Racism Lecture Overheads

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Racism Lecture Overheads

• Carolyn R. Fallahi, Ph. D.
• Psy 430

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Are you a racist?

• Overcoming our Racism by Derald Sue
• The unintentional racist
• Statistics White Euro-American males
• 33 of the population
• Occupy most of the upper level jobs

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What is racism?

• Social psychology helps us answer this question.
• Prejudice (Gordon Allport) a bias expressed
  through negative or positive opinions, beliefs,
  or feelings towards individuals who belong to a
  certain group or fit into a certain category.

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The three components of racism

• Negative in nature
• Based on faulty data
• Belief that all members possess the same traits.
• Examples

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Stereotypes

• How do stereotypes work?
• Why do you have stereotypes?

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History Even the Rat was White

• Belief All human beings were originally white.
• Blackness of Africans degeneration of mankind
• Religion
• Philosophical and scientific views
• The Noble Savage View

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The History of Racism

• John Duckitt (1992)
• Prior to the 1920s the inferiority of
  minorities and the superiority of Whites.
• 1920s and 1930s empirical data. Intellectual
  inferiority?
• 1930s and 1940s Psychodynamic explanation.
• 1950s The prejudiced personality.

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History of Racism

• 1960s and 1970s sociocultural perspective
• Normative approach
• Social conformity
• Consensus model of race relations
• The idea of racial integration
• Ignorance of the role of conflict, power, and
  domination.

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History of Racism

• 1980s Ingroup versus outgroup
• Contemporary view

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The role of psychology

• The role of psychology in perpetuating racism
• Anthropometry
• 1925 Howard University professors Locke, Just,
  Herskovits
• The beliefs of psychologists
• The role of measurement.
• Conclusions? Racial superiority and inferiority
• 19th Century the golden age of racism

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The role of psychology

• 1973 Henry Garrett, past APA president
• Argued against racial integration
• Argument black mans brain on the average is
  smaller less fissured and less complex than the
  white brain.

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The issue of IQ

• What is IQ?
• William Stern wrote, The IQ may be regarded only
  as a first approximation it takes on significant
  value only when the bare quantitative statement
  is completed by a qualitative diagnosis. To base
  any pedagogical estimate upon the IQ alone for
  practical purposes (e.g. assignment to
  opportunity classes) is indefensible.

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Lewis Terman

• Terman, a highly respected IQ researcher,
  contributed to the tone of the day in his
  writing Mental retardation represents the
  level of intelligence which is very, very common
  among Spanish-Indians and Mexican families of the
  southwest and also among negroes.

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Issues with Terman

• Termans revised scales English
• The Sample used was problematic.

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Derald Sue Are you a racist?

• Historically racism was overt.
• Now racism has gone underground

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Is racism alive and well?

• Are minorities just oversensitive?
• Why should we adopt a multicultural point of
  reference?
• Should we talk about race issues openly?
• Hey.this aint very pleasant!

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Awareness .. The first step

• Most people are just not aware.
• Deny prejudiced attitudes yet..
• Who is in charge of our government? Our schools?
  Our companies?
• Between 2030 and 2050 racial/ethnic minorities
  will become the numerical majority.

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What is Racism?

• Gordon Allport
• A bias expressed through negative or positive
  opinions, beliefs, or feelings towards
  individuals who belong to a certain group or fit
  a certain category.
• Racial prejudice has 3 major components it is
  negative in nature based on faulty or
  unsubstantiated data and is rooted in an
  inflexible generalization.

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What are stereotypes?

• Rigid and inaccurate preconceived notions that
  you hold about all the people who are members of
  a particular group.

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The goal of stereotypes

• Categorization
• Makes us feel good about ourselves
• Why so harmful? Cultural genocide
• Shouldnt they just act more like us?
• The truth of the matter acculturation not a
  good thing.
• Study multiracial persons have a tendency to
  self-identify with only one race.

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Overcoming Racism

• Do you oppress?
• Modern or contemporary racism
• Unconscious unintentional racist versus the
  conscious-deliberate racist.
• Examples of unconscious-unintentional racists
• Dovidio studies
• Even if you try really hard not to be a racist,
  why are you still one?

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The role of social conditioning

• Sue it is impossible for any of us not to have
  negative associations towards people of color
  because they are so deeply ingrained in us that
  they are outside our conscious awareness and
  occur almost automatically.

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Can unintentional bias really harm?

• Surely if I dont mean to be prejudice, what harm
  can I cause?
• The candid camera study
• Another Dovidio study

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Additional principles of modern racism

• Modern racism is more likely to be revealed
  through your failure to help rather than a
  conscious desire to hurt.
• You can justify biased behaviors to maintain the
  illusion that you are unbiased.
• Unintentional bias can still result in
  significant harm.

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Some thoughts

• Ethnocentrism
• The myth of the melting pot
• Oppression the persecution or subjugation of
  individuals or groups by unjust use of force or
  authority.
• Identity development minorities come to believe
  the stereotypes.

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The Stereotype threat (Steele)

• Stigma held
• Why?
• Apprehension
• Protective disidentification
• What do the studies have to say?
• Hanna, Talley Guindon study our role in
  oppression all of us engage in secondary
  oppression

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Blaming the victim

• Rape victim
• Thomas Parham An analysis of the oppressed or
  the victim analysis
• Whites look very little at the factors that
  create injustice.

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Vocabulary

• What is ethnocentric monoculturalism?
• Racism is caused by
• Belief in superiority
• Belief in inferiority of others
• Power to impose standards
• Manifestations in institutions in our society
  Psychologist James Jones
• The invisible veil

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How does one change?

• Can you develop a nonracist white identity?
• Janet Helms
• The phases on the path to being a nonracist
• Naiete
• Conformity
• Dissonance
• Resistance and immersion
• Introspection
• Integrative awareness
• Commitment to antiracist action