Responding to Racism
On January 8, Time Magazine reported on a new study of human behavior that suggests "even people who aspire to tolerance...still harbor unconscious biases powerful enough to prevent them from confronting racists or from being upset by other people's racist behavior." Jack Dovidio, a Yale psychologist and co-author of the study believes that "the most worrying aspect [of the study] is that even if a small proportion of a society is active, old fashion racists" that majority "rationalize away racist behavior and don't intervene or even get upset when it occurs." The article notes that the new study builds upon Harvard psychologist Mahazin Banaji's work on "implicit" bias. In her work Banaji has tried to identify unconscious prejudice and how those biases can be overcome.
- How do you explain why people who believe they are not racist often do not confront people displaying racist behavior?
- What are the implications for a group, community, and nation when people who do not like racism, do not stand up to stop it?
- Is there an ethical or moral difference between conscious and unconscious biases? How do unconscious biases reveal themselves?
- How can people overcome unconscious biases?
- One co-author of the study, York University Professor Kerry Kawakami, believes that "the results may explain how Nazi Germany happened." What do you think he means?
