Everyone’s A Little Bit Racist: An Explanation of Unconscious Racism By Laura Anne Hughes 1 President Richard Nixon once said, “You have to face the fact that the whole problem is really the blacks. The key is to devise a system that recognizes that while not appearing to.”1 What Nixon failed to recognize when he said this is that there is already a system in place that does this. This system is the human brain. The human brain operates using two systems. System one “operates automatically and quickly, with little or no effort and no sense of voluntary control.” System two distributes and focuses attention to the mental activities that require it.2 These two systems are also known as the conscious and unconscious. Eating, breathing, walking, and even simple addition are examples of things controlled by the unconscious. No one thinks to themselves as they eat “pick up fork; stab end of fork into food; bring fork up to mouth; open mouth; put fork and food in mouth; pull out fork; close mouth; chew; swallow. Repeat.” These commands occur unconsciously, and for a good reason. The unconscious mind allows everything to happen faster, without second-­‐guessing and without too much difficulty. System one is also essential for associations between words and events, people and places etc. System two or the conscious mind is important because the tasks it performs require effort and self-­‐control. The conscious mind often overrides the intuitions, associations, and impulses of System one. This is the source of conscious and unconscious racism. Human beings use their unconscious minds to do just about everything. We rely so heavily on something that we have no control over and are wholly unaware of. This reliance is one of the main reasons racisms is still so prevalent in our current society. Conscious racism is openly accepting and believing that “all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race.”3 Conscious racism and the resulting prejudice is and has been steadily declining in America since the early 1950s. Through legislation like the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and Affirmative Action, the American public has been forced to become more accepting of people of different races and have been told that discrimination based on race is inexcusable and morally wrong. The push to be “politically correct” has caused people to not be overtly racist, but the prejudice still lingers. In a 2006 poll done by ABC News, only about 34% of whites admitted to “some feelings of racial prejudice”. However, tests taken between 2000 and 2006 by Harvard University, the University of Washington and the University of Virginia, found ¾ of whites to have implicit unconscious pro-­‐
white/anti-­‐black biases. 4 1 Younge,
Gary. “What Race Has to Do With It.” The Nation, 3 Oct. 2012. Web.
Daniel. Thinking, Fast and Slow. P. 35. Print.
The New Oxford American Dictionary. Oxford UP, 2005.
4
Howell, Llewellyn D. "Losing the Race to Erase Racism." USA Today 1 Mar. 2011.
2 Kahneman,
3
2 Unconscious and unintentional racism stems from the internalization of society’s biases, prejudices and stereotypes during childhood. This type of racism is typically “invisible even, and especially to those who perpetrate it.”5 Unconscious racism is all around. Picture yourself walking down an empty street late at night. You look around and see a black man a block away from you. What now? Do you cross the street? Clutch your bag a little tighter to your person? Or do you continue to walk down the street as you had been before? This automatic fear response may seem innocent enough, but when our biases are implemented elsewhere the effects can be harmful to the millions of minorities in our society. A study conducted by Marianne Bertrand and Sendhil Mullainathan, professors at the University of Chicago and Harvard University, respectively, called “Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal?" proved there is an unconscious bias when it comes to white and black people in the work place. In the study, résumés with the identical credentials but different, more ‘ethnic-­‐sounding’ names were sent out to employers. It resulted in people with white sounding names getting called back for interviews approximately 50% more than their black counterparts. 6 The stereotypes for black employees are that they are under qualified, perform poorly, and have been hired and/or promoted solely to fill the quotas of affirmative action. Although most people growing up were told that everyone is equal, we have all been subjected to society’s biases and stereotypes of black men and women and as such unconsciously and unintentionally rely on those biases to make decisions. Unintentional racism not only affects career opportunities for minorities, but also has been proven to play a role in random searches, frisks, and jail sentencing. For a while racial profiling was considered an accurate and effective way of finding criminals. As such, there were—and still are—rules within law enforcement agencies that encourage racial profiling. This is particularly troubling because it’s discrimination “enacted and organized by federal and local government”.7 These rules effectively counteract the laws put in place to prevent discrimination and lead to higher unwarranted stops and arrests. In North Carolina, for example, local police were reportedly four times more likely to stop black men. However, when compared with the white drivers who were stopped, black drivers were 33% less likely to be partaking in any illicit activity. 8 Scientists at Harvard University have created a test that can effectively determine a person’s unconscious biases. The idea behind the test called the Implicit 5
Moule, Jean. “Understanding Unconscious Bias and Unintentional Racism.” Jan. 2009.
Bertrand, Marianne, and Sendhil Mullainathan. "Are Emily and Greg More Employable than
Lakisha and Jamal?" 20 June 2004. onscious
7
Tomaskovic Tomaskovic Tomaskovic -devey, Donald Warren, et al.
8
Ibid.
6
3 Association Test or IAT is that humans can make connections between two ideas that are already related in their mind faster than ideas that are not related. The Race IAT utilizes this notion in two parts. First, test takers are asked to identify a black face by pressing e and white face by pressing i. This is simple enough for most, but then participants are required to identify good or bad words as well as black and white faces. So now, the e key is pressed for a good word like ‘glorious’ or a black face and the i key is pressed for a bad word like ‘evil’ or a white person. Suddenly the test isn’t so straightforward; people slow down their responses or even put words and faces into wrong categories. Then the categories are reversed. Black and bad are now together and white and good as well. From this point on most test-­‐
takers have no more trouble; they don’t need to think about their answers anymore. 80% of people who have taken the Race IAT have been shown to have preferential bias toward white people.9 These people more often than not are shocked at the results. They are wholly unaware of the biases they have. This is because the preference they have is not something that is in their control, consciously they are aware of the immorality of racial biases.10 The University of Washington also created a test to uncover people’s implicit biases. Like the IAT, the test is taken on a computer, but during this test participants are required to say, or rather click whether they ‘like’ or ‘dislike’ the term displayed in the center of the screen. Throughout the test the trajectory of the cursor is tracked and by examining the cursors path, researchers can “detect whether your motor system started moving towards one button before other the cognitive system—that is our conscious—kicked into gear and drove it to the other response.”11 Of course no one wants to admit it, but almost everyone succumbs to the influence of unconscious racism. Over 50,000 black people, for example, have taken the Race IAT, and yet about half have demonstrated—according to the test—
implicitly pro-­‐white biases. 12 So, why do we have these unconscious biases? 9
Gladwell, Malcolm. Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. 2005. Print. p. 77-84
10 I have personally taken the Race IAT and I was reported to have “slight pro-­‐white, anti-­‐black biases”, as a minority I was admittedly somewhat surprised. I then proceeded to have every member of my thesis class (13 people including the teacher) take the test and not one of the test takers were reported to have pro-­‐black/anti-­‐white biases. A couple were even said to have severe pro-­‐white biases. While unfortunate, I was not surprised by these results as the percentage of minorities that attend the Masters school is relatively low, let alone percentage of minorities in Westchester County, where all of the students in the class grow up. You can take the test of you like at: https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/user/agg/blindspot/indexrk.htm 11
12
Eagleman, David. "Mind: The Gap." Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain. 2011. p. 59-61.
Gladwell. p. 85.
4 Prejudices, biases, racism can all be traced back to a single natural human ability: stereotyping.13 A stereotype is a “widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing”.14 Stereotypes are translated into our social perceptions, or societal 'attitudes' toward an individual or group. While individual stereotypes are attitudes towards a single person based on their previous actions, behaviors, appearances etc., group stereotypes are attitudes that are “based on whether the person is a member of an in/out group.”15 Attitudes consist of three components: the cognitive component, which is the stereotype(s), the affective component, which is a ‘feeling’ towards an person or group, and the behavioral component or how one acts towards/against individuals or groups based on the cognitive and affective components.16 It is common for an individual to think or feel one way about a person or group, and express the opposite attitude. While the way a person feels or ‘affective component’ may be positive towards blacks, their behavior may suggest differently and vice versa. This occurrence is an example of the conscious mind overriding the unconscious mind. Logically or consciously, a person may know that prejudice or discrimination is wrong, but they have been primed to use stereotypes for most of their life. It’s not surprising that we create stereotypes either. Human beings simplify and categorize naturally.17 We think in means and averages as a way of making our lives less complicated.18 The most distinguishing thing about humans are race, age and gender, therefore it’s only logical that these are the categories that have the most umbrella stereotypes.19 And of course, the constant stream of movies, TV shows, and even books with characters that follow these stereotypes does not help. It would seem stereotypes are learned as a part of normal socialization.20 Of course not all stereotyping is bad. Only when a stereotype is used to favor one group or person over another, do stereotypes become a form of prejudice. There are five stages to prejudicial behavior: it starts with malicious remarks, and escalates to avoidance, discrimination, physical attack, and in some cases extermination.21 There are several theories as to why we construct stereotypes and prejudices. The first is that evolutionarily, human beings organized themselves into 13
Howell.
The New Oxford American Dictionary.
15 "Psychological Theories of Prejudice and Discrimination." Blacks Academy, Apr. 2005.
16 Ibid. 17
Tomaskovic-devey, Donald Warren, et al.
18
Howell.
19
Tomaskovic-devey, Donald Warren, et al.
20
Moule.
21 “Psychological Theories of Prejudice and Discrimination.” 14
5 groups or communities, be it families or tribes, for the purpose of defense and survival. As a result, the more recognizable or familiar looking an individual the less of a threat they are perceived to be. Therefore the prejudice can be learned through exposure to threats and/or support. 22 In this theory, the ability to discriminate is learned as a person ages and experiences threats. Once an individual has had a reasonable amount of exposure to determine those who are trustworthy and those who are dangerous, they consciously and unconsciously create stereotypes for those two groups—or the in and out group. Often, instead of or in addition to figuring out these in and out groups for themselves, people pick up on and adopt the in and out groups of their parents, and friends. Once these in and out groups have been established, the in-­‐group will unconsciously try to maintain the superior status. Adhering to this theory would mean that prejudice is a social construct, meaning that in many ways prejudice is encouraged, and maintained by those who benefit from its use.23 Conversely, a second theory argues that prejudices are determined by genetics, and less so affected by the environment we are born into. Like the previous ‘nurture’ theory the idea that the evolutionary necessity of tribes and other groups affected how we perceive and discriminate is prevalent in this theory as well. However in this nature theory it is believed that a tribe will observe overt, often physically differences between themselves and others, and separate themselves from those groups forming the in and out groups. 24 This results in the assertion of differences and dominance due to the perceived superiority of the ‘in’ group. Following this theory means that prejudices are inherent and therefore nearly impossible to remove. Not only do humans construct stereotypes and prejudices for these in and out groups, but also when faced with a situation contrary to those stereotypes, we identify it merely as an outlier.25 This means once a prejudice is established in a person’s mind, the prejudice is held and maintained for the rest of their life.26 This process is called re-­‐fencing.27 Similar to illusory correlation, or the perception of a relationship between two objects when there is none 28 —re-­‐fencing causes reinforcement of prior beliefs or stereotypes. “Stereotypes lead to polarized judgments”29 that is, as with re-­‐fencing, either an individual follows a stereotype or 22 Moule. 23 “Psychological
Theories of Prejudice and Discrimination.” 24 Ibid 25 Moule. 26 “Psychological
27
Theories of Prejudice and Discrimination.” Moule.
28 Myers, David G. "Module 2: Research Strategies: How Psychologist Ask and Answer
Questions." Exploring Psychology: Eighth Edition in Modules.
29 “Psychological Theories of Prejudice and Discrimination.” 6 they are an exception. Take for example the phrase “My best friend is black.” This seemingly innocuous sentence is a prime example of re-­‐fencing. Not only does this phrase allows the person saying it to deny their unconscious biases, but they are making the mistake of only acknowledging a single person—the exception—not the race as a whole. In addition, the human brain is better at recalling facts that pertain to and/or reinforce a stereotype.30 This is because the associations needed to link the two objects have already been made in the unconscious mind. Meaning no new neural pathways have to be formed to remember the fact. Finally, prejudice causes so-­‐called “self-­‐fulfilling prophecies.” Which is to say that when confronted with prejudice, people tend to respond with actions or behaviors that reinforce the stereotype thus supporting the prejudices perpetrated against them.31 For example, elementary school teacher Jane Elliott in Iowa ran an experiment that separated the children with blue eyes and the children with brown eyes by giving the brown eyed children perks that the “bluesy”—as she called them—didn’t get, such as extra time at recess, praising them more and even telling them that they shouldn’t associate with blue-­‐eyed children. She said the bluesy were undependable, lazy and dishonest. She said it wasn’t their fault; they were just born like that. Not 30 minutes into the experiment she observe changes in the children’s behaviors. She noted that several of her slower brown-­‐eyed students had become confident leaders of the class. Even the shyest brown-­‐eyed children were suddenly more outgoing. Conversely smart blue-­‐eyed children started to struggle with their schoolwork. They even held themselves differently.32 The same can be asserted for minority and under-­‐privileged children; they are told by society that they will under preform and often end up reaffirming the stereotype perpetrated against them. These three processes make it particularly difficult to combat racism. Some even question whether it is at all possible to reduce, prevent or even eliminate prejudice, convinced that prejudice and discrimination are inevitable and permanent aspect of society. Regarding this question there are two theories, both of which argue that racism is hard-­‐wired into the human psyche: the first states that prejudice is “an expression of innate aggression, determined by biological (and genetic) forces, and consequentially not at all amendable to environmental conditions”; the second theory, meanwhile, claims that prejudice is a social construct that is subsequently maintained by the encouragement provided by the in 30 Ibid. 31 Ibid. 32 Bloom,
Stephen G. "Blue-Eyes, Brown-Eyes: The Experiment That Shocked the Nation And
Turned a Town Against Its Most Famous Daughter." University of Iowa. 7 and out groups, and therefore “no amount of social engineering can succeed in reversing the process” in our current society.33 If it is possible to reduce prejudices there are three steps that must be taken. Step one is increasing diversity in schools and other large institutions.34 This will ensure the exposure of people, but especially children, to other races and challenge the stereotypes early on. It is also essential that the exposure be non-­‐competitive in nature.35 Competition between racial groups will just reinforce the in and out group mentality. What is also important to note is that desegregation will not solve the issue on its own. Exposure to similarities and differences alone will not reduce prejudices. “If blacks continue to hold lower status positions after desegregation, then they will continue to be discriminated against.”36 The second step for reducing prejudice is the pursuit of a common goal. Many studies have show that while trying to reach a goal or solve a problem that requires cooperation, almost all differences are forgotten. 37 In a technique created by Elliot Aronson, students were given an in-­‐class assignment topic and the classroom then is split into diverse groups. Within the groups each student is in charge of an aspect of the topic, they must learn their assigned piece and present to the group. The final step in reducing prejudice is education; education is the equalizer of the in and out groups in our current society. Better educations for underprivileged students can help challenge stereotypes, and allow for more blacks in higher positions. Additionally, learning the history of violence caused by discrimination forces students to more be conscious of their biases. If it’s possible to reduce prejudice, then it should be conceivable to eliminate it all together or prevent it, right? Wrong. A study done by researcher Phyllis Katz has shown that children start to discriminate based on skin color as young as 6 months old, and the discrimination only continues as they age. 38 At 6 months old, children have been recorded to stare at pictures of people who are different races of their parents. This indicates that they perceive a difference. At 3, Katz showed the same children pictures of other children and asked them whom they’d like to be friends with. Astoundingly 86% of the white children picked only children who were also white. When the children were 5 and 6, they were asked to sort a deck of cards with people of different races, genders and ages. 68% of the children used race to categorize the cards, while only 16% of the children used gender as the determining 33 “Psychological
Theories of Prejudice and Discrimination.” 34 Howell. 35 “Psychological
Theories of Prejudice and Discrimination.” 36 Ibid. 37 Ibid. 38 Bronson,
Po, and Ashley Merryman. "See Baby Discriminate`." Newsweek. 4 Sept. 2009. Web.
8 characteristic for separation. 39 All the children in the study lived in racially tolerant homes, and yet the children from a very young age use raced as a form of differentiation. This proves that the ability to discriminate is a biological and evolutionarily necessary tool of the human unconscious, and that there is no such way of raising a ‘color-­‐blind’ child as many parents hope to do. Furthermore, a study performed by Rebecca Bigler at the University of Texas, showed how children will create their own in and out groups. In the experiment preschoolers who ranged from ages 4 and 5 year-­‐olds were arbitrarily given a Red or Blue T-­‐shirt. The children were to wear these shirts for three weeks. The teachers were told to never mention their colors and never separated the children by shirt color. Bigler found that behaviorally the children were unchanged; they didn’t only associate with their color or act any differently toward the other color. However when asked which color was better to belong to and similar questions, they would always choose the color team they belonged to. Though no there were no behavior differences there was a clear preference for one side, as well as an increasingly negative perception of the children on the other color team.40 This is because children are highly susceptible to “in-­‐group preferences.” Therefore while trying to prevent or eliminate racism, it is essential that parents talk to their children about racial discrimination early on and continue the discussion well into their adolescent lives, so that the children don’t develop the preferences doesn’t form on their own. President Obama’s 2008 and 2012 campaigns include examples of the unconscious and sometimes conscious racism that still occurs in our current society. While Obama has never had an issue getting white voters’ support—as he did receive 43% of the ‘white vote’ in 2008 and 39% in 2012.41 According to survey done by the Associated Press in October, 51% of Americans “express explicit anti-­‐
black attitudes,” that’s a 3% higher than the 48% than a similar survey done in 2008. Additionally, implicit racial attitudes–that is unconscious biases—are up to 56% from the 49% in 2008.42 Therefore, although America for the first time ever elected a black president, during his first term racism has only increased. According to an article in the New York Times in May of 2012 people claimed that race directly effected their decision to not vote for President Obama in the 2008 election. The people who made these statements were never asked about the 39 Ibid. 40 Ibid. 41 Junius,
Dennis. "AP Poll: U.S. Majority Have Prejudice against Blacks." USA Today. Gannett,
27 Oct. 2012. Web. 42 Ibid.
9 Presidents race, but rather their opinion on the election and Mr. Obama. These people brought up race on their own and of their own volition.43 Since President Barack H. Obama’s election and inauguration many news outlets have claimed we are now living in a “post-­‐racial” world. But with all the issues the Obama administration has run into because of the president’s race, from the ‘birther controversy’ to republican ads targeting racist voters, it’s hard to see the legitimacy in the media’s claims. Throughout the 2008 presidential campaigns, race and racial issues were seen as a ‘minefield’; as such the candidates tried to steer clear of the issue and barely discussed the matter. This, however, did not mean that Obama’s ‘blackness’ had no effect on the 2008 election. In fact, because the issue wasn’t talked about, it made it worse when the race issue did come up. On the campaign trail in 2008 Obama responded to a McCain ad by saying that the opposition was trying to “scare” voters by noting his “funny name” and that “he doesn't look like all the presidents on the dollar bills and the five-­‐dollar bills."44 After this comment, the Republican Party was up in arms. Some refuted Obama’s claims; others accused Obama of being a reverse racist. Further still, McCain’s campaign manager and many others thought that Obama’s statement was a low attempt to swing voters by “playing the race card.”45 One of the biggest issues during the 2008 election was that ironically, Barack Obama was perceived as “not black enough.” Obama is biracial; he is articulate; he is educated, but most of all he is calm, cool and collected while under pressure. The stereotype of black men—unintelligible, uneducated, and angry—has been so ingrained in our societal perception of blacks that when Obama broke that mold, he was hassled by just about everyone. An op-­‐ed by Stanley Crouch called “What Obama Isn’t: Black Like Me” claimed because Mr. Obama is light-­‐skinned and had a white mother, he never experienced the same issues of distrust and scrutiny as ‘true black Americans’ 46. During this time the media—primarily white journalists—were starting to believe there was validity to the claims that Obama wasn’t black enough because he was trailing behind his biggest opponent, Hillary Clinton, in black votes. ∗
43
Sabrina Tavernise; Zeleny, Jeff. 4 Years Later, Race Is Still Issue for Some Voters." The New
York Times. 04 May 2012.The New York Times
44
Bigg, Matthew. "Obama Race Card Controversy Raises Issue of Trust." Reuters. 02 Aug. 2008.
45
Ibid.
I’d like to note that I read about this op-­‐ed in multiple news articles that came out prior to the 2008 election, but while searching for it I soon found that the New York Daily News had deleted it from their website. I was only about to find a copy of it posted to a news forum. I’m not exactly sure if this says more about the way the public reacted to the piece or if it indicated the Daily News’ dissociate themselves with such a controversial topic. 46 Crouch, Staley. "What Obama Isn't: Black Like Me." New York Daily News. 02 Nov. 2006.
Web.
∗
10 In an interview with Charlie Rose, the co-­‐anchor of CBS This Morning, Obama refuted the claims that he wasn’t black enough, in his usual cool manner, by simply saying, “If I’m outside your building trying to catch as cab, they’re not saying, ‘oh, there’s a mixed race guy.’”47 What started as a chain e-­‐mail, soon escalated into a national smear campaign.48 The so-­‐called ‘birther controversy’ was easily one of the most divisive issues the Obama Administration has dealt with and continues to refute. The scandal claims that Obama was not born in America and therefore according to the natural born citizen clause of constitution would make Mr. Obama ineligible for the job of president. Since the height of the controversy, the president has provided countless documents, including his birth certificate, proving that he is in fact a natural born American citizenship. However following the release of these document the allegations against Mr. Obama continued. Many questioned their authenticity, and many of the birthers have filed court cases questioning Obama’s eligibility.49 All of these cases have been dismissed. The issue of a candidates’ eligibility for President has never come up before and ironically enough Senator John McCain, the man running for President for the Republicans in 2008, was not actually born in the United States.50 McCain’s citizenship, however, was never called into question. On has to wonder if this is because Senator McCain is white and ‘looks American.’ Despite the issues he faced Obama still won the 2008 election. However, not long after his win, the claims that he had won solely because of his race mounted. Many people asserted that voting for Obama had become a ‘fad’, and that a lot of people—specifically young and minority voters—rather than voting for him for his policies, voted for him because it was seen as the cool thing to do and because his race meant that their vote would be a historical one.51 The 2012 election took a different approach to racial issues, though he Republican Mitt Romney rarely directly addressed Obama’s race, he, his campaign, as well as the Super PACs backing him would often imply cultural and racial differences between Obama and himself that that made him (Romney) the better candidate. While on the campaign trail in Michigan, Romney made a reference to one of the ‘birther’ controversy, saying, “No one has ever asked to see my birth certificate. They know that this (America) is the place that we were born and 47 Coates,
Ta-Nehisi Paul. "Is Obama Black Enough?" Time: U.S. Time Magazine, 01 Feb. 2007.
Web. 48 "Q&A: Obama's Birth Certificate." BBC News. BBC, 08 Apr. 2009. Web.
49 Ibid. 50 "John McCain Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, Web.
51
Sabrina Tavernise; Zeleny, Jeff.
11 raised."52 Although President Obama has debunked the myth of his ‘non-­‐American’ roots, many people still believe there is legitimacy to the birther claims. Bringing this issue back to life highlights the difference between Obama and his predecessors, it makes people think about his father’s Kenya roots, it subtly hints at Obama’s race and attempts to influence the voters who would like to cling to those differences. In July of 2012, Romney made a speech at National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). During his speech Romney was booed three times, once when he spoke about repealing the Affordable Care Act, when he claimed Obama has failed to improve the economy and when he stated that he would be the President who will “make things better in the African-­‐American community.”53 NAACP chairman, Benjamin Todd Jealous, said that Romney's speech was in direct opposition to the interests of the audience. He said "His criticism of the Affordable Care Act – legislation that will improve access to quality health care for millions – signals his fundamental misunderstanding of the needs of many African Americans.” Avis Jones-­‐DeWeever, the executive director of the National Council of Negro Women, asserted that Romney’s speech at the NAACP was a “political ploy,” meant to pander to the conservative, and increasingly racially intolerant right. 54 What’s more, Romney’s campaign staff and advisors did not hesitate to make a discriminatory or derogatory remark about the Presidents race. Take for example the statement from an unnamed Romney advisor saying that Britain, Romney, and America share a special bond because of their “Anglo-­‐Saxon roots”. The comment was an obvious jab at Obama’s race. Vice President Biden said “this (statement) is just another feeble attempt by the Romney campaign to score political points at the expense of this critical partnership.”55 The ‘critical partnership’ Biden spoke about is the already huge gap between the two political parties. Not only are the two parties struggling to agree on basic policies, but since the 2008 election, the republican party has undergone a radical transformation toward narrow-­‐mindedness bigotry. As such Biden’s statement asserts that Romney’s campaign is comply with the new ideals of the conservative right, and therefore discriminatory. It’s hard to determine exactly why the prejudice against blacks has only increase since the election of America’s first black President, but one can speculate that it all goes back to in and out group preferences. When the dominance of an in-­‐
group, in this case white Americans, is challenged the prejudice resurfaces on both a 52
Haake, Garrett. "Romney in Michigan: 'No One Has Ever Asked to See My Birth
Certificate'" First Read:NBC News. 24 Aug. 2012. Web.
53 Negrin, Matt. "Romney Says He Knew He'd Be Booed at NAACP." ABC News. ABC News
Network, 11 July 2012. Web.
54 Ibid. 55 Holland, Steve. ""Anglo-Saxon" Quote Overshadows Start of Romney Tour." Chicago
Tribune. 26 July 2012.
12 conscious and unconscious level. Additionally, since the start of his term, there has been more anti-­‐Obama propaganda and news of his ‘failures’, because Obama is associated with blackness, the negative aspects of his presidency are only further asserting the negative associations with Americans have with blacks. Our biggest problem, however, is not that we racism continues to exists or grow, but rather that people refuse to admit its presences and prevalence in our everyday lives. In the 2003 hit musical Avenue Q, Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx successfully describe this issue in their song “Everyone’s A Little Bit Racist”. “Everyone's a little bit racist It's true. But everyone is just about as racist as you! If we all could just admit That we are racist a little bit, And everyone stopped being So PC Maybe we could live in -­‐ Harmony!”56 56 Marx, Jeff, and Robert Lopez. "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist - Avenue
Q."SongLyrics.com.Web.
13