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Buried Prejudice: The Bigot in Your Brain (barf alert)
Scientific American ^ | May 1, 2008 | Siri Carpenter

Posted on 05/01/2008 1:51:50 PM PDT by neverdem

Deep within our subconscious, all of us harbor biases that we consciously abhor. And the worst part is: we act on them

"There is nothing more painful to me at this stage in my life,” Jesse Jackson once told an audience, “than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery—then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved.”

Jackson’s remark illustrates a basic fact of our social existence, one that even a committed black civil-rights leader cannot escape: ideas that we may not endorse—for example, that a black stranger might harm us but a white one probably would not—can nonetheless lodge themselves in our minds and, without our permission or awareness, color our perceptions, expectations and judgments.

Using a variety of sophisticated methods, psychologists have established that people unwittingly hold an astounding assortment of stereotypical beliefs and attitudes about social groups: black and white, female and male, elderly and young, gay and straight, fat and thin. Although these implicit biases inhabit us all, we vary in the particulars, depending on our own group membership, our conscious desire to avoid bias and the contours of our everyday environments. For instance, about two thirds of whites have an implicit preference for whites over blacks, whereas blacks show no average preference for one race over the other.

Such bias is far more prevalent than the more overt, or explicit, prejudice that we associate with, say, the Ku Klux Klan or the Nazis. That is emphatically not to say that explicit prejudice and discrimination have evaporated nor that they are of lesser importance than implicit bias. According to a 2005 federal report, almost 200,000 hate...

--snip--

And the greater a physician’s racial bias, the less likely he or she was to give a black patient clot-busting thrombolytic drugs.

(Excerpt) Read more at sciam.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bias; prejudice; psychology
And the greater a physician’s racial bias, the less likely he or she was to give a black patient clot-busting thrombolytic drugs.

That sounds like pure BS! Here's a link to the study:

Implicit Bias among Physicians and its Prediction of Thrombolysis Decisions for Black and White Patients

Is the Criminal-Justice System Racist?

1 posted on 05/01/2008 1:51:51 PM PDT by neverdem
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To: neverdem
Scientific American claimed that the Wright brothers' airplane invention would not work three years after it already did.

Then, later, the Communist Piel (his wife was head of the Communist Emergency Civil Librties Union) took over Scientific [Un]American in the 40s I believe.

2 posted on 05/01/2008 1:55:26 PM PDT by Stepan12 ( "We are all girlymen now." Conservative reaction to Ann Coulter's anti PC joke)
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To: neverdem
Yeah, we probably all have biases, but if we hate those biases, know they are wrong, we are more than likely to overcome them when we have choices we consciously make.

Sorry, I'm not buying the claims in this article.

3 posted on 05/01/2008 1:57:04 PM PDT by MEGoody (Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall cause you to vote against the Democrats.)
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To: neverdem

What a pant load!


4 posted on 05/01/2008 1:59:29 PM PDT by poobear (tagline is on a coffee break!)
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To: neverdem

Is this the reason for all the black on black crime in the USA or the reason they still sell each other as slaves in Africa?


5 posted on 05/01/2008 2:03:29 PM PDT by edcoil
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To: neverdem

Uh....bias is the way the animal brain works.


6 posted on 05/01/2008 2:04:07 PM PDT by Psycho_Bunny
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To: Stepan12
Gawd! I am sick of this kind of crap. Look, if I'm walking down a dark street and here comes a couple of guys with their baggy pants down below their asses, hats on backwards and walking like Richard Pryor when he said "we bad"-- and then here comes a guy with a suit and tie, shined shoes and a brief case---now which one is gonna cause me some concern??? Huh? And I didn't say anything about race, did I?

I'm rejecting all this race crapola and doing it very forcefully. I am trying to teach my kids and grandkids to do the same. I say "Look for values. Don't worry about a person's race. And don't you EVER fall for this baloney about one set of values not being better than another one. Don't cut slack to a slacker just because your little teacher seems to think that is the way to go."

7 posted on 05/01/2008 2:06:42 PM PDT by San Jacinto
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To: MEGoody

The columnist complains about “stereotypes” without acknowledging that stereotypes

ARE BASED ON SOMETHING.


8 posted on 05/01/2008 2:08:15 PM PDT by MrB (You can't reason people out of a position that they didn't use reason to get into in the first place)
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To: neverdem

“For instance, about two thirds of whites have an implicit preference for whites over blacks, whereas blacks show no average preference for one race over the other.’

huh


9 posted on 05/01/2008 2:08:23 PM PDT by driftdiver
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To: neverdem

This is crazy. People feel guilty for possessing common sense and looking at percentages and statistics.

You know what? In certain areas of town, I feel uncomfortable. I generally don’t go there.

You know what else? If people don’t look right to me, I treat them more cautiously than those that appear less threatening or uncertain. And color makes no damn difference. White skinheads that look meaner than hell, hispanics than look meaner than hell, blacks looking around like they’re pissed off at the world, acting nervous, all of these things are red flags ANYONE, no matter what color, ought to clue in on. It isn’t about racism. It’s about picking up signals that OTHERS are broadcasting by their look, their dress, their mannerisms, and their language and attitude. Doesn’t matter what color they are.

Geez. You’d think Jesse would be smarter about this kind of thing having lived a pretty long life.


10 posted on 05/01/2008 2:14:46 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (I'd like to tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.)
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To: driftdiver

Yeah, that’s why I so many blacks I don’t know keep coming up to me and wanting to be my friend. /sarc


11 posted on 05/01/2008 2:15:37 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (I'd like to tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.)
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To: neverdem

Humans are imperfect?!! Well knock me over.


12 posted on 05/01/2008 2:17:30 PM PDT by VR-21
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To: MEGoody
"Yeah, we probably all have biases, but if we hate those biases, know they are wrong, we are more than likely to overcome them when we have choices we consciously make."

In addition to your comments, we all have biases.

After years of working in major corporations and being a part of social clubs and groups, one of the most glaring things I have noticed is that the blacks always seem to congregate together. At company picnics, ball games, or even the lunch room, black have more of a propensity to stay to themselves than whites.

Waiting in line at Wal-Mart, or the grocery store even shows some of the prejudice; the black customers in front of me in the line, are always greeted by the black cashier with smiles and conversation, but as soon as the white person steps up, most of the time the smile disappears and a militance takes over, displaying the checker's obvious contempt for a person of the caucasion race. No amount of trying to be friendly will crack the mold...happens 90% of the time.

So,the bias is there, and we have now been enlightened by the "reverend" wright's sermons and church of an abiding hatred for whites, by blacks, in America. Whites are disparaged at every turn, and with race baiters like wright, obama, ferrakhan, jackson, and sharpton at the helm with a never-ending teaching of this hatred from birth to grave, it's little wonder.

On the other hand, whites are blasphemed with any mention of most anything about blacks. We are supposed to forgive their crimes, forgive their anger, and give them anything they want, all in deference happenings over 200 years ago, over which no currently living person either experienced, or caused.

But, back to biases...let's consider one of the left's most popular religions (next to global warming, that is), evolution.

Now, if evolution is the left's overwhelming choice for a god, then I'm guessing the preference of redbirds to redbirds, and honeybees to honeybees is an evolutionary form of discrimination and prejudice. Bears not hanging out with horses is racism. Animals hanging with their own is OK, but humans - and humans just being one chromosone from the animal world (as the evolutionaries put it) are supposed to diss their own kind.

I go back to a common theme I use, no matter what the politically correct and liberal rhetoric try to dictate, there is always the one thing called "human nature".

Just as in the case of co-workers and check-out clerks, if the hatred is "built in", there is nothing any advocacy group can do to change it...the laws may make us all go through the motions, but until the actual hearts and minds change, we're right back where we started.

Get the government and the race-baiters out of the mix, and things will probably calm down and we could eventually co-exist without animosity and turmoil.
13 posted on 05/01/2008 2:17:42 PM PDT by FrankR (OBAMA is the VAST WRIGHT-WING CONSPIRACY...)
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To: FrankR

“...the black customers in front of me in the line, are always greeted by the black cashier with smiles and conversation, but as soon as the white person steps up, most of the time the smile disappears and a militance takes over, displaying the checker’s obvious contempt for a person of the caucasion race.”...

I have also noticed this happening to me all the time at the grocery store I go to. Black customers are treated like a close friend. White customers are the strangest stranger and a borderline inconvenience. There are exceptions, and in my experience they are older black ladies that tend to be pleasant, but anyone else, just as you have described.


14 posted on 05/01/2008 2:24:02 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (I'd like to tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.)
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To: neverdem

What are the chances that the writer is a Republican?

I would say the chances approach zero.

The DNC is the party of the race-obsessed. They imagine that the whole world shares their obsession, that anyone who claims not to share their obsession is either lying or kidding themselves.

But for those souls who believe everything is a function of race, and response to race, and bias about race, and phobias about race, I would invite them to just let it go.

Let it go.

Life is about so much more than that. Build, create, love, and learn to see people as people, learn to see character as the primary determinant in a person’s life.

Until they are ready to do that, the DNC is where they belong.


15 posted on 05/01/2008 2:33:58 PM PDT by marron
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To: neverdem

Reverend Wright sure has some racial prejudice buried in his mind.


16 posted on 05/01/2008 2:34:20 PM PDT by Tzimisce (How Would Mohammed Vote? Hillary for President!)
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To: neverdem
If only we all could be psychologists, free of bias, objective in all things, and able to pierce to the core of other's hidden attitudes. And better yet, get our stuff published in SA!
17 posted on 05/01/2008 2:48:07 PM PDT by count-your-change (you don't have to be brilliant, not being stupid is enough.)
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To: San Jacinto
I am trying to teach my kids and grandkids to do the same. I say "Look for values. Don't worry about a person's race. And don't you EVER fall for this baloney about one set of values not being better than another one. Don't cut slack to a slacker just because your little teacher seems to think that is the way to go."

Or you could tell 'em: "It's not the color, it's the class."

18 posted on 05/01/2008 3:00:37 PM PDT by yankeedame ("Oh, I can take it but I'd much rather dish it out.")
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To: FrankR

>>the black customers...are always greeted by the black cashier with smiles and conversation, but as soon as the white person steps up,...the smile disappears...and a militance [sic] takes over, displaying...obvious contempt for a person of the caucasion [sic] race. No amount of trying to be friendly will crack the mold...

Let me suggest what may be happening: Blacks are so used to being ignored by whites that they wait for you to make the first move. As an airline pilot (30+ years), I always tried to say goodbye to my passengers. I could count on one hand the times I was ignored or stared at contemptuously by blacks.

If that sort of thing does happen to me when I’m the customer, I confront it directly by asking to speak to the manager, keeping race out of it, and telling both the manager and the cashier that I expect to be treated politely in any place I spent my $$. You initiate the conversation - start out with a smile on your face and being chatty; if you don’t get the same, raise hell. Stealing, and rudeness to the customers is an easy way to get fired in any business.

BTW, Cubans in Miami (no, I didn’t say “Latins”) are notorious for their rudeness to Gringos. I have no problem confronting them, either.


19 posted on 05/01/2008 3:42:39 PM PDT by QBFimi2 (Ve are the New World Order; ve bring to the world dis-order. Spike Jones, 1943.)
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To: QBFimi2
Well, not being one prone to shyness, I definitely engage them; maybe "confront" is too harsh of a word as they don't verbally attack whites, it's just them doing their best to check you and while totally ignoring you.

I try to engage them all, just to MAKE them speak - if not smile. But, the truth be known, and because of this obvious perception, I try to get in a line with a white cashier, if at all possible.


20 posted on 05/01/2008 10:16:23 PM PDT by FrankR (OBAMA is the VAST WRIGHT-WING CONSPIRACY...)
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