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On “Racism without Racists,” “Unconscious Discrimination,” and “Aversive Racists”

October 5th, 2008
By DORIAN DE WIND

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I generally agree with and commend Nicholas Kristof’s very humanitarian and compassionate efforts, viewpoints and articles. But, this morning, with his New York Times column, “Racism Without Racists,” he has really confused me.

Kristof’s column starts as follows:

One of the fallacies this election season is that if Barack Obama is paying an electoral price for his skin tone, it must be because of racists.

On the contrary, the evidence is that Senator Obama is facing what scholars have dubbed “racism without racists.”

Kristof then presents statistical, scientific, and anecdotal data and “evidence” to prove such an oxymoron.

For example,

Most of the lost votes [by Obama] aren’t those of dyed-in-the-wool racists. Such racists account for perhaps 10 percent of the electorate and, polling suggests, are mostly conservatives who would not vote for any Democratic presidential candidate.

Rather, most of the votes that Mr. Obama actually loses belong to well-meaning whites who believe in racial equality and have no objection to electing a black person as president — yet who discriminate unconsciously.

And,

Research suggests that whites are particularly likely to discriminate against blacks when choices are not clear-cut and competing arguments are flying about — in other words, in ambiguous circumstances rather like an electoral campaign.

For example, when the black job candidate is highly qualified, there is no discrimination. Yet in a more muddled gray area where reasonable people could disagree, unconscious discrimination plays a major role.

White participants recommend hiring a white applicant with borderline qualifications 76 percent of the time, while recommending an identically qualified black applicant only 45 percent of the time.

And back to our presidential elections:

“In the U.S., there’s a small percentage of people who in nationwide surveys say they won’t vote for a qualified black presidential candidate,” Professor Dovidio said. “But a bigger factor is the aversive racists, those who don’t think that they’re racist.”

Faced with a complex decision, he said, aversive racists feel doubts about a black person that they don’t feel about an identical white. “These doubts tend to be attributed not to the person’s race — because that would be racism — but deflected to other areas that can be talked about, such as lack of experience,” he added.

Finally,

Still, a huge array of research suggests that 50 percent or more of whites have unconscious biases that sometimes lead to racial discrimination. (Blacks have their own unconscious biases, surprisingly often against blacks as well.)

I am no social psychologist, but when Nicholas Kristof claims that there can be “racism without racists,” that there are “well meaning” white people who “discriminate unconsciously,” who have “unconscious biases” against blacks, who are “particularly likely to discriminate against blacks…in ambiguous circumstances,” and that there are “aversive racists, those who don’t think that they’re racist,” I am truly confused. Perhaps I need to take some of Professor Dovidio’s courses.



This entry was posted on Sunday, October 5th, 2008 at 5:37 pm and is filed under Bigotry, Newsweek Blogitics, The New York Times, Black/African-American, Barack Obama, Racism, 2008 Elections. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Viewing 14 Comments

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    I find the phenomenon real and more challenging to address than overt racism. But address it we must. I am not familiar with the work of the people Kristoff cites. I associate the phrase "racism without racists" with Richard Thompson Ford, a professor of law at Stanford University and author of the book, The Race Card: How Bluffing About Bias Makes Race Relations Worse. I find his work and the argument he makes in his book compelling. I wrote about it here. The link includes a video of his talk at Google that is well worth viewing.
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    Thanks for your comment, JWindish.

    I did go to your post and viewed part of Ford's video, and found them both interesting.

    I guess the point I tried to make in my post--apparently not very well--is two-fold:

    1. Discrimination, whether you call it blatant, open, overt, covert, subtle, "conscious," unconscious," or whatever, IS discrimination. Just ask those victims of such discrimination--the black , qualified person who did not get the job, etc.--how subtle, or "unconscious" it was, it felt to him or her, and whether such semantics made it any easier for them.

    2. Racism, whether "conscious," or "unconscious," or whether perpetrated by
    "well meaning white people," or by "racists without racism," or by "aversive racists," IS racism. Forgive me for using this by Sarah Palin's fans frowned-upon cliche, but you can put lipstick on a pig, it's still a pig.

    Now, I will agree with you and others that (open) discrimination today is much less than, say, 20 years ago.

    Dorian
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    I love the idea proposed by the left that whites live in a world where they are never exposed to blacks and thus have no reason to have any biases. Yet, at my daughters high schools that is 10% black, there at no blacks in the IB/AP classes and a single black (actually half black) student in orchestra. How can people who have the educational experiences of my daugher not learn the "subconscious" lesson that blacks are either mentally inferior or lazy or some of both?

    In the real world, most people biases are a sum of family environment and personal experiences. As people have experiences with large number of blacks, hispanics, whites, or Korean-Americans, they begin to average those experiences in their own mind. Out of that comes the socalled "subconscious" racism evern though there are real world experiences to base it own
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    superdestroyer:

    I don't quite know what to make of your comment, "How can people who have the educational experiences of my daugher not learn the "subconscious" lesson that blacks are either mentally inferior or lazy or some of both?"

    I sincerely hope that what you intend to say is not what you appear to have actually said?!
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    i have to say something that's been on my mind for quite some time.

    i cannot speak to what 'superdestroyer' may or may not have said. but having grown up in one of the southernmost counties of maryland -- one of many places where racial tensions can get mighty uncomfortable -- i think it's pertinent to say that black people, too, can be racist. being an incredibly shy and largely inoffensive child, i was the victim of black-on-white bigotry and bullying myself, as were many of my schoolmates. being a minority myself while, say, riding home from a public school on the bus, i was in no position to fight back even if i'd had the inclination.

    now, i can't say that the white sentiment in my area was much better. but to state that many white folks hold to a barely submerged racism, while true, does little to pull the whole, sorry mess of mutual bigotry into the light where it needs to be.

    and i hope there aren't many here who hold to the still-faddish yet utterly ridiculous tripe by spike lee, who claims (as does malcolm x, early in his autobiography) that the minority race, being in a politically disadvantageous position, is incapable of true racism. unfair racial stereotyping, as sentiment or as actually expressed, is bigotry/racism by definition, no matter where one stands sociopolitically....
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    D. E.Rodriguez,

    You may want to look up the stories in the Washington Post on T. C. Williams High School. The school is only about 25% and less than 20% Asian. Yet, the AP classes are overwhelmingly white with almost no blacks or Hispanics. The Washington Post reported that the white students of some of the most liberal leaning families in Virginia routinely refer to the non-AP classes as "ghetto" classes.

    Are you arguing that the white students who attend a schools that is majority black and Hispanic would be totally irradiational is being biased against blacks or can you admit that their life experiences actually affect their beliefs and attitudes?
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    SD:

    i'm not so sure what you're trying to say here, either. it almost seems as if you're missing a word here and there.

    if you're saying that the opinions and views of non-"minority" students can be affected negatively by their experiences in such situations, then we are on the same wavelength.
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    Superdestroyer:

    I am only questioning whether you really mean to state, or suggest, or to repeat someone else's claim or belief that "backs are either mentally inferior or lazy or some of both?"

    That's all
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    D. E. Rodriques,

    If is not uncommon for elite whites to think rednecks are both lazy and stupid because of their failure to achieve. Would you really expect them to think differently of blacks who do not achieve at the top levels in school?

    What do you think that the white and Asian students at NYC top three public high schools think of blacks. http://gothamist.com/2006/08/18/nycs_top_high_s...
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