Hi there, I’ve been away for several weeks. A lot has happened since my last post. For starters, I made significant strides in getting my life back on the right track career wise, and at home to some extent. On my last post I talked about what was eating me, things that were really driving me to destructive and dysfunctional behaviors. It’s taken me some time to process what I’ve learned about myself, accept it, and learn how things from my past have contributed on how I perceive things, how I deal with relationships, the things I’m attracted to, but more importantly, the reason such things attract me. Understanding more about the darkness I’ve come out of has really helped me curve my behavior and stop myself from falling into the same mistakes I’ve committed in the past.
Over the past month I’ve discovered how truly dysfunctional my thought process has really been. Partly because of chapters of my past I chose not to deal with because of the pain felt in dealing with situations I was never prepared to deal with as a child. What happened in my past is not important to say at this point, but for most of my life I carried an enormous weight for things I was not responsible for, things that in turn made me identify more with pain. I identified with pain in such a way, that I could relate to those in pain more so than with those who for the most part had normal lives. Not that understanding another person’s plight is a bad thing, but there’s something terribly wrong with running towards danger, dysfunction, and drama, confusing the sense of despair, desperation, and pain, with uninterested and unconditional love. I took me a while to realize I was holding on to unnecessary feelings out of my own insecurities. I suddenly realized that most of my significant relationships shared common factors such as pain, victimization, and the need to be rescued. Here again, we are all human, and we’ve all experience pain in our lives at some point or another, but these factors should not be the focal point of a relationship, and they certainly should not be what is attractive about someone. As fucked up as that may sound, yeah, that’s exactly how dysfunctional my thought process has been.
I can honestly say I’ve come to terms with certain aspects of my life, and I can definitely see the forest from the trees at this point. It’s kind of like finding “Waldo” in one of those busy drawings. The first time around you can spend hours looking for Waldo, but once you’ve spotted him, it’s hard not to see him, you can find him time and time again in that same picture. That’s exactly how I feel about learning a little more about myself. Things I thought I would never get over, or things that have taken me a long time to get a grasp on, are suddenly so clear. I no longer feel the need to run towards drama. I no longer feel that empty void within me, that empty feeling that has been driving me to push some people away while running full speed ahead in the wrong direction. There are some days that are harder than others, but even on the difficult days I can still manage to catch myself, I can still see Waldo if you will. So what am I saying? Does this mean I’m good? No it doesn’t, but I’m glad I’m better than who I was a few months back. Does this mean my marriage is safe? No it doesn’t, but I have a better understanding of what’s driving my behavior, and I’m willing to take responsibility for my own shortcomings.
Today I can say I have a better sense of direction, and I’m actually beginning to pick up the pieces again. I’m happy to say I’ve been accepted back into graduate school and I’m looking forward to submerging myself into the world of academia once again. This is something I’ve always been passionate about and I’m extremely proud of myself for making the comeback, for telling myself it’s time to get my act together again, for dusting myself off and moving forward. I’m certain I will still have other moments of adversity, but I will never give up on myself, never have, it’s why I’m still standing. I’ve been to the edge, but I’ve always refused let go and to fall. My experiences have only made me stronger, and they will definitely give me plenty to draw from to help others. Are there other factors in my life that influence my behavior? Of course there are.
I don’t consider myself a religious person, but I know religion has played a significant role in how I think. Although I believe spirituality is a more important factor in my life today, religion was an extremely socializing force in my early development. That same religion contributes to my concept of spirituality today because of the foundational moral values instilled in me at a very early age. Although today I do not look at every act as a sin or a non-sin, at some point in my life I did, and while I have a more accepting world view today, there are still some core values that dictate how I interact with others and how I behave in relationships. I can even say there’s a rebellious side of me when it comes to religion. I say this because even though I’m not on an anti-Christian crusade, and I don’t think about the religious establishment that much, the fact that I don’t subscribe to many of the established norms makes me a rebel by definition. I can honestly say that I allow myself to behave outside of some of the moral norms established by “faith” because I believe that a spiritual relationship is greater than any concept taught in church today; it's the sense of connecting with the world, with mankind, and responsibility of doing something for the greater good rather than teaching there is only one way to make to "heaven". At the same time I know that at some level, the core values that are still with me, at some point cause dissonance within me when I’m violating any of those values that still influences me. For instance, while I may give myself permission to pursue happiness if in fact I feel I have not achieved it with a given person, I will feel uncomfortable about beginning an affair without giving my existing relationship proper closure. The operating value here would be faithfulness to your significant other, a value that is well established within in me. Have I ever gone against this value? I certainly have, but I’ve never felt great about it. In fact, I hated the fact that I had to seek for affection elsewhere and I wondered if this was just the way I was. Would I ever be able to have a significant relationship without wanting other women? To me there is the difference between being a “dog” and simply not knowing what you’re looking for. If you don’t know what you’re looking for, you may confuse one emotion with another and before you know it, you’re sucked into a difficult web to untangle. But the core value has always been in me, the feeling of being unfair to someone else has always been stronger, it’s always created enough dissonance to question what I’m truly looking for whenever I have strayed away. As I learn more about myself I can better identify where I stand with every person that is close to me today. There are still other mysteries to uncover within me. I haven’t even begun to look for my family, but one step out of time I guess. Today I’m just happy for being somewhat at peace with myself. Stay tunned….
I was speaking to my counselor the other day and I casually mentioned to him that I suddenly picked up on blogging again. We began to talk about the reasons I decided to pick up blogging again. You see, I feel that blogging is a great source of escape for me. Not only I’m able to keep mind off of my reality for a few hours, I’m also engaging into something that elicits passion within me. I often begin writing about things that bother me socially, things I have a passion for such as race relations, cultural differences, politics, and how all these things connect with one another. As I began to open up to my counselor, it was almost as if we broke the patient counselor dynamic and we connected on a more personal level because we shared many views. The main observation my counselor made at that point was that it was probably the first time I ever spoke to him about something I felt passionate about. So why in the world am I seeing a counselor to begin with? What the hell is wrong with me that I need to see a counselor? Good questions, you see I happen to be in a pretty dark place right now. No of course I have not thought of ending my life. I care far too much about my children to do something as selfish as that. With that said, my struggle has really taken a toll on me.
My personal relationships have taken so much out of me that I barely have time to think about myself, about the things that keep me alive, the things I live for, the things I want to die doing. Of course, my responsibility as a father is one of great priority to me, and frankly it’s the only thing that keeps me going nowadays. But personal unhappiness can do terrible things to one’s personal dreams, aspirations, to the degree in which one even enjoys every breath taken. I have nobody to blame for my tribulations but myself. I would just love to understand why is that I put myself through these ridiculous behavioral cycles that only end up confusing me further, complicating my life and making it an unbearable torturous journey that simply begs for an ending. I know I had a pretty dysfunctional childhood to say the least. I know I discovered too many things way too early, which makes for a much quicker maturation. You know for the most part I try to live my life by the golden rule. Always trying to do what’s right, always trying to give something back, to make someone better for knowing me. But as I’ve recently discovered, I have the tendency of doing too much, of trying to be a hero for everyone, of always trying to lighten someone else’s burden without any regard for my own. What the fuck am I trying to prove here? Why in the world would I put myself through so much pain? Why would I blindly give and give, and sacrifice my own sanity for an impossible mission by design? Validation is an incredible motivator. But why do I feel the need to constantly validate my worth? This is where it gets complicated, where most of the digging needs to take place. I’ll be the first to tell you how proud of a man I am. You see, I’ll be the last one to ask for help, I can do it all on my own, and if you act like you don’t need me, then you will never receive the slightest acknowledgement from me. But deep inside there’s this side of me that just yearns to be accepted, yearns to be wanted, to be needed, and I hate it. This type of thinking that has dictated so many decisions in my life, many I would say not the wisest ones. You see I can listen to your problems all day long, I can give you honest and sound advice, and I can separate my personal feelings from a given situation and be perfectly fine. But whenever I involve my feelings I always seem to fuck something up. I expect the impossible, set myself up for the impossible, or end up impossibly unhappy with the choices I’ve made.
Believe it or not what troubles me the most are the people I hurt in the process of righting all my wrongs. People who cannot possibly understand every single thing that went through my mind to involve them in my life, people who one way or the other invested themselves in me without knowing that I may one day be a source of great pain for them. People who at some point needed so much of me and mostly got every possible thing from me but now must face my reality, the realization that I enabled a behavior of expectations I can no longer sustain. But why is that I seem to go through such a rollercoaster in my relationships? Well, the best I can come up with at this point is because I look for all the wrong things in a person I’m attracted to. I look for the drama; I look for the sense of adventure, mixed in with a rescue mission, an incredible need to be saved, to be depended on to make things better. Sometimes it even involves convenience. Needless to say, none of these things lead to a blissful and fulfilling relationship. These things have nothing to do with my likes and dislikes, with common ground, with finding someone who accepts me for who I am, not what I am or what I can do. I often characterize my current relationship as one I sleepwalked through, until I woke up one day. I’m not going to say I have no love for this woman, mother of the most beautiful daughter I could’ve ever asked for, but I didn’t of course. My point is that even as I dove further and further into this relationship I gave up on things I promised myself I wouldn’t go through again, including having another child. I will own up to my responsibility as a father, but the thought that the rest of my life was being decided for me really left me at a lost, in a deep inner struggle. Why am I here? Is this what I want? Am I being acknowledged? Do I have a say in how am I to live the rest of my life? Am I in love with this woman? Or was I just comfortable? Until now that is… As I’ve grown older, I have been able to understand myself just a little better albeit there’s still so much more to learn. But my biggest question today is whether I’m actually cut out to be with someone. Or am I supposed to take this walk on my own? There are so many things that I’d rather just share with myself, including this entire blogging process. Not that I don’t know that whatever I post is out there for anyone to read, but the process is mine, and mine alone. No one wants to grow old alone, I really don’t think I’m the exception, but there are journeys that are best embarked alone. There’s just too much I want to uncover, but I don’t want company on this. I can’t remember the last time I had a sense of completeness. I might’ve thought I felt complete on one occasion or another, but the closest I’ve been to that is when I was free, when I had all my time to myself, where I could just dive into whatever it was I needed to do. Sure there were some lonely nights, but there was nothing wrong with being able to listen to my own thoughts. I met some of the most interesting people during that time in my life, and I enjoyed every bit of my freedom. It had nothing to do with being a man-whore although I had my share crazy nights and easy lays. It was all about the free will, the choice to do so, and the choice to continue the path of self-discovery I have somewhat deviated from. Trust me, I don’t want to spend the rest of my life falling in and out of love, from relationship to relationship, but I must always be true to myself. This is why I have a counselor, because I know there is something terribly wrong with my relationship dynamic. I honestly don’t know if I can save this relationship, but I know I can’t go on living like this. I can no longer continue to kill myself, who I really am. This is an extremely painful process for me. I hate not being able to change anything because of finances as well. I’ve really tried to talk myself into trying, into wanting to stay, but I honestly don’t know how to change this anymore. Would things be different if we weren’t struggling financially so much? Most like, but how would they be different? Things would’ve definitely been different if our problems would’ve been taken seriously much sooner, before all this shit hit the fan. The one thing I would like to do right is be fair. I cannot begin another relationship without ending the one I’m in, something I’ve been guilty of in the past. Not to mention all that has ever done for me is confuse me even more and get me into so much more trouble. I don’t even have the strength to think about another relationship right now, can’t do it, won’t do it, been there before.
I’ve shared a lot of my personal life on this blog, but this is something I’ve never talked about. I must admit this has been one of the most difficult topics I’ve covered because it’s pretty much about how fucked up my thought process is right now as it relates to my personal life. I’m simply trying to get all this pain and confusion all in one place, let it out, read it back to myself from time to time, and work on not giving up on myself. There are too many things I need to share with you, with the world, with everyone who has ever come across me. I just want to be happy; I want to be at peace with myself. I want to be able to lay my head down at night and hear absolutely nothing. I’ve always been a man of integrity, a man that likes to live up to his own responsibilities. Being responsible also involves being honest and owning up to wrongs that must be righted. I want to be able to breathe again, even if that means enduring a little more pain.
Implicit learning is defined as knowledge about a given stimulus acquired below the level of consciousness (Reber, 1989).The focus of this article is to explore how implicit learning and priming, which is the ability to recognize stimuli by previously presenting the stimuli or similar stimuli (Savage, Lieven, and Theakston, 2006), play a role in forming racial stereotype constructs.Some research has shown that priming is possible in children as young as 4-years-old as documented by Savage et al.The purpose of my research is to better understand the phenomenon of implicit learning, to find out how robust the effects of implicit learning can be, and in turn explain how implicit learning and priming contribute to shaping our social perception on race.One can argue that the explicit teaching of racial superiority has by in large disappeared from mainstream society in the United States, yet strong racial stereotypes toward Blacks in the U.S. still remain and are possibly being taught implicitly (Goff, Eberhardt, Williams, and Jackson, 2008).
Cognitive research plays a significant role in the topic of implicit learning and stereotypes because it provides insight on how we learn the aforementioned constructs and how early in life we are capable of learning and reinforcing this information.Although implicit learning and priming are basic concepts of our cognitive processes, they are critical to learning coupled with what we are taught culturally.First I will share foundational information about the concepts of implicit learning and priming and then discuss how these processes can facilitate the learning and reinforcement of racial stereotypes.
Implicit Learning
The term implicit learning first surfaced over four decades ago while attempting to study the concept of intuition, the sense of knowing what is right or wrong in a given situation without a conscious reason for the sense of knowing the appropriate approach (Reber, 1989).Reber argued that one arrives at an intuitive state after implicit learning is experienced.As noted before, Reber defined implicit learning as the acquisition of knowledge below the level of consciousness.In an early study Reber exposed participants to diagrams of strings of letters with directional arrows and loops connecting them and told participants they were engaging in a memory experiment.They were not told they were attempting to memorize diagrams of finite-grammar and they contained rules for stinging letters together.Reber reported that participants under the diagrams containing rules condition showed an increased ability for processing and memorizing strings of letters compared to the control group which was simply exposed to non-ordered strings of letters.Additionally, the experimental group was able to use what was learned (implicitly) about the grammar rules to discriminate between strings of letters that conformed to the rules and those that did not, providing support for the idea that they learned the rules implicitly. One important factor that helps support this idea is that the diagrams and grammar rules were rather complex which eliminates the argument of discerning the rules and strings by chance or by their simplicity.What is most important to remember about the process of implicit learning is that it occurs outside of awareness, it is capable of grasping complex and abstract concepts, and the acquired implicit knowledge may be used without awareness of acquisition as noted by Reber.
Priming
Priming can be viewed as the vehicle used for implicit learning.A priming effect occurs when the exposure of stimuli facilitates the reproduction or recall of that stimuli or similar stimuli at a later time without a conscious recollection (Savage, Lieven, and Theakston, 2006).This should not be confused with the rehearsal of stimuli; priming is a rather casual exposure to the stimuli that can be in some instances as short as a fraction of a second.The idea behind priming is that mere exposure to certain stimuli will aid inferences about associated stimuli independent from consciousness which leads to the idea of implicitly learning something.By priming 4-year-old children with varied passive sentences, Savage et al. were able to show that lexical and structural priming was effective at an early age and it aided children in acquiring language. Savage et al. contend that the reinforcement of primers is a determining factor in implicit learning coupled with variations of the primers.It is important to keep in mind that both implicit learning and priming are natural cognitive processes. Now that there is a basic understanding of implicit learning and priming, I will now shift to how these processes aid the development of constructs, particularly the formation of racial stereotypes.
Making the Connections
Since there is evidence that shows that children use implicit learning for language acquisition as early as 4-years of age (Savage, Lieven, and Theakston, 2006), it can be said that this process may be used to conceptualize even more complex constructs through childhood development.Through the frequent exposure to information children also learn how to make personality trait attributions (Boseovski and Lee, 2006).For example, if a child observes a frequent behavior such as a boy screaming at other children, the observing child may conclude that the boy is rude and the boy’s behavior may be predicted in future scenarios as suggested by Boseovski and Lee.The key factor here is the exposure to the stimuli which suggest that the surrounding environment is important to what is implicitly learned.Negative racial associations towards African Americans are learned early on in life and are reinforced over time through socialization processes that are built into our culture (Rudman, Ashmore, and Gary, 2001).I will later elaborate on the influence of media on racial stereotypes.
There is a considerable body of evidence that shows how we are constantly exposed to positive associations with the color white and negative associations with the color black (Smith-McLallen, Johnson, Dovidio, and Pearson, 2006; Goff, Eberhardt, Williams, and Jackson, 2008; Maher, Herbst, Childs, and Finn, 2008).Smith-McLallen et al. highlight the fact that we are taught that early on in life that White is normally associated with ideas of cleanliness, purity, and goodness while Black is negatively associated with concepts such as ungodliness, evil, bad luck, and death.Smith-McLallen et al. contend that these associations help form color biases preferring the color white over black and these biases can converge into racial biases.Smith-McLallen et al. further note that researchers should be cautious about labeling conditions in experiments as black or white as they may also lead to bias results.An important fact that Smith-McLallen et al. point out is that regardless of their color, people tend to have a preference for the color white and have negative associations with the color black.This observation is true for Black and White children as young as 3-years-old and adults as noted by Williams, Tucker, and Dunham (as cited by Smith-McLallen et al., 2006).What becomes clearer here is that we are exposed to these associations very early on in our lives.These are the beginning stages of implicitly forming racial stereotypes which are then reinforced over time.
So how do these positive and negative associations are reinforce over time? How do they translate into racial associations?One possible answer is the constant exposure to these associations through media such as television.Leonhardt and Kerwin (as cited by Maher, Herbst, Childs, and Finn, 2008) note that children watch 20,000 to 40,000 television commercials per year.Maher et al. also state that African-American and Hispanic children tend to watch on average three or more hours of television per day than do Caucasian children.Given the time children spend in front of the television, it is safe to say that it becomes an influence on their ideas and how they view the world as noted by Maher et al.According to Duckitt (as cited by Maher et al., 2008) media conveys a significant amount of ethnic prejudices which include negative stereotyping minorities and under representation. Maher et al. point out that children are susceptible to racial stereotypes presented in television advertising and programming.Television becomes an instrument of implicit learning through the constant reinforcement of messages being conveyed which facilitate biases and stereotypes once real world interactions occur.Although television programming may not explicitly teach that for example, African-Americans are aggressive and uneducated, or that Hispanics are all illegal immigrants, these racial associations may be implicitly learned by reinforcing them through fictional depictions and applied in real settings even when their representations are not confirmed.As noted by Maher et al. the over representation of minorities in negative roles compared to the general population help reinforce their stereotypes.
Although stereotypes are a form of heuristic that can help shorten our decision making time (Dodson, Darragh, and Williams, 2008), they must be constantly regulated; their strength can lead to memory distortions and false recollections.Dodson et al. posit that by being aware of one’s own stereotypes one can refrain from making attributional errors based on ones stereotyping tendencies.Additionally, the use of inappropriate stereotypes can be reduced by increasing awareness and power over outcomes (Weick and Guinote, 2008).Weick and Guinote contend that powerful individuals such as CEOs or presidents can indeed make decisions independently from their own biases and stereotypes but that a momentary subjective experience may influence their decisions.For example, a confirmed stereotype may interfere and influence their judgment.The argument learned from Weick and Guinote is not necessarily holding a position of power per se, but being in an empowering position of making certain decisions free from preconceived notions.Regulating our own stereotypes, particularly the ones that involve judging or categorizing others, is critical to better social interactions.Pivotal to regulating our stereotypes is recognizing that they are present within us.Honest self-examination is necessary to arrive at this juncture.
A complete and well structured stereotype can be prompted by a single word (Anolli, Zurloni, and Riva, 2006).Anolli et al. analyzed a number of political debates that occurred during the latest Italian elections and found that politicians communicated their thoughts about their political affiliations (in-group or out-group) in stereotypical concepts rather than attribution traits.This is important to note because this form of communication is not specific to politicians alone, it may be used by any person or group who intends to convey a message larger than the expressed words.Anderson and Klatzky (as cited by Anolli et al., 2006) define a stereotype as articulated conception of a particular group consisting of a cluster of attributes that allows one to draw inferences specific to that group.As asserted by Anolli et al., this definition allows for the essence of a stereotype to be condensed into a categorical noun.For example, rather than describing a person with adjectives such as talented, athletic, or respectful, one can use nouns such as leader, hero, or maverick.Descriptive nouns trigger a host of attributes associated with the noun which means that good or bad stereotypes can be captured in them.This linguistic function is important in relation to stereotypes because once a stereotype is formed it could be easily prompted by a noun.In racial terms, some of the adjectives associated with Blacks or African-Americans are “violent, threatening, criminal, unintelligent, uneducated, lazy, poor, athletic, and musical” (Goff, Eberhardt, Williams, and Jackson, 2008, p. 294). Note that several nouns used to represent a social group can still evoke the same stereotypical construct.In other words bias people would have the same idea about Black people whether they refer to them as Blacks, African-Americans, or a racial slur. Of course avoiding explicit racial remarks conceal people’s racial biases to some extent.Once the foundational work of implicitly priming and reinforcing negative associations with the color black and more benevolent associations with the color white which are then converged to social groups associations through media depictions (television and radio), they can then be elicited through categorical nouns.
With regard to the persistence of these negative associations with blackness which are implicitly taught and reinforced overtime, research suggest that people implicitly hold racial stereotypical expectations which can influence their own social behavior towards others (Hugenberg and Bodenhausen, 2003).Using implicit association tasks, Hugenberg and Bodenhausen found in their study that European-American participants who showed higher levels of implicit prejudice were also quicker in perceiving anger on African-American faces and took longer in distinguishing a non-threatening African-American facial expression.The implication of Hugenberg and Bodenhausen is that people’s preconceived notion about another social group influences their attitude toward that social group and also influences social interaction so that members of that social group behave towards them in a manner that confirms their beliefs about the social group.For example, if one perceives a person as being aggressive, then one may treat this person in a manner that will make this person behave aggressively.Information learned implicitly about a group of people, truthful or unfounded, affects social interactions with that group.
In another study with greater social implications Goff, Eberhardt, Williams, and Jackson (2008) argue that although the explicit associations between Blacks and apes have been all but removed from society, there are still implicit associations between Blacks and apes that serve as a dehumanizing factor which in turn plays a role in peoples judgment in associating crime with Blacks and or condoning violence against them. Goff et al. contend that early illustrations of the evolutionary spectrum among primates contained monkeys and apes at the lower end of the evolution chain and “Whites” at the highest end indicating full and complete evolution and that people of African descent were believed to fall somewhere between simian and the deformed in that very spectrum. Although this link between Blacks and apes has no validity and is no longer taught, Goff et al. argue that the stereotypes for Blacks in the United States have only increased negatively (violent, threatening, criminal, unintelligent, and uneducated in addition to previous stereotypes such as lazy, aggressive, dim, and hypersexual) and they influence perception and behavior towards Blacks. Therefore Goff et al. hypothesized that the association between Blacks and apes is still present through the convergence of stereotypes and other implicit reinforcers such as the use of ape-like descriptive qualities to describe actions by Blacks. Through a series of studies using IAT, Goff et al. found that White participants as well as non-White participants were able to identify apes in degraded images that improved frame by frame, in fewer frames when they were subliminally primed with Black faces; they did not find an effect at all when participants were primed with White faces.This is yet another way in which implicit learning and priming play a significant role in forming racial stereotypes which influences social interaction and affects multidirectional behavior.
Discussion and Conclusion
It is important to point out that this article only focused on the role of implicit learning and priming on the formation of racial stereotypes and the media such as television help reinforce these stereotypes.Other factors also contribute to this phenomenon such as parental rearing, classroom socialization, and other media such as printed media, the internet, and radio.These factors as well as many other unmentioned factors are all worthy of study.Because multiple environmental factor play a role in the formation of racial stereotypes, causation cannot be claimed by a single factor.The issue of anti-White sentiments was not covered in this article because namely minorities, particularly African-Americans, are largely under represented in television roles and are repeatedly depicted in stereotypical roles (Maher, Herbst, Childs, and Finn, 2008).Additionally, the negative stereotypes associated with African-Americans have significant social implications in terms of how they are viewed and treated even through the judicial system (Goff, Eberhardt, Williams, and Jackson, 2008).
After evaluating how the basic processes of implicit learning and priming are an intricate part of how we acquire language (Savage, Lieven, and Theakston, 2006) and other complex constructs throughout our development, we can also see that these very processes do play a role in the formation of racial stereotypes (Goff, Eberhardt, Williams, and Jackson, 2008) and that they are reinforced over time through our environment (Maher, Herbst, Childs, and Finn, 2008).In the same way environmental forces such as television have contributed to reinforcing negative racial stereotypes they can equally contribute to form positive representations that can counter deeply rooted negative stereotypes.A worthy study would be one that would correlate positive representations of minorities in television with children’s racial attitudes to determine if stereotypes can be positively changed over time.Of course, in order to conduct such a study the number of representations of minorities in important and positive roles would have to increase significantly.There is some research that suggests that implicit biases and stereotypes can be changed through affective processes of self-awareness (Rudman, Ashmore, and Gary, 2001). The beginning of rectifying unfair stereotypes towards minorities, particularly African Americans, is being personally aware that these stereotypes exist and that we may carry biases even if we hold an egalitarian view of ourselves.By self-examining our intrapersonal beliefs on race we can regulate our stereotypes and refrain from making harmful and unfair generalizations.
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reliance on the ease of retrieval.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94(6),
Hello world, I’ve been away for long time. No I was not behind bars doing time thank goodness although I must admit things could’ve gone seriously wrong for me a couple of years ago. For those of you who have read my blog or know me personally, the last time I wrote something I was still fighting for a promotion with the company I worked for before and I wrote an extensive blog about affirmative action. I can tell you that today I still feel as passionate about affirmative action, race relations in America, and my own personal pursuit of self as I ever did. Many things have changed since I last wrote. I eventually did get promoted to a management position, I ventured into private investments which went terribly wrong for me, I married again, began attending graduate school, then I ended up losing my employment of 7 years and looking for comparable employment for 6 months. I now hold a management position in a smaller corporation, but one that is more diverse. In fact, I’m now managing an incredibly resourceful, talented, and supportive group of bilingual employees. I took a significant pay cut in accepting this position, and things are rather challenging for me financially, but I feel no pain getting up in the morning and going to work. I honestly don’t know how much longer I can stay there because of the financial pressures, but I’ve been able to give more of myself there.
I tend to work my ass off because it keeps my mind busy and away from all the problems surrounding me. This is probably one of the reasons my urge to write is coming back to me. Here I am on a Friday night, with nothing else on my mind but to put into words the racing thoughts going in my head. I really do enjoy chronicling my progress and sharing whatever it is that’s keeping me up, whatever it is that reminds me that I’m still alive. Unfortunately writing this time around comes with a heavy dose of pain. I’ve had to go through so much to come to this point, it almost like I have to be in such a dark place in my life to begin picking up the pieces again. I often think that this is just part of my own dysfunction, but in reading my previous work I can see how much writing helps me heal, and how much sense every word still makes to me at least. So my own revolution is still going on, with new things that puzzle me, new chapters to be written such as thoughts about searching for blood relatives, and revisiting life long passions such race relation, Katrina four years later, our first Black president, and who know what else I’ll dare to share. I’ll start by sharing some stuff had already shared in a class I took. So how much have things changed since I last wrote? Are race relations any better today? Not sure about all that. Here’s most of what I wrote with some editing to make it more current.
Some time ago I caught an ABC Primetime special report called “What Would You Do If You Witness a Break-In?” (Taylor & Jaquez, 2008). Click here. This report took place in suburban New Jersey. The setting of the investigation was to setup hidden cameras in a neighborhood park to observe how people would react to an act of robbery and vandalism in broad daylight. For this experiment the control group was made up of 3 white teenage actors and the experimental group was made up of 3 black teenage actors. During the time the white actors were vandalizing the car, most people just simply walked by, some would say something to the boys from a distance, and only one man actually confronted them at a close range (Taylor & Jaquez, 2008). According to Taylor & Jaquez, there was only one 911 call generated to report the actions of the young white actors (2008). Surprisingly, during the time the control group was conducting their part of the experiment, two more 911 calls were generated to report suspicion of some illegal activity from the same park; as it turns out, one person called twice to report he suspected that 3 black kids were lying in a car and looked like they were getting ready to rob somebody (Taylor & Jaquez, 2008). These 3 black kids were actually sleeping, and they were family members of Justin, one of the 3 black teenage actors that were hired to conduct the second part of the experiment (Taylor & Jaquez, 2008). The reaction from people was significantly higher when the actors committing the crime were black (Taylor & Jaquez, 2008). Although the news article didn’t provide me with an exact number of 911 calls for the black actors, while watching the show, the figure was about eleven 911 calls. Apparently race plays a role on how often we report a crime as well. Shouldn’t we report of crime regardless of what the perpetrator looks like?
Racism is a topic of great concern to me, and it is complicated by the different layers of social institutions contributing to stereotypes and discrimination. To be fair, I will say that our nation has made some improvement since the civil rights movement from the 50s and 60s. Today, we even have Black president in the White House. There seems to be notion out there that if we do elected a black president, than we can no longer be seen as a nation with serious racial problems. That notion couldn’t be farthest from the truth. I sometimes wish a magic wand existed to fix this problem, but there is none. Now we seem to have all these so called grass root organizations such as the Tea Party or Tea Baggers, whatever you want to call them (don’t know if they knew about the double meaning in that, but that’s a completely different topic) that claim to be the voice of “the people”, raising there voices because they don’t want our country to turn to socialism. We have Glenn Beck screaming off the top of his lungs, even calling President Obama a racist, yet no one dares to publicly call these so called grass root organizers who by the way feel the need to show up with guns to their rallies and town hall meetings, no one dares to call them racists. Former President Carter did and he is still catching an enormous amount of heat for it. What we have here is a significant amount of people who are extremely uncomfortable with the fact that a Black man is running the country, and there is an intense deliberate agenda to criticize and refute every single policy created by this administration, even if that means not supporting something as beneficial as universal healthcare. There is a constant demonization of words such as socialism, without even a remote understanding of what socialism really is. I’m so disgusted at people like Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, and Rush Limgaugh who are constantly talking about how our liberties are being stripped away from us, comparing this administration with the Nazis, such ridiculous claims they themselves couldn’t believe the bullshit coming out their mouths. They never uttered a word when many our rights to privacy were stripped by the PATRIOT ACT all in the name of security, to defend our freedom, what kind of an oxymoron is that? People on this same agenda always tend to define certain values as the sanctity of marriage, belief in God, and heterosexuality to name a few as “American”, which simply marginalizes anyone not fitting into what they define as American. This is exactly how they tend to portray many of the objectives the new president is attempting to accomplish. They criticized him for taking over GM, never mind the billions of tax dollars we forked over to keep the company afloat, they criticized him for the entire bail out fiasco, never mind that this was a mess left behind by the previous administration. Now he is acting “un-American” because he hasn’t approved the additional troops needed in Afghanistan, never mind that he doesn’t want to fall into the same mistakes the previous administration did, mistakes we are still having to deal with since he have not been able to leave Iraq. Do we even want to give the president credit for how well the stock market is doing right now? Don’t get me wrong, I will not sit here and defend everything President Obama has done, he is after all a politician, there are some loyalties he’s had to work through that I don’t necessarily approve of. I do believe he needs to just do what he’s gotta do and not worry about what people are going to say. Why? Because they’re going to come down hard on him anyways, so might as well get whatever bill you feel is best passed now. Bush did not give a flying fuck about how anybody felt about going to war, he simply did what he felt was best for his administration, why couldn’t Obama do the same. Pass the damn healthcare reform bill, public option included as the people want it and be done with it, end of story. I’m digressing from my point here, but what getting at here is perhaps our country is more racially divided now than it’s ever been in years. We are just choosing to mask these feeling behind politics and refusing to see things in an objective manner. We are no longer even considering what is best for the country. This problem can be addressed by honest self-examination, and as humans, we more often than not fail to be honest with ourselves about our own insecurities and fears.
Since the issue of race can be examined in so many different settings such as education, legislation, government assistance, religion, etc, I will narrow my conversation down to the workplace. Joe Feagin argues in his book “Racist America”, that racial barriers in hiring affect blacks at all class levels (2001, p.161). In a study of a thousand black workers conducted in Los Angeles, it was found that 80% of those with a college degree and almost all of those with a graduate-level education reported workplace discrimination, compared to less than half of those with less than a high school education (Feagin, 2001, p. 162). Feagin attributes this higher percentage of discrimination for educated black workers to having to compete with a greater number of white applicants who are also educated (2001, p. 162). You can see how even this narrowed workplace scenario will directly link the problem to access to resources such as significant, high level education.
In my own experience at the workplace, I have seen how opportunities are given disproportionately depending on your color and background. Although I do hold a management position in my current workplace, I did see in my previous job a significant color line as you went higher up in the organizational chart. My job was not given to me, none of them have; I earned my position by demonstrating I was competent, and that I had to do repeatedly to demonstrate my seriousness. By maintaining my position, and often crossing over to debunk pre conceived notions, I am constantly acting as an agent of change in my own work environment. As a scholar-practitioner and a black man, I serve as a role model to the young diverse staff I manage. I share with them my life experiences; I have high expectations for all of them regardless of their race or ethnicity. Many of my employees are also students, and so I am constantly interacting with them, challenging their thoughts, expanding their world view so that they can view situations from more than one dimension. I will not claim to be the one source of social change within my workplace, and I certainly know that the problem is one that spills into all social institutions, but as scholar-practitioner, my duty is to always show competence, fairness, openness to all points of view, and inspire change in others.
References
Taylor, C. & Jaquez, N. D. (2008, February 20). What Would You Do If You Witnessed
a Break-In? Black, White Teen Vandals Break Into a Car, Generating Different
Responses From Public. ABC News. Retrieved March 7, 2008, from
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/WhatWouldYouDo/Story?id=4310491&page=1
Feagin, J. R. (2001). Racist America: Roots, Current Realities, & Future Reparations. New York, NY: Routledge.
