Are You An Unconscious Racist?

BY CAROL TAVRIS

What does it mean to be a racist?

—A person who thinks their “race” or ethnic group is better than everyone else’s by virtue of genetic superiority, religion, customs, food, way of life, or beliefs.

—A person who fails to hire an applicant with the best qualifications if that person is from a different ethnic or religious group from the employer’s.

—A person who is part of an institution that requires him or her to systematically target and discriminate against African Americans or other minorities.

—A person of any race, ethnicity, or religion who feels more comfortable with others who are like themselves.

Or:

—A person whose score on the Implicit Association Test (IAT) reveals that he or she is unconsciously biased against black people.

Some of the above? All of the above?

Throughout the first decade of this century, surveys repeatedly found that prejudiced attitudes—notably the once-common beliefs that blacks were inferior to whites, women inferior to men, gay men and lesbians inferior to straights—had declined sharply, especially among young people. Surveys, of course, supposedly assess what you think. But what if they assess what you think others think you should think? What if they simply reflect your awareness that it isn’t cool to reveal your actual negative feelings about another group? Self-report data is inherently plagued with this problem. Thus, most social psychologists who study prejudice and discrimination focus on what people do, not what they say they might do. For example, when researchers have sent identical résumés to potential employers, varying only a name that indicates gender, or implies race (a black-sounding name or membership in an African American organization), or mentions religious affiliation, many employers have revealed a bias in whom they choose to call for an interview. 1

Of course, whether or not you choose to tell an interviewer that you would never willingly hire a [fill in the target person], you know what you feel about “those people.” But some researchers have set their sights on capturing the prejudices that they believe lurk below awareness, hoping to identify implicit, unconscious negative feelings— not only in people who know they are prejudiced but don’t want to admit it, but also among people who believe they are unprejudiced.