When it Comes to Racism, People Are All Talk
In the study, two students- one black, one white- were plants. A third student was the subject of the study, and this person was told that they were waiting for a fourth student before the study could begin. The black student would get up and leave the room, stating that he had forgotten his cell phone, and knock the white person’s knee on the way by. The white person would then make a racist comment about the black person who had just left, usually without being rebuked by the study subject.
The study found that 63% of the people involved would prefer to work with the white person who made the racist comments over the black target of those comments. A control group of students, who were not exposed to racist comments, preferred to work with the white person over the black person with the same frequency, suggesting that racist comments have little to no effect on a person’s willingness to work with that person.
This is in stark contrast to what people say they’ll do when someone makes a racist comment:
A control group of “forecaster” students, who faced no racist comments but were told of the experiment, predicted overwhelmingly that they would be offended and would lash out at the speaker.
While there are plenty of criticisms of the study- some mentioned in the article I linked to- some are suggesting that the reason why racism continues to exist is because people are indifferent, which this study does seem to suggest. People say they will speak out against racism, but when they’re actually faced with it, most do not.
Today is Martin Luther King Day. Tomorrow, the United States will celebrate the inauguration of Barack Obama, the first president of African-American descent. While these are both great strides in the elimination of racism, it’s important to note that, as this study shows, we’ve got a ways to go, yet. Let’s stop the indifference.
