Translation: Test shows that white Americans notice reality, even if they claim not to.
It’s American election season and that means it is time for psychologists to introduce racism again – not whether you are racist, but how much.
Well, only white people are, said a talk at the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association. Even if they do not have any racist thoughts or lock their car door when they see a young, black man on the sidewalk and voted for Obama in 2008, white people still are; and their racial attitudes, both conscious and unconscious, may be a significant factor in this year’s U.S. presidential election. A survey says so.
“People may not even be aware that they have certain racial attitudes and that could be why, even with an African-American president in the White House for nearly four years, race continues to play a role in electoral politics,” Anthony G. Greenwald, Ph.D., said in an interview. Greenwald was lead author on paper about a survey of 15,000 voters. Surveys and statistics dressed up as science should make more than white voters nervous.