Research Action Posts 2/8/06-"Modern Racism"

Sadie's Post on Racism:
Hello group,I wanted to just offer my own perspective, which is based partially on a prejudice class I took last year. I think it's interesting to think about the ways that prejudice (racism in particular) is different today than it was even 20 years ago. Often racism is not expressed through direct hostility but rather passive avoidance. There is some work by Patricia Devine and colleagues that suggests that there is a difference between explicit prejudice (which the person is aware of) and implicit prejudice (which the person may not be aware of and is harder to fight) (You can find some of her articles online at Google scholar). Implicit prejudice might be expressed in more subtle ways such as taking a seat on a bus next to a person of your own race. But these subtle forms of racism can be self-perpetuating since they decrease contact between races, making it harder for us to disconfirm each others' biases. How do the solutions to prejudice change depending on whether we conceptualize prejudice as overt or more subtle? Do you think it might be harder to change one or the other? Just some thoughts I have...

My Response:
I am glad that you brough this up because I definately think that for the majority of the country, racism is implicit. I also believe that because this is the case, it is harder to fight. If people are not aware that they too hold these internal beliefs or are afraid to admit them, it becomes more difficult to know where to begin in solving the problem. I think that for the explicit racism, that is where the law needs to get involved-to stop such things as hate crimes, or blantent discrimination. However, with implicit, that is where we somehow need to get into peoples' minds and aide in changing their ideology. It may be a slow process but I think the best way to start doing that is to find out first, how people formed these ideas about other races...I think the results of that would help us know where to target.

Response to Nicole:
This is a little off topic but I had to reply to Nicole's response. THANK YOU for bringing up Notre Dame. I have used that example with many people and feel the same way about what you had to say. Hahaha I say that we make shirts that say, what about the leprichaun?