over it. Nobody alive today experienced it first hand and therefore has no right to claim it as an ill done to them.

  30. Christophe
    January 11th, 2009 at 2:24 am

    racism is not racist. all "colors" are prone to it.

  31. violet
    January 11th, 2009 at 3:32 am

    @trumbull: stay indoors.

  32. MoonCake
    January 11th, 2009 at 7:20 am

    i know plenty of white people who voted for obama because he was black. what kind of paradox does that create and what does it say about racism? i definitely believe racism is lessening, at least the racism that drives people to commit hate crimes. though it still exists and will continue to exist, i believe the actions people take based on their own racial sympathies will deteriorate, especially as the older people die off (i know that sounds horrible, but you know it's true.) as long as genuine racism continues to breed, it will never go away. like some said above, it's really key to educate yourself about these issues and not base your opinion off of these silly, time-and-money-wasting studies.

    on a side note, this study showed me nothing about racism as much as it showed me how well people live and let live by not reacting to others' intoleraances. way to not do anything, research scientists!

  33. Noelegy
    January 11th, 2009 at 12:49 pm

    Well, that's all right, even if you don't think you are a racist, someone will come along and show you the error of your ways.

  34. Anon
    January 11th, 2009 at 4:51 pm

    I also agree on the anti-white racism being VERY much so at large.
    Imagine an "All white" choir, or church? OMG racist! call the press! Oh... but black people have both.
    Imagine magazines or TV channels that revel in all that is white. OMG get that channel banned asap! Oh... but black people have channnels that do just this.
    Specifically formulated white-man hair products? ITs PH balanced with white! NO? fine...
    Lets celebrate our WHITENESS on a special day just for White people! We'll call it Kwanzaa! Oh... that names taken? Huh... weird.
    Well fine. I guess I should just go back to College. I'd like to look for a WHITE college fund, specially made for WHITE students...Oh, they don't exist because that would be racist? THen whats this UNCF all about?

    Racism will continue to exist as long as people see themselves as different. Lets get rid of all this Minority BS, because you can't have it both ways. Sorry. Either we're all together, or we're seperate. When the "minorities" decide to stop celebrating themselves and join the rest of us humans, then we can start trying to forget our differences.

  35. ted
    January 11th, 2009 at 6:38 pm

    Interesting topic.

    Bottom line: researchers thrive on proving silly points with unusual but flawed experiments.

    What about Arabs and Jews? What about people who hate gays? Maybe it would be easier just to call it intolerance, and try to fix that instead of pointing fingers all the time.

  36. TJB
    January 11th, 2009 at 7:44 pm

    I'd also like to know the source of that photo, it's an incredible shot. Any info?

  37. TJB
    January 11th, 2009 at 8:17 pm

    ...found a reference to the image on snopes, turns out it was originally a staged photo for a magazine advertising campaign.

    http://www.snopes.com/photos/medical/klaner.asp

  38. JoeD
    January 12th, 2009 at 12:02 am

    Here's the problem; where's the control group???? Instead of having one white and one black man, did they have a control group where a white man made increasingly disparaging comments about the other white man when he left the room? If they did, what were the results with that group? Maybe the results show that there is an issue, but it's not of a racial nature. It's seems to me to be a stretch to conclude people are more racist than they thought, if the study was only what was written in the article.

  39. Nic M.
    January 12th, 2009 at 2:06 pm

    In case anyone out there is still reading this thread.

    (1) It doesn't seem anyone here is able willing to engage my point. I suggested that majority-group racism is not merely the sum total of individual behavior, but a set of institutional and systemic privileges and disadvantages that benefit a majority group to the detriment of a minority group or groups.

    It follows that so-called 'black on white' racism cannot be the same thing, because African Americans are simply not in a position to engage in systematic, institutional discrimination against Caucasians. Mere bellowing that you have anecdotal experience of some dude that was mean to you does not address my point in the slightest.

    You can either dispute that racism is best understood as an institutionalized, systemic set of privileges or argue that African Americans are in fact engaging in systemic discrimination against European Americans. Neither position strikes me as defensible, but I am willing to hear arguments out.

    Once again, this is not about 'individual negative views'. I realize there's a certain (and pernicious) libertarian meme around that there is no such thing as society or systemic biases, only individuals. Perhaps this is our collective dialectic stumbling-block.

    (2) For those people who think it is hypocritical to have, e.g., African American campus groups but not 'white' groups on campus, you are making a simple category error. 'White' is not a diaspora nor a cultural group, while 'African American' is.

    You *can* absolutely have an Irish campus group or church, or a German one, or a Ukrainian Students Association: no one would even think to begrudge that or call it 'racist'. However, the only relevant, coherent category 'white' is precisely the one used to perpetuate institutional racism, which is why such groups have no place in our societies.


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