In a politically correct world, we’re supposed to pretend that we don’t notice differences between people. But in our effort to make everyone feel good about how …
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DR.Grohol the issue of discrimination in this nation is uderestimated due to our lack of a will to be though.We have failed to honestly acknowlge the deepth of it,s foundation.I ask people if they have ever seen picture,s of a lynching? If they answer yes,then i ask them when you looked at the picture what did you see?And they alway,s give a general answer,Then i ask them if you just murdered someone would you stand there and have your picture taken with the victim? And they all answer no!.I go on to state that i see a segment of our american citizenship that was so comfortable after taking part in the murder of a humanbeing and fellow citizen, because they all knew that no one was going to do anything about it.Not law enforcement ,not the church community, the courts ,the president of the United States of America,and least of all the people of the person murdered.One class of our citizen legislated, organized and implemented this nations structure.And it is within the totality of this composition that privelege was ingrained.The one place we have yet to challenge with any tenacity is the judicary who have since it,s inception has allowed or constructively supported the mindset that are rooted in our nation,s foundation with no challenges to the judiciary,s independence. This independence was brought into existence through private financial backing initiated in 1912 and remain,s under it,s influence.Discrimination can not be legislated or court ordered out of live,s it has to be led out through example.Our nation need,s to make our
citizen,s knowlegable of our rights, and then honestly encourage the people of this nation to learn when privy to any violation of a citizen,s right,s you put your personal opinion,s to the side and stand up for the violated .This is not done because you like or dislike that person or any party involved,it is for one reason only it is protective covenant of us all. No person should be allowed to perform a job where another citizen is effected primised on a person bias.when we are allowed to hide behind corporate,government or any type of organizational structure we are fooling ourselve,s.You remove the people and all that would be left is empty title,s and empty buildings.We followed leadership into the attiude with bias as it,s purpose and we will follow leadership out if it truely ever becomes a sincere objective.
“participants could remember the context for white targets better than they could for black targets”
you said the ‘participants’ were white. what about black participants. whose faces can they remember best?
oops, i suppose you explained it. just when i read that first part it seemed biased about whites having a bad memory. but if psychologically people all see their own races better, then that is cool.
Weiss…lets be realistic, very little is biased against “White participants” in research. Most science and quantitative analysis have included participants of European decent, findings have been deduced from this group and unfairly applied to other cultures over the years, and they have repeatedly been used as the “norm” group when being compared to other races. This is why we have had unbalanced and dismal statistical information of other cultures and fabricated research, often regarded as scientific racism.
The truth of the matter is that we must, which is extraordinarily significant, become better educated about race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status (SES), and culture. If we do not, more studies such as those listed by Dr Grohol will remain our reality. We cannot and should not allow our society and also our children, who are supposedly “better educated” than children in other industrialized and non-industrialized nations, to sink further and further into cultural encapsulation. Cultural encapsulation is a term that refers to individuals who are so engulfed in their own culture that other cultures are “nonexistent” to them or unimportant or “strange.” It’s similar to the term ethnocentrism.
QUOTE: “And here’s the real kicker — employers chose a white applicant who was just released from prison just as often as they chose a black or Latino applicant with a clean background. In many employers’ minds, a white criminal is on equal footing with non-criminal blacks and Latinos. Amazing.”
It is amazing. Would you be willing to admit that we are not as “there” as our country would like for us to be? There are inherent biases that must be rooted out of the foundation of our society and even our minds. Until we become knowledgeable about the various cultures and differences among us, and their equal worth and value, we will remain this way.
I would indeed encourage further exploration of such studies and also mindfulness of “otherness.” I wouldn’t necessarily say, Weiss, that because a race can recognize their own race better is “cool.” This may signal cultural encapsulation or a lack of exposure to other cultures. I’m not all that versed on research studies that have examined this, but I’m not sure this is a good thing.
Thank you Dr. Grohol for sharing!
Pixels and Policy did a full write-up on this weeks ago that ended up featured in the BBC. I can’t help but notice since he did his excellent review, a lot of other websites have *suddenly* started using a lot of their basic research without any attribution.
http://www.pixelsandpolicy.com/pixels_and_policy/2009/10/race-case.html
J Censer – We mentioned the virtual world connection only in passing. An episode of “The Good Wife” was the inspiration for this particular blog entry, along with a brief science note in Sunday’s The Boston Globe.
dr.t. i think it’s great, it explains so much about the way i look at people. i dunno about being ‘there’ since i don’t have any ideals about that sort of thing. anyway, biases seem normal. i have plenty biases, and it’s ok to disassociate from people of equal worth and value.
the article is helpful. but i don’t mind bias all that much. it’s worth understanding, just like when someone goes all passive aggressive on me is worth understanding. and there’s probably a solution to each case, but not currently something i want to think about on a broad scale.
I honestly don’t believe that we can say we are racial color blind honestly I think we are still just as bad as we were when we first had a racial revolution in the 20th century. We still have things like affirmative action as weel as special programs for those who are a certain race. Now I can see that a lot of whites are being discriminated against in certain aspects. I’m currently applying for colleges and its quite clear to me that even though in an honors and advance placement student I still might be beat out by someone who may not be up to par with me but is a minority therefore the college would rather take them into their university to up their rate of minorities.
Another point thati would like to make is that I the generation before us still contains that bias and it is highly influencial to our growing generation. Our parents definately have influence on the way we view race. My father raised me to be accepting of all and not to be bias due to color. But on the other hand my good friend’s father still looks down on african americans and she tries not to interact with different types of people and can often be quick to jump to assumptions and judge.
I still think it will take our country many more years to truely get over racist outlooks.
It is hard to be racially neutral when you have been the victim of a sex crime at the hands of a black man.
this was cool. I think that in the U.S. We will never be color blind unless we truly look at this problum that our country has inbeded in its people. Being a black amarican, ii aften feel the nastyness of racei discrimanation. I think this artical does adress this problum. thanks fred
The absolute extreme of this issue of cross racial identification can be seen in the case of Tony Egbuna Ford, a death row inmate convicted solely on eyewitness testimony. Mr Ford is Black and the eyewitnesses Hispanic. Mr Ford also bore a close resemblance to the actual perpetrator in the case, and especially when it is borne in mind the witnesses were choosing from 2″ square photos.
Couple the already existing issue with the unreliability of eyewitness identification with at best flaws, and at worst, unethical practices by detectives in the case (the witness picking one number and this being changed by the detective), and what results is a man now fighting to prove his innocence, when in fact his guilt has never been proven. In a state (Texas) with its only heavy racial baggage, doing so is no easy feat.
A study on the identification of Mr Ford can be be viewed on his website (http://www.tonyegbunaford.com/eyewitnessids.htm).
If you have any concerns about the way eyewitness identification is handled in the judicial system I urge you to check it out. It makes for quite sobering reading.