Is Racism as Extinct As We Think?

I think most of us, if not all, would classify ourselves as not racist. Personally, I know few people who openly hold prejudice against people of other races. This is why I was shocked at reading about a recent study performed on York University students showing that two-thirds of participants displayed “indifference at best” when they witnessed a racist act.

The participants were set up to witness an interaction between two actors, one white and one black, pretending to be more participants. The black person would get up and “accidentally” bump the white person’s leg in doing so. The white actor would then do one of three things: do nothing, say, “I hate when black people do that,” or use the N-word.

The participant was then told to pick which of the two actors he or she would like to be partners with in a study.

120 non-black college students participated in the experiment. Of these, half read about the situation and the other half actually experienced it. Those who read about it were asked to predict their reaction to either offensive comment. They insisted they would be very upset and would choose the black actor as their partner. However, in the actual situation, nearly two-thirds chose the white actor as their partner.

In his review of the experiment, psychologist Eliot R. Smith wrote: "The failure of people to confront or do anything about racist comments is pretty widespread in the real world. People may feel uncomfortable if someone makes a remark like this, but it's rare they will actually confront them."

I would like to think that racism will decrease even more with Obama as our president, but that may not be the case. Some argue that Obama will be a symbol of how America has overcome racism, and that it will help to have the positive image of a black man leading the country. However, it may just take time for people’s mindsets to change. Only when it is natural that racist comments and unequal treatment for people of different races are out of place can racism be truly eradicated. No amount of affirmative action and other legislation can fully accomplish this.

On the season premiere of What Would You Do?, a new show on ABC, they conduct another revealing experiment. Through hidden cameras, we witness several customers come into a store in which the cashier is an actor who is racist and refuses to serve two Mexican migrant workers (also actors). Of the 88 people who came into the store during the experiment’s duration, 49 didn’t get involved in the conflict between the cashier and the migrant workers, even when the cashier made statements like “Go back to your own country,” “If you have to come here, at least learn English first,” and “They are stealing our jobs.” Nine participants even sided with the cashier. And thankfully, the other 30 spoke out in defense of the day laborers.

Again, hopefully the prevalence behavior like this will continue to decrease until racism is extinct. However, just last April a Yahoo poll showed that “about 8 percent of whites would be uncomfortable voting for a black for president.” Now, with Obama soon to be inaugurated, it will be interesting to see if the opinions of that 8 percent can be changed.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28563183/
http://abc.go.com/
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0408/9761.html