Week two of this challenge has been equally as interesting, insightful, and revealing as week one. I am continuing to find very interesting, valuable and educational resources for understanding some of the layered levels of complexity within Black history and culture. I have also continued to post some of my personal accounts and thoughts on racism.<\/p>\n
Here is the account of week two\u2019s posts from my Facebook account. I found some really good videos this week and hope to continue to tap into the visual, academic and personal aspects of this journey. Enjoy!<\/p>\n
June 1st<\/sup>:<\/p>\n \u00a0Personal Experience with Racism #3: My husband\u2019s mother had passed and the memorial was hosted at her house. I remember the intense sadness of us all, especially her family and my husband. Right before we were getting ready to eat\u2026 I found a seat on the couch. The only open seat left was next to me. He walked into the room, stopped and scanned the seating options. I saw him frown\u2026. walk over to the side and proceed to slowly lower himself to the floor. Several of the family members immediately told him to sit on the couch. He glanced his eyes to me, making eye contact, frowned his nose as if something smelled and said \u201cno thank you\u201d.<\/p>\n Several of the family members showed obvious embarrassment because they knew. It was no secret in the family how he felt about Black people, but no one expected him to be that forward. I remember the feelings of inferiority, embarrassment and sadness as I sat there in the memorial, as the now identified Black girl in the room.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Studies show that racism looks different today but is very much present. Many people assume we are in a post racial society, and we coulg not be further from the truth. What studies are showing instead is the mutation of racism from the overt kind to a more systematic and passive type of racism that is often hidden.<\/p>\n Aversive racism is a term that is used for the type of racism we see more often today in our interpresonal relationships, often hard to disect for those who are unconscious of its existence. I encounter good people who are aversively racist all the time. They don\u2019t even see it\u2026.. We often student this type of racism in social work because of the way that it can be cripling for people of color because it is not on the surface racist, and in turn, people are making decisions that impact the lives of others\u2026.. with choices that are hidden underneath biases that are aversively racist. And so there is a place for those studies here. Too many people assume that Black people today do not encounter racism ALL THE TIME. But we do.<\/p>\n Why Can\u2019t We Just Get Along? Interpersonal Biases and Interracial Distrust \u2013 \u201cOur work has focused on one form of contemporary bias of Whites in the United States: aversive racism (Kovel, 1970). In contrast to \u201cold-fashioned\u201d racism, which is blatant, aversive racism represents a subtle, often unintentional form of bias that characterizes many White Americans who possess strong egalitarian values and who believe that they are nonprejudiced. Because of the central role that racial politics have played in the history of the United States, our work has mainly considered the influence of contemporary racial attitudes of Whites toward Blacks.<\/p>\n Nevertheless, we note that many of the findings and principles we discuss extend to Whites\u2019 biases toward other groups (e.g., Hispanics) as well (Dovidio, Gaertner, Anastasio, & Sanitioso, 1992). Although we also acknowledge that minority groups may also hold negative attitudes toward majority groups and to other racial or ethnic groups, we have focused on the attitudes of Whites because they have traditionally held a disproportionate amount of political, social, and economic power in the United States. Thus, addressing and improving Whites\u2019 attitudes can potentially have a significant effect on social change.<\/p>\n A critical aspect of the aversive racism framework, similar to the position of other Aversive racists may therefore regularly engage in discrimination while they maintain a nonprejudiced self-image. The term aversive in this form of racism thus refers to two aspects of this bias. It reflects to the nature of the emotions associated with Blacks, such as anxiety,which lead to avoidance and social awkwardness rather than to open antagonism. It also reflects the fact that, because of their conscious adherence to egalitarian principles, these Whites would find any thought that they might be prejudiced to be aversive.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nOne of my husband\u2019s family members came into the room. He was a much older gentleman with serious heath concerns, including serious mobility issues. If there hadn\u2019t have been a seat open, I remember thinking I would have given him mine, but since there was one next to me, I was not worried.<\/p>\n
\ntypes of subtle biases such as modern or symbolic racism (McConahay, 1986), is the conflict between the denial of personal prejudice and the underlying unconscious negative feelings and beliefs. In contrast to traditional approaches that emphasize the psychopathology of prejudice, however, the negative feelings and beliefs that underlie aversive racism are hypothesized to be rooted in normal, often adaptive, psychological processes (see Dovidio & Gaertner, 1998; Gaertner & Dovidio, 1986). These processes involve both individual factors (such as cognitive and motivational biases and socialization) and intergroup functions (such as realistic group conflict or biases associated with the mere categorization of people into ingroups and outgroups). In contrast to the feelings of open hostility and clear dislike of Blacks, the negative feelings that aversive racists experience are typically more diffuse, such as feelings of anxiety and uneasiness. Because aversive racists consciously endorse egalitarian values and deny their negative feelings about Blacks, they will not discriminate directly and openly in ways that can be attributed to racism. However, because of their negative feelings, they will discriminate, often unintentionally, when their behavior can be justified on the basis of some factor other than race (e.g., questionable qualifications for a position).<\/p>\n