implicit bias

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

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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 …

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Starbucks Doesn’t Serve their Coffee Black

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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 …

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An Open Letter to My “White” Black Friend

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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 …

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Mass Incarceration: Not Just a Social Problem

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https://www.flickr.com/photos/breadfortheworld/21685440474

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 …

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Wait…. Racism is a “Big Problem”?

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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, …

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Microaggressions: Conscious or Unconscious?

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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 …

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Advice for a White Ally

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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 …

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Stark Realizations

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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 …

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Watching Aversive Racism

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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 …

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Which one is better?

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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 …

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Implicit Racism: A Harmful Theory?

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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 …

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The “Bad Kid”

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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 …

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