implicit bias – Contemporary Racism

Difficulty Setting: White

Teagan Richichi — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 18:20:32 +0000

A metaphor for life in America being White is that it’s like having the difficulty of a video game set on easy mode. I first heard this metaphor when I was a teenager, approximately in middle school or early high school, and it’s stuck with me since then. The premise is simple, and the metaphor can be expanded on. It’s not just that White is the easy setting, it’s that those who are playing at ...

Age and Dehumanization

Comack — Tue, 10 Dec 2024 18:19:54 +0000

Systematic racism can be defined as how discrimination weaves its way into policies and practices that exist within an organization or society. Racism comes in many forms, but the one area that does not often get talked about is how it can affect young black children, specifically in the context of police brutality and the judicial system. Dehumanization occurs when one is deprived of their human qualities, or subject someone to inhuman treatment and conditions. ...

Microaggressions: What To Do?

MG — Fri, 29 Nov 2024 17:59:32 +0000

There are many things that individuals may or may not notice right away. Sometimes we don’t realize what just happened within our surroundings, or the train of thought hits us later on. Microaggressions are one of these things. There is a sense of hesitation and anxiety that can overcome us when we witness microaggressions in front of us. Should I say or do something about it? Should I jump to intervene in the situation? What ...

Representation from Disney is a “Threat’ to White People?

Carly — Thu, 17 Oct 2024 14:12:50 +0000

Why is it that white people seem to be so threatened by the idea of representation and equity? White people seem to believe that they are entitled to being represented through the media, even in spaces where Black individuals are requesting more POC (people of color) characters and stories. For example, Disney has recently been under some backlash from audiences about choices for their theme parks and movies. Simply because of people attempting to keep ...

Stepping off the Moving Walkway!

Danielleh — Thu, 17 Oct 2024 13:59:55 +0000

Imagine you are at the airport, standing still on a moving sidewalk, you feel the breeze in your hair as you get closer to where you intend to go. This is the overall nature of the well-known moving walkway analogy. This famous analogy comes from Dr. Tatum as she understands it by comparing it to an “ongoing cycle of racism is like a moving walkway at the airport.” Overall this concept sets an understanding and ...

Yellow Light!

Piper Schwenk — Sun, 17 Dec 2023 13:41:35 +0000

Is it safer to speed up or slow down at a yellow light? Slow down! Slowing down is safer for yourself and others when driving on the road. Let’s take this yellow light idea and apply it to race talk. Slowing down when talking to others is one of the most important steps to combat implicit bias. What is implicit bias? Implicit bias is unconscious opinions and beliefs that are not consciously thought and can ...

Egalitarianism, Implicit Bias, and Motivation

Ricardo Caamano — Wed, 06 Dec 2023 19:15:10 +0000

In society today some people are beginning to make change. They are becoming less prejudiced, and using fewer stereotypes. The question is whether this is due to internal, or external motivations. Meaning are people being less racist because in their heart they know it is wrong? Or, are they being less racist because they are scared of the societal consequences and being known as a racist and getting canceled by society, or maybe because of ...

Let’s Be Biased Together

Ibrahim Sidibeh — Thu, 12 Oct 2023 18:39:35 +0000

I am biased. You are, too. Let’s accept it. Bias is an ingrained part of human nature. We all have preconceived notions, stereotypes, and biases that influence our thoughts, actions, and interactions with the world around us. However, the way our brains navigate the world and interact with every social environment we’re in, we NEED to have biases and generalizations. Our brains need to have shortcuts so they can function efficiently, and we don’t have ...

Healthcare and the COVID-19 Pandemic

Silvia Mejia-Armilla — Fri, 11 Dec 2020 13:35:16 +0000

The rates at which minorities are being affected by the COVID-19 pandemic are disproportional to those of white people. Healthcare has always been an area in which black families have been systemically neglected with the proper resources to remain healthy: a right that should be given to everyone. Even though it might feel a little distant to those who aren’t directly affected by the virus individually or by the poor health of a relative or ...

Stop Normalizing Black-Crime Association

Brittany Hurlock — Mon, 30 Nov 2020 15:40:51 +0000

Something that has especially stuck out to me over the past few weeks has been the ideas presented in an article we read by Jennifer L. Eberhardt on ?Enduring Racial Associations African Americans, Crime, and Animal Imagery?. Within this article, she discusses the stereotypes associated with Black people in relation to crime. She also discusses how there are many factors that influence this, such as the stereotype of blacks as being hostile, dangerous, or criminals, ...

Why is it all black and white?

Danielle Kraes — Mon, 30 Nov 2020 15:23:46 +0000

Have you ever heard the sayings “black as night”, “pitch black”, “black out”, “black magic”, etc..? What do these all have in common? At first glance you can see that they all have the word black in them. However, if you look at the phrase as a whole, it is clear the word Black is used to depict darkness, whether that be literally or figuratively. Dark is the opposite of light, usually representing good. Let ...

Race Talk: Why is it Lacking?

Marissa Steiner — Tue, 17 Nov 2020 20:15:13 +0000

Our education system and schooling curriculum lacks transparent information regarding the country’s racial history and lacks the general knowledge of how to have race talk. Some teachers, who should be educating and pushing the barrier, still frequently ignore race talk or are visibly uncomfortable when racism is discussed. These classroom dynamics are crucial, and teachers and educators set the tone. Teachers need to be able to preach inclusivity, create a positive and productive classroom dynamic, ...

Am I the Stereotype?

Tania Jaramillo — Sat, 24 Oct 2020 15:38:50 +0000

What is a stereotype? Social psychology defines a stereotype as “any thought widely adopted about specific types of individuals or certain ways of behaving intended to represent the entire group of those individuals or behaviors as a whole.” Stereotypes are generalizations made about people and the groups in which those people belong to based on their appearances and behaviors. Do you know of any stereotypes made about you? Your skin color? Your religion? Your ethnicity? ...

Stop Normalizing Color-blind Ideologies

Brittany Hurlock — Sun, 18 Oct 2020 15:04:01 +0000

I have been thinking a lot about the ideas of prejudice and the denial of racism that were presented in the article ?Beyond Prejudice: Toward a Sociocultural Psychology of Racism and Oppression by Glenn Adams, Monica Biernat, Nyla R. Branscombe, and others?. W?ithin this article, they suggested models that account for the denial of racism, which they identified as being the “restriction of the range of phenomena to which the concepts of racism and oppression ...

The Acts of Exclusion in Greek Life

Marissa Steiner — Sun, 18 Oct 2020 14:41:10 +0000

Greek life has been under a microscopic eye, especially this summer and fall. Sorority Instagram pages are flooded with pictures of members and captions saying, “I found my girl gang!” What about everything that’s going on in the world? The protests, the murders, the systemic racism absolutely has to be acknowledged. We have to acknowledge that Greek life as a whole is predominantly white. I think many people have a fear of joining Greek life ...

I’m a Barbie girl living in a White world

Danielle Kraes — Tue, 13 Oct 2020 16:28:15 +0000

Take a moment and think back to what dolls you played with as a child. Most of you probably mentioned companies such as Barbie or American Girl. What did these dolls look like? Unfortunately, the majority of you probably said they were White, blonde, and had blue eyes. Most people think why does this matter? It is just a toy. However, it does matter. Although children are young, they are very observant. As they grow ...

White’s Anatomy

Emma Schwartz — Sun, 08 Dec 2019 18:32:13 +0000

The invisibility of whiteness has never been an issue for me until I took this class. And when I became aware of the invisibility of my race, I began to notice it explicitly in other places, specifically when it came to the media. Grey’s Anatomy is a television show that is often highly praised for its racially diverse cast of characters, and more often than not in its recent episodes, it is praised for the ...

Sisterhood’s Lasting Impacts

Emma Schwartz — Sun, 08 Dec 2019 18:02:37 +0000

One of the clearest impressions I have of Greek Life is the movie Sydney White, where every member of the sorority portrayed in the movie is thin, white, and blonde, except for Sydney White, who is, *gasp*, a brunette. And that impression has not been disproven. When I entered Greek Life at Muhlenberg, there were no black women who had joined or were already members in my chapter. There was one Latina woman, who graduated, ...

Racism in Restaurants

Audrey — Sun, 08 Dec 2019 17:07:33 +0000

I have worked in the service industry doing everything from bussing to serving to bartending for years and the one thing that has followed me to every establishment I have worked in is explicit racism. In recent years more attention and media coverage has been given to the issues black people face as consumers in America. Instances such as two black men being arrested in a Starbucks or the singer SZA being followed around by ...

Shifting Mainstream Understanding of Individual Racism

Ivie Mims — Sun, 08 Dec 2019 15:50:07 +0000

As the academic semester comes to an end, in my contemporary racism class we have been discussing and connecting various concepts to develop our understanding of the role of modern racism and its consequences to marginalized identity groups in the United States. We discussed how, under the influence of mainstream media, we tend to focus on individuals who exhibit old-fashioned, overt acts of racism and the obvious, direct consequences to people of color. This leads ...

Teachers Still Need to Be Taught

KarlyM — Sun, 08 Dec 2019 15:09:29 +0000

When it comes to the school system, there are many white teachers who stray away from talking about race in the classroom. The dynamics of the classroom matter so much more than people may originally anticipate. Students need to feel comfortable when it comes to someone who is instructing them. Not only are teachers someone that students see often, but they are available to talk to about other topics if needed. When it comes to ...

Times Change and So Does Racism

Alex Helpin — Sun, 20 Oct 2019 17:11:01 +0000

Racism has existed in the United States even before America was an independent nation. Over time much has changed about the United States but by the same token, so has racism. At first racism was openly expressed in the form of slavery, and later in the form of Jim Crow laws. Both of these forms of racism are considered to be old fashioned forms of racism. As time has gone by it has become more ...

How To Convince Parents to Let You Study Abroad

hopp — Mon, 13 May 2019 16:44:54 +0000

I always knew my parents were quite blind to certain inequalities and societal issues. In general, they weren’t super overtly racist in public but I always wondered why my mom had certain habits. For example, whenever we went to an area that was more urban, she would always lock her doors at red lights. My mom would say that it is because she grew up in a city so I never really thought it was ...

Nipsey Hussle’s Death

Maia Brint — Wed, 08 May 2019 13:23:10 +0000

On March 31st, 2019, Nipsey Hussle, otherwise known as, Ermias Joseph Asghedom, an up and coming rapper was shot right outside of his store in the front parking lot. Prior to the shooting, the perpetrator and him had gotten in a small altercation inside the store. Nipsey’s community was immediately up in arms about his untimely death; they had a vigil for him in his parking lot the night he was shot. In a CNN ...

Minority Spotlights the Minority Spotlight

Maia Brint — Sun, 31 Mar 2019 17:12:21 +0000

The minority spotlight effect is something that might seem minute and insignificant in the moment, but it can be frustrating for students of color and internalized differently by them as well. I heard about an incident in a class with a faculty member of color where the class consistently tackled social issues, broaching topics including gender, race, and sexuality. The teacher would consistently look to students of color in hopes that they would chime in ...

Mental Health in 2018: If You’re Black, Can You Never Come Back?

Lily Josephs — Wed, 09 May 2018 12:47:31 +0000

According to a study done by the Office of Minority Health through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, as adults, Black and African American males are 20 percent more likely to suffer from serious psychological distress than adult White males. It was also found that Black and African American males are more likely than White males to have feelings of sadness, hopelessness, and worthlessness. According to the study, “Black/African Americans hold beliefs related ...

Starbucks Doesn’t Serve their Coffee Black

Maia Brint — Mon, 23 Apr 2018 18:34:15 +0000

Early last week, on April 12th, two Black men were arrested inside a Philadelphia Starbucks. The store manager had called the cops, saying there was a disturbance, that these men were refusing to leave the premises, and that she was scared. In response to the call, a group of police officers came inside the establishment, did not ask the two men any questions about their presence in the Starbucks, and immediately handcuffed them and walked ...

An Open Letter to My “White” Black Friend

Kyle Watkins — Mon, 23 Apr 2018 18:24:38 +0000

It is very easy, I’ve found, to look out and look around and see behaviors and interactions that are silently swept into the cyclical system that White supremacy has made out of our country. It is valuable as it is easy to analyze and self-educate in response to these observations. A habit equally if not more valuable to the resistance to oppressive systems, however, is the ability to look inward to analyze and learn from ...

Mass Incarceration: Not Just a Social Problem

Ziming Han — Mon, 23 Apr 2018 17:58:59 +0000

Today when we talk about mass incarceration, many people may think that we are talking about a social problem. Yes, it is a big social problem, since America has become the country with highest incarceration rate for years, which is much higher than the incarceration rates of all other western industrial countries. Although each year the United States federal and states government spends about 70 billion dollars on incarceration, some prisons like which in Texas ...

Wait…. Racism is a “Big Problem”?

Sarah Prince — Sun, 08 Apr 2018 16:31:10 +0000

The fact that racism is a big problem will most likely not come as a surprise to many people. Yet, there are people who are just now seeing racism as a “big problem” in the United States. According to a Pew research center poll, 58% now see racism as a big problem in the United States. What about the other 42%? These are the people who either think racism is somewhat a problem, small problem, ...

Microaggressions: Conscious or Unconscious?

Ziming Han — Mon, 19 Mar 2018 18:04:49 +0000

In our recent world, especially in developed countries, the concept of egalitarianism is accepted more and more widely by people. They believe the world should be a fair place which provides equal opportunity for each person no matter what one’s race, gender, or sexual orientation is. Because of this belief many people pay attention to their conversations and behaviors in order to not act as a racist or sexist. Egalitarianism is not only a inner ...

Advice for a White Ally

Benjamin Starr — Mon, 26 Feb 2018 19:52:31 +0000

It starts with you. If you want to be an agent for positive change, your actions must be self-motivated. You have to start with yourself. Whether you’re aware of it or not, you’ve incorporated biases that frame your perception of people of color. It’s difficult to come to terms with this, because no one wants to think they hold prejudices. But we all do. And we often exercise these prejudices without knowing. We make fundamental ...

Stark Realizations

Michael Silverstein — Mon, 07 Nov 2016 19:41:37 +0000

With the presidential election coming up on Tuesday, the next four years of policy are being decided. Looking back at the campaigns leading up to this point, the rhetoric surrounding race has been interesting. Much of the things said about race have been problematic, but prior to this semester I would not have understood why. This semester of classes, with contemporary racism and multicultural psychology has been very eye-opening for me. Coming from a predominately ...

Watching Aversive Racism

Michael Silverstein — Mon, 07 Nov 2016 19:23:50 +0000

Where I am from, there is not much diversity. That was really highlighted for me while I was home this past weekend. One of the most popular places in my hometown is a bagel shop. Everyone goes to it and I often find myself running into old friends there both serving food and getting food. In the summer, the local swim team has a tradition of going there after every practice (a tradition that I ...

Which one is better?

Julisa Fabian — Mon, 09 May 2016 00:44:22 +0000

For my final blog post I decided to revisit the question that kind of stuck with me during our last class. I don’t remember the question exactly but it essentially said: isn’t bad media representation better than none because it is a start? I sort of answered it in class, but I was still struggling after. And I still, sort of, am struggling with it now. So I’m determined to find an answer by the ...

Implicit Racism: A Harmful Theory?

Jennie Colabatistto — Tue, 12 Apr 2016 14:07:20 +0000

The other day, I had a very interesting conversation with a student of color, who is a friend of mine about systems of oppression, specifically racism. For anonymity sake, we will call the student Mike. I was telling Mike about my Contemporary Racism class that I am currently taking and was surprised by his reaction to some of the concepts we are learning about. He seemed to have particular discontent with the concept of implicit ...

The “Bad Kid”

Brendan — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 15:21:03 +0000

I went to the same public school system for first through eighth grade. My town was not that large, so the size of my grade never exceeded 70 people. Aside from a few students who moved either to our town or out of it, the kids who were in my class stayed relatively the same each year. The reason I’m writing about this is that it recently occurred to me over these eight years, there ...

Institutional Racism on college campuses: I, too, am Harvard

Ave.MariaLewis — Mon, 31 Mar 2014 02:09:47 +0000

http://www.buzzfeed.com/alisonvingiano/21-black-harvard-students-share-their-experiences-through-a The article above was introduced to me recently by one of my friends. While I was going to write about something different this week, this article captured me. Entitled “I, too, am Harvard” you see a preview of a photo project from 21 students of color who attend Harvard university. Each is holding a black dry erase board which dons a common phrase that they often hear and has in some way effected ...

Low Prejudice/High Prejudice

EmilyBlakeslee — Mon, 24 Feb 2014 02:16:50 +0000

Something about our last conversation in contemporary racism was bothering me, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I knew it had something to do with how we had discussed the low prejudice versus high prejudice participants in Hodson, et al (2002). We discussed how “high prejudiced” participants from a sample of college students really represents the “low prejudiced” end of the general American population. We discussed that this is due to college students ...

Racism in aisle ’14

Chelsey — Sun, 23 Feb 2014 19:12:50 +0000

Since I have been in this class, it is amazing to me how many things I see on social media sites that relate to everything we are talking about in class. This week I was browsing my Facebook news feed and I saw two posts, one after another, that completely shocked me. A woman, that goes to Muhlenberg, had a post that explained a recent experience with racism. Her post stated: “So I went to ...

Aversive Racism In The Schools

Lauren B. — Sun, 23 Feb 2014 18:58:26 +0000

As part of my research in the Education department, I am presenting on a panel about race and education. The goal of the panel is to illustrate the different school districts in the area and the relationship between the prominent race in each school, the average socioeconomic status of students, and overall “success” of the school according to the state. The idea is to start a conversation about why the schools that are predominately African ...

A Social Experiment on Crime and Color

jena.verlin — Sun, 23 Feb 2014 17:10:46 +0000

This week, I was browsing Buzzfeed instead of doing homework (as per usual), and I stumbled across an article/video about a “social experiment” done by two men: one black, one white. They parked their car on a public street and proceeded to fake break into the car and watch what happened. The white prankster tried for 30 minutes to break into the car, horn blaring, and nothing happened. A cop car even drove by and ...

Is Prejudice Inevitable?

Ave.MariaLewis — Mon, 17 Feb 2014 05:01:27 +0000

After reading the Devine article I became increasingly curious with the idea of how inevitable prejudice and racial stereotyping really is in today’s society. In Devine’s article she states “Inhibiting stereotype-congruent or prejudice-like responses and intentionally replacing them with nonprejudiced responses can be likened to be the breaking of a bad habit” (Devine, P.G. 1989). There are many people who are under the notion that we live in post racial society; but as we have ...

Jordan Davis – Law and Implicit Prejudice

Chris Chaky — Mon, 17 Feb 2014 04:56:28 +0000

While what would have been Trayvon Martin’s birthday recently passed, a similar trial was finished in court – the trial of the murder of Jordan Davis. On November 23, 2012, Michael Dunn pulled into a gas station in Jacksonville, Florida. He saw a red SUV full of black teenagers playing loud music and walked up to them to complain. He thought he saw a gun being taken out, so he shot at the teenagers, killing ...

Racism is the Norm, It is Everywhere

Chelsey — Sun, 16 Feb 2014 22:17:37 +0000

In an article by Adams et al, entitled “Beyond Prejudice: Toward a Sociocultural Psychology of Racism” Adams discusses many misconceptions people have about racism in today’s American society. One point made stated that racism is a product of abnormal personalities. Most people would swear up and down that they do not have a racist bone in their body, because being called racist is a fear of many. The term “abnormal” infers that racist is not ...

Implicit and Explicit Prejudices

Simone — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 03:14:25 +0000

It’s difficult to discuss prejudice without clarifying what it is. The fourth edition of the American Heritage College Dictionary provides four meanings for the term—from “an adverse judgment or opinion formed beforehand or without knowledge or examination of the facts” to “irrational suspicion or hatred of a particular group, race or religion.” Both definitions apply to the experiences of ethnic minorities in Western society. Of course, the second definition sounds much more menacing than the ...

If He Wasn’t Wearing a Hoodie…

Michela — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 02:40:53 +0000

In light of the delayed Trayvon Martin coverage this week, Fox News caster Geraldo Rivera excused the actions of Zimmerman because of the hoodie Martin was wearing. Not only was Rivera blaming the victim, but he used a cultural frame to dismiss this grave injustice. It wasn’t just Rivera that has expressed this sentiment; this week when I was expressing my frustration and anger about the case, a friend of mine said, “I understand that ...

Can Implicit Attitudes Change?

kw237335 — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 01:54:09 +0000

After completing the IAT last week, I began to really think about the meaning of the test itself and whether the test is a reliable measure of someone’s unconscious thoughts. This thought became even more prevalent after reading the article by Blair (2002) and also the article by Karpinski and Hilton (2001). The articles seem to support the fact that implicit attitudes may be influenced and/or changed by environmental factors and outside forces. I have ...

Contact Theory, Controlled Thought, and the Fundamental Attribution Error

Daniel.Greenfield90 — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 04:57:46 +0000

In our class focused on aversive racism, we examined an article by Patricia G. Devine. Devine’s article consisted of three related studies which focused on the mental processes of both high-prejudice and low-prejudice individuals. Devine’s first study found that high and low prejudice individuals are aware of the same stereotypes. Devine’s second study looked below the surface of consciousness, and found that when people, whether they are high or low prejudice are not aware that ...

Stereotypes as a Cognitive Tool

Jordan — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 21:52:09 +0000

I found the findings of the article “Stereotypes as Energy-Saving Devices: A Peek Inside the Cognitive Toolbox” by Macrae, et. al incredibly depressing. The researchers’ studies on both implicitly and explicitly presented stereotype cues revealed that stereotypes, like any kind of schema, save cognitive energy. Rather than analyzing the different traits of a new person, we subconsciously label them as part of a group. That way, we can instead use cognition to process what they ...

Spring Break Conversation: Racism in the Workplace

Jordan — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 13:09:54 +0000

At home over break, my parents of course wanted to hear about what use I am getting out of their tuition money and the asked me about their classes. I had the most to tell them about this one. For one thing, I have definitely done the most work and learned the most in this class in comparison with my others this semester. I also know that this subject material would be most unfamiliar to ...

Aversive Racism

Alexa — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 23:31:27 +0000

“Color Blind or Just Plain Blind”- Dovidio & Gaertner Article This article by Dovidio and Gaertner directly relates to the discussions we had in class last Tuesday. The first part of this article explains the results and findings from both the study and article we read for Tuesday’s class (On the nature of contemporary prejudice-the third wave (Dovidio, 2001) and Aversive racism and selection decisions (Dovidio & Gaertner, 2000)). The previous studies we read dealt ...

Stereotypes as Energy-Saving Devices

KristinK — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 00:51:09 +0000

After reading the article Stereotypes as Energy-Saving Devices: A Peek Inside the Cognitive Toolbox, I have thought a lot about how stereotypes are formed. According to the article we stereotype automatically without being conscious of what we are doing. It makes sense that we put people into certain schema’s, we do it with everything else however it is much more problematic to stereotype or put people into a schema than it is for us to ...

What Would You Do?: Racism in America

Alexa — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 21:26:34 +0000

The Macrae experiment that we read in class this week, (Stereotypes as energy-saving devices: A peek inside the cognitive toolbox) found that the use of stereotypes is actually a cognitive tool our brain uses. In the study, whenever a stereotype label was present (regardless of whether the stereotype label was present consciously or unconsciously) participants remembered more stereotype consistent words and performed better on the additional task than participants who were not provided with a ...