Just read an article on CNN about a study in the journal "Science" that claims many of us unconsciously have racist attitudes, even we think we're tolerant and egalitarian.

The study showed that we will tolerate racism and not stand up against it.

They 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.

Experiencers reported little distress in all three scenarios, much less than the forecasters did in the moderate and severe situations.

Immediately afterwards, the participants were asked to choose either the black person or the white person as a partner for an anagram test. More than half of experiencers chose the white partner -- regardless of the severity of the comment that person made earlier. As for the forecasters, less than half chose the white partner when a comment was made, but most chose the white person when no comment was made.

Do you think this study is a crock of **** or do you think, yes, I am more racist than I'll ever admit to being??

I'm not even sure what they're trying to argue here, that white people think a black person about whom they have no relevant information would be better at taking an anagram test than a white person that they also have no relevant information about other than whether or not he calls black people ******s? I guess you can call that racist, or you can call it playing the statistics. There's not really enough good controls here to gauge this, even. They should have also done a study where the white person bumped into the black person and the black person commented (or not), and maybe the white person bumping into the black person and then the white person comments (or not). And they can't really control for the white person being perceived as more handsome than the black person, which will lead more people to go with the white person.

So yeah, this is a bad study that can't make claims nearly as strong as your title. Race-baiting studies like this are a dime a dozen, and rarely do they show anything at all. But they grab headlines, so pseudo-scientists will keep doing them.

I have to agree. Wonder what others here think.

I tend to agree with the title. I think we are all more racist than we care to admit and we can't help it,

I work and live in an area with a lot of Native American people and the racism around here is an issue. A few years ago the place I work for brought in a speaker who specializes in the issue of racism and racial stereotyping. He said a lot of things but one of the things he said that I think is very true is that all of us has some degree of racism in us. We just can't help it. It is a subconscious instinct we all have. Basically (and certainly paraphrasing) we tend to fear that which is different from ourselves. The overriding thing I got out of this was that it is important to realize this and use it to control and understand our feelings and behaviors with other people.

I know there will be a lot of people who will not want to believe this but I tend to believe it myself. I see it in my actions and thought and in other peoples actions as well. I used to like to say I didn't have a prejudiced bone in my body and I really believed that. I do not say that now and use that to may attention to how I look at and treat other people.

I think everyone is racist so far that they recognize differences between races.

Choosing a white person before a black person for an anagram test doesn't seem any less forgivable than choosing a college graduate over a high school graduate, especially when I consider my perception of the education disparity between whites and minorities in this country.

On the other hand, I think that an outright hatred, intolerance, or assumption that a generalization or stereotype is ALWAYS true is simply ignorance at work. It doesn't make it okay, though.

I just don't see why people continue to try and act like there aren't differences (in a generalized form) between different races. It's not any different than recognizing differences (in a generalized form) between people of certain religions. I guess one you can choose and one you can't, but big deal. It's not like it's a bad thing to recognize differences...unless you're going to be a "racist" as it is understood in our culture (e.g., intolerant, hateful, etc.)

What happend in the test where the white guy bumped the black guy knee?

pretty much this, especially the middle paragraph. Frankly, I think most people do realize this, but understand that it's a touchy subject and you have to be careful, so they err on the side of caution. For some it becomes an actual belief, though.

There's a difference between racism and cultural preferences. I was thinking about this in relation to the NBA recently. One aspect of the league that's always talked about is selling a black product to a majority white customer, and the difficulty that comes with that. I'm talking especially about the . post-Allen Iverson era (more hip-hop styled fashion, tats, etc). Perfectly valid subject, and nothing really racist about it. There's a culture clash there. Hence, a move like David Stern imposing a dress code on the league's players.

Some reach the conclusion that the customers placated by such actions/mgmt/etc are racist because of this. I disagree. Some white people probably don't watch the NBA because they hate black people. That's racist. But they also haven't been watching the NBA since the 60s, then. However, I can completely understand middle class americans finding guys like Ron Artest and Allen Iverson hard to relate to, and thus have less interest in the league. Just like I understand why inner city kids from the south probably aren't the hugest hockey fans in the world.

It's a fine line much of the time, but culture isn't always the same as race, and cultural preference isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Humans make decisions about others based on little and often incorrect information. This is the way the human mind works. We take in limited information; we process it and act. We seldom have complete information and don’t seem to want/need it anyway. Racism is an example of this type of thinking/processing and it will not stop. We can reduce the severity but if you think it is going away, I think you are dreaming. And do lie to ourselves about how much we label/judge with incomplete info??? Oh yeah.

Many atheists think religious people are weak/stupid or need a crutch, but most make no effort to understand the basis of religions. They(me included) look mostly at the worst logic/stories and base opinions on that.

Many religious people think atheists are uneducated and only need to be shown the light to get it. But they don’t review their own religious beliefs or closely look at why others don’t believe.

Some biases/attitudes are based on real facts or on limited samples….. Then broadly applied. For example “bad Chinese drivers in Vancouver” was one I always heard. Is there a bit of truth? Likely for new immigrants. Learning to drive in large Asian cities with fewer rules and policing means some are more aggressive than rule following older Canadians. But because the ethnicity is visible the second sighting reinforces the bias….. Same with French Canadians in Florida being bad tippers. If they are really bad tippers (I don’t know) likely the other Canadians are just as bad, but we are less visible due to language and don’t get the label.

Disclaimer – sorry to those that see extreme racism. I am deliberately avoiding the extreme examples. … I have been lucky enough to only see mild cultural bias….still nasty but not like some places.

I think there is also the innate fear (at least partially genetic hardwired) of the different and unknown that drives much of the racism.

Integration, experience and education seem to help the most in combating racism/cultural biases. I grew up with a community/culture with a bias against East Indians (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh), NA Indians and gays. They were the visible minorities, our community’s social black sheep. They mostly kept to their groups or with gays were invisible. Once I got to know people from these groups my biases/stereotypes went away. ….. Mostly. I hate to admit it but I still have some bias towards local NA Indians as a group. ….. As a group they seem to carry out some very self destructive practices. As individuals I try to treat them as I would anyone else, but the fact I have to try says I am carrying a bias. Is there some truth to my bias as a group…yes.. as individuals…no.

That last sentence, Fish, is dead on. As long as we don't trumpet our prejudices as some kind of rationalizing mechanism for an organic "realness", and have the honesty to eamine our feelings and try to understand why that first instinct is not an inevitable and objective reality, it's a tool for betterment, not a fault.

This is so gay.

You know I hate using text-cutesy acronyms, but I really did Laugh Out Loud.

Typical homophobic ******.

i'm not mean to other races, but a good racist joke cracks me up. Does that make me racist?

Wierd thing is that racism towards black people imo has been cut down ALOT.

Racism towards other races such as natives / asians increased ALOT.

I have always thought racism towards natives is the worst here in Canada and the USA. I see more racism also in East Indians and Chinese cultures towards other races. I Believe everyone that notices color is racsit. The only ones that are not racist are young kids. They dont care dont notice it till they are taught it by their parents.

I moved into a new area and have many Chinese neighbors and they have been so rude and terrible to me as rare white living in the neighborhood. I have noticed that I have developed more racist tendencies to Asians now. Dont like it and I know it is wrong. One other white family on the Cul De sac that moved in 6 months ago. They asked me if I felt the neighbors treated me like garbage also.

I have a similar problem in some ways. I tend to make a fair amount of self-targeted jokes, so I don't really have this inherent distaste for making fun of people (obviously). Sometimes racist jokes are funny if they're a stereotype or whatever. A "racist" joke is never funny to me when it's based in hatred and ignorance.

There's a difference between knowingly generalizing a stereotype for comedic effect (and realizing that it's not actually a true blanket statement) and ignorantly spewing hate and intolerance through a joke.

Maybe I'm just rationalizing something here, but I tend to believe that most intelligent people could see what I'm saying, even if they didn't necessarily agree.

I don't think I'm making a leap when I say that most ignorance and "bad racism" (?) is a result of the uneducated and the stupid scumbags of the world. Not all, but most.

I agree, although I have to admit I do not have much recent first hand experience with racism towards African American folks mainly because there just are not many around here where I live.. But I can attest that racism is alive here in the west towards Native Americans. I see it ALL the time and it is every bit as bad, if not worse than what I used to see in Larger cities towards African Americans.

Interestingly enough, racism is every bit as bad and in some cases much worse in the Native American community towards white people. I have seen it and I know my kids saw it when they were going to a predominantly Native American school. They were picked on for being white and it wasn't even subtle. It is one of the reasons they do not go to this school any more.

It is really too bad because it is really hard to break the cycle when the minority being discriminated against has the same attitudes right back. It creates a pretty vicious cycle that is hard to break.

Unfortunately a whole lot of Asians tend to be this way. I know a lot of them now, and the majority of my friends in high school and the first couple years of college were Asian too, so I know it's not just the "bad" ones acting out that feel that way. Prejudice is just the traditional way.

My brother is Vietnamese, and we have gone out to eat in the Bolsa district, which is Orange County's "Little Saigon," many times. The food is very good and relatively inexpensive. He says I should come back to this or that place and eat there as regularly as he does, but the truth is, even when I'm there with him, a very good percentage of them will treat me differently than him even though we're sitting at the same table. Once we went with his whole family to one of the worst of the restaurants, and even his little girl remarked that the waitress was treating me with complete disrespect. Right in front of the whole family. Now THAT's aggressive prejudice.

It's such a shame, because Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, etc., can make absolutely great friends -- maybe better than American ones -- once you crack enough of their many layers of shells. But there is an inherent contempt in their cultures for others.

This is one of the things that makes me laugh when people say, "Don't call them Orientals, call them Asians." Not only did every Asian I grew up with(and probably half the people or more thant I grew up with were Asian) call himself an Oriental, and never call himself Asian once, the very idea that there is any unity between "Asians" is a total joke, so the term itself is just a non-starter. They've been at each other in real if not ego wars since the dawn of time, nourish millenia of grudges, and most absolutely do not identify with each other at all unless someone who is even more of an outsider comes along. And generally not that much even then.

I don't think that's true. I think you have to be a more enlightened person in a more enlightened society to even think that.

It was taken for granted forever by whites that not only were they superior to everyone else, but that others were no more than animals; women were culturally held to be so inferior that educating them, letting them hold title to property, or letting them vote were all thought mistaken or even dangerous ideas; the Chinese have forever thought of themselves as the greatest people in the world an unable to profit by mingling with others; the Japanese were and still are quite prejudiced; Koreans certainly can be too; Christians and Muslims and Jews have all thought themselves superior and chosen by God; and there is no small amount of prejudice in every ethnic community you can think of. These ideas of vast superiority over all others have been common in the populace at large and encouraged by the state and religious authorities.

Lozen, if you were to move away from that area and find yourself at a job with some nice Asians, or living next door to a nice Chinese family, you would not have racist tendencies toward them would you? I mean it's all situational isn't it?

Yes I think we are all racist to some extent. I like to consider myself open-minded and not racist. Yet I catch myself sometimes and say, "wait a minute, isn't that racist what I was just thinking"?

For example, here is a picture of the crowd outside the Wal-Mart where the clerk got trampled to death:



My first reaction on seeing this picture: I would NOT want to be in that crowd. Does that make me racist? I hate to admit it but maybe it does. If the crowd was all Indian or all Chinese or all white, I doubt I'd have the same "you'd never catch me in that crowd" reaction.

Similar thing happens when someone gets arrested and I catch myself expecting the mug shot on the news to be of a minority. It doesn't make me proud to think these things, but it is what it is. I fight against it but it bubbles to the surface every now and again, much to my shame.

Harvard has a project that tries to measure biases of various kinds based on reaction times to pictures & words.

It's interesting to do the experiments.

They're at https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/

Trust me I am trying to sell my house and move. Though instead I have told myself just stop being that way and treat each person invidually. Though I would never discrimate against someone when purchasing a service or hiring based on thier race.

My dentist is Asian and we talk about it sometimes and he says it also. That many treat outsiders poorly. He is so racist against Asians to boot and he is one.

Funny thing is we had a Middle esatern family also on the Cul De Sac and they sold and moved and she said to me is one thing I will not miss is the unfriendliness of the neighborhood. I said well I talk to you guys a bunch what do you mean. She just said I am talking about the Chinese in the area.

No, it doesn't. It could make you paranoid, but that might be pushing things too far too.

Recognizing that every race and ethnicity tends to at least have racist tendencies crop up sometimes, if not be outright racist period, is not being racist yourself. It's just acknowledging reality.

From my experience, people at the bottom get shat on, and that pisses them off and creates giant chips on shoulders and prejudices against both the real and entirely imaginary poopers. This commonly gets twisted into something racial that is passed down through the generations. I might well be uncomfortable in this black crowd if it were in a poor neighborhood, but if it were in a rich one, I wouldn't worry.

So if anything, I'm "racist" against poor people. There is nothing particularly black about prejudice, but if anyone is poor, at least in our culture, they are much more likely to nourish grudges and want to lash back in the ways they are able at anything and anyone "other" because of it. That is more likely to be physical with poor people than rich.

People who are not poor are able to aggress against others, and the iniquities of imagined "others," more invisibly, through legislation, bullying or unfair treatment at work, etc. They don't need to do it in shopping queues so much. They've got much more to lose by bringing things to a boil in public.

Blarg I am not sure you can be racist against poor?
Though have you ever been poor? Plus like someone else said there will be many nice poor people.

Read the book Nickel and Dimed to see how life is for someone poor.
Though I do agree there are peple that are poor who have no desire to get out from that lifestyle.