Russell: Racism in America: Nobody is immune

If you don’t think you’re racist, you probably are. At least, that’s what Harvard’s Implicit Association Test indicated.

I like to think of myself as progressive and well-versed in race issues, so I took the Implicit Association Test to feel superior. My results indicated a “strong automatic preference for whites.” At first I was shocked, embarrassed and disappointed. But I realized I wasn’t alone: 70 percent of all test takers indicated a preference for whites, with only 17 percent falling into a neutral category. This is among all races. 

After getting over the shame of feeling like a fraud, I realized that my belief that I was immune to racism was much more problematic than my results. The truth is that racism is conditioned and systematic, and just because I voted for President Barack Obama doesn’t mean I will never base decisions on racist assumptions or make judgments subconsciously influenced by the race of the accused. This reflexive response is obviously indicative of a major problem that deserves attention, but a more pressing, immediate problem is the inability of whites to admit their own capacity for racism.

Malcolm Gladwell’s bestselling book “Blink,” which is about thinking without thinking, cited a 2008 study by researchers Anthony Greenwald of the University of Washington and Mahzarin Banaji of Harvard, which relied on findings from a computerized Implicit Association Test like the one I took. The test asked respondents to sort certain concepts into categories. For example, the top left of the screen would read “Black” and the top right of the screen would read “White.” A word in the middle would mention something like a name or a characteristic, and then ask respondents to sort the information in a couple of seconds using the designated left and right keys. 

Gladwell himself received a score of “moderate automatic preference for whites,” while Greenwald and Banaji received equally pro-white results.

Another part of the test featured “White/Good” in the left-hand corner and “Black/Bad” in the right-hand corner. The middle of the screen would display phrases like “happiness” or “guilt” and ask respondents to sort them into whichever category they deemed appropriate. Researchers found that when the categories switched to “White/Bad” and “Black/Good,” responses were much slower. From this, they deduced that the tendency to associate negative concepts with the color black were much more reflexive. This effect goes beyond color names, however. Black and white faces were used in blace of the color names in portions of the test, and saw similar results. Anyone can take this test in just a few minutes at implicit.harvard.edu.  

Few would admit they’re racist. Few would admit they’re sexist, either. I’m a woman and a feminist, but I catch myself making sexist reflexive judgments all the time. It’s so deeply ingrained in our culture and in the American psyche that this behavior and mindset doesn’t even stand out. It’s easy not to question. 

Greenwald and Banaji stated, “People who hold egalitarian-conscious attitudes in the face of automatic white preferences may be able to function in nonprejudiced fashion partly by making active efforts to prevent their automatic white preference from producing discriminatory behavior.” In other words, you’re more likely to be racist if you don’t think you are. If you want to see this in action, just go ahead and search Twitter for the phrase “I’m not racist, but.”

“Progressive” white people are part of the problem — we think we’re officially immune to being racist because of a few sociology courses, despite the pervasiveness of these messages in the media, education and American culture. By the way, fellow white people, advocating for racial equality isn’t something for which you should pat yourself on the back. It’s called being a decent human being.

So, yes, maybe you voted for Obama, maybe you dated a black person once, maybe you listen to Beyonce and Lil Wayne. It doesn’t exonerate you from being racist.

Write to Natalie at ncr11@pitt.edu.