Subtle Racism Might Make Your Brain Hurt

Decoding "Ambiguous" Prejudice Can Tax The Brain, Interfering With Mental Tasks

(WebMD)  Subtle racism interferes with black people's mental function even more than overt racism does, a psychological study shows.

For whites, who are much less often the targets of prejudice, overt racism interferes with mental function more.

"It appears that blacks are particularly vulnerable to cognitive impairment resulting from exposure to ambiguous prejudice -- a level of prejudice whites may not even register," conclude Princeton University psychologists Jessica Salvatore, PhD, and J. Nicole Shelton, PhD.

"Blatant" vs. "Ambiguous" Racism

Salvatore and Shelton enrolled 122 African-American and 128 white Princeton undergraduates in their study. They were told they were going to participate in two different studies (in reality, they were two parts of the same study).

In the first part of the study, participants were told they would be evaluating a company's hiring decisions. They were shown resumes from job candidates. One was from a candidate who was clearly unqualified because of mediocre grades from a "mediocre" school. Another was from the most-qualified candidate, a Yale graduate with good grades, strong job experience, and impressive school activities.

It was clear from the resumes whether the job candidates were white or African-American. Half the time the unqualified candidate was white and the highly qualified candidate was African-American. For the other half, the conditions were reversed.

The study participants were also shown hiring recommendations from what they were told were human resource officers for the company. Participants were told the officer was a white male when the unqualified job candidate was white and the highly qualified candidate was African-American. They were told the officer was an African-American male when the unqualified job candidate was African-American and the highly qualified candidate was white.

Participants were assigned to one of three groups: blatant prejudice, ambiguous prejudice, or no-prejudice. The no-prejudice group saw recommendations that advised hiring the most-qualified candidate. The prejudice groups saw hiring recommendations that always chose the least-qualified subject -- a person of the same race as the officer.

Under the blatant prejudice condition, the hiring recommendations contained obviously racist comments (such as noting that the African-American candidate "belonged to too many minority organizations" or that the white candidate "was a typical white prep-school kid").

Under the ambiguous-prejudice condition, the hiring recommendations contained no such racist comments -- the least-qualified, same-race candidate was recommended without a clear reason

In the second part of the study, participants then were given a test requiring full concentration, in which they had to name the color in which words such as "red" or "blue" were written.

Subtle Racism Wastes Brain Power

Witnessing the blatant prejudice lowered white participants' scores on the test, but not the scores of African-American participants. However, African-American participants did much worse on the test after witnessing the ambiguous prejudice.

"Blacks are better prepared to cope with blatant prejudice than whites are, at least in terms of the short-term effects on performance of cognitive tasks," Salvatore and Shelton suggest.

This, they say, is because African-Americans have experienced prejudice and have learned to deal with it, not because such prejudice is harmless.

But when African-Americans have to deal with more subtle prejudice -- prejudice that whites tend not to recognize -- it consumes mental resources.

"Targets of prejudice may experience cognitive impairment as they try to determine the cause underlying the negative events they encounter in their lives," Salvatore and Shelton conclude.

They report their findings in the September issue of Psychological Science.

[mitywhity]

As far as the ethnic locales I mentioned earlier, I think they are fine and I just don''t go there because I don''t NEED to. If I want to and I experience racism, oh well, I knew I would even though I don''t like it. The only thing that truly seperates people though is not their skin it is the ideas that fill their brains. It''s the old "you say to-motto and I say to-mayto deal but in a larger fashion. I don''t hang around honkys who have little minds and "wrong" values either. Those honkys are a race, so I guess that is racist also. When it was said that all men are created equal it was wrong. We don''t all have the same abilities, capacities or desires. We all certainly have the same needs and those should not be impeded. So try not to get so stressed out and waste cognitive thinking trying to figure out why some cracker, brutha, chico, ***, dago, honky, etc. didn''t just hug you and lend you $50 just for being you. Get over it and seek out people who build you up and not tear you down.

[mitywhity]

How convenient for us honkys that we NEVER experience racism - who says? Walk your white but-t into a "tienda" or a "supermercado". Go into a soul food joint or the hood liquor store. Those who you meet that are rude to you do not care if you like them or not - they just don''t like you - period. Why? They are free to like whom they want. Big deal I say. There is something offensive about my values, culture and looks to them, so what? Let them build their walls into their own private prison if they want. Racism exists and it is natural, but it is not ideal in this country. Where once we were all clanned, tribed, and tongued into seperate locations across the globe, we are now forced into one land. We all have the same needs, so we must learn how to provide for ourselves without trampling another.

[mitywhity]

***?

[hwy71so]

I''m not saying I''m predjudice against the media. Afterall it has its place too...

[tnt1954]

sorry about the wisecrack, but i am being tempted
beyond my ability to withstand it. did the
master race have a nice yom kippur? they are
always a cut above the common herd, in intelligence,
in savoir faire, kindness, decency, idealism, practicality and never are hypocritical. such role
models for all the world to follow. if only
there more jewish people in the world. having grown
up in a 90% jewish neighborhood in the san fernando
valley, i was discriminated against for being
w.a.s.p. i was the oddball. wearing a cross
to school i was called a hotzi totzi nazi every
other day in the halls. but i was elected president
of my junior high school. but i had a spanish
surname. but i was adopted. but i didn''t know
it, nor care if i was. no, there no negroes
in the general vicinity. they were in watts.
they broke out of the ghetto in 1966 with the
riots and the appointing of tom bradley as mayor
of los angeles, ca. the master race, gave permission
for them, to leave watts now and then. but basically
they still have to know their place.

[tnt1954]

growing up superfluous in the fifties, as if
they really need us, i''m just another white elephant.
by the time we got of out of college, everything
we had learned was obsolete, irrelevant and immaterial. and we constantly had to be reeducated,
rehabbed, rewired, reprogrammed, because of some
new crackpot''s theory again and again. as m.d.''s
they have to stay up on all the new stuff all the
time. same with lawyers, same with c.p.a.''s.
**** computerus would solve the whole problem
of health. who needs m.d''s then? for what?
go ahead, enjoy yourselves, smoke free, drink free,
dope free, and sexless, and be really, really
super healthy. and enjoy every pure breath as if
its your last. its always the last day of the
rest of our lives. lol. had fun writing that.
good story. malthusian economics.