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Nailah French
UWRT 1104
9 November 2017
Not to be Racist
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are
endowed by their Creator with unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty
Independence
America: the land of the free and the home of the brave. Where, as stated in
the Declaration of Independence, all men are created equal. A brotherhood; where
everyone is entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Yet, historically
speaking, America has never upheld these truths as self-evident. Although the Commented [1]:
good way to introduce and establish topic
foundation of America consists of the notion of the American dream, along with
freedom and unalienable rights, the reality is quite different. How could we expect
otherwise when declarations of freedom were drafted whilst slavery existed? The
road to true equality, in America, has been lengthy and tumultuous. Many Americans
believe true equality was executed during the civil rights movement. Nevertheless,
is this an actuality? There is the common belief that racism is an issue of Americas
President Barack Obama, many Americans believe that the truths, proposed by
Thomas Jefferson, are a reality. This idea is most supported by white Americans.
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In a study conducted in a college psychology class in New Jersey, students
were shown a video exploring the prevalence of racial bias (Jane). The video Commented [2]:
good citation
displayed two young men who were similar in dress, appearance, grooming and
speech. They both just moved to town. Nevertheless, John was white and Glen was Commented [3]:
could combine
black. Video cameras recorded major discrepancies in their treatment as they
conducted the same tasks. When searching for housing, Glen was told there were no
vacancies. Yet, John was given a key and invited to explore an apartment. At a car
dealership, Glen was quoted a higher price and less favorable financing than John.
After the video was watched, the students discussed their reactions. The African
American and Latino students were not surprised by what they were shown. Asian
American students agreed but were less vocal. Nevertheless, most of the white
between the treatment of John and Glen, they still believed racism was an issue of
the past. They simplified the issue to not visiting enough agencies. They also blamed
the region. Although this issue may occur in America, they did not believe it was an
Racial debates such as Black Lives Matter, taking a knee, and police brutality floods Commented [4]:
flood
the news as of late. In society, there is continuous mismatch between the perceived Commented [5]:
is a
experiences of various racial groups. Most noticeably, white Americans and minority
underestimate the privilege that they possess solely by being white. Additionally,
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white Americans may be unaware that their truths are not identical to those around
was aware that prejudice existed. I was aware that there were people in the world who
disliked me, solely because of the color of my skin. Nevertheless, racism remained a
concept. I was aware, but I was not around it. Racism also had an imaginary face. It was
hateful. It had an expression of disgust, anger, and fear. It was a theory, until it was a
He called my name, loudly, drunkenly. I stopped. What are you doing tonight?
Come to this party with me! I was a little anxious. Although we were friends, I didnt
know his friends and he was already drunk at 9 pm. Where? He named a fraternity.
One I never heard of. But wait. I have to text them and make sure its okay to bring a
black girl. I felt my stance stiffen. My gaze deepened, then softened. Why would you
invite me somewhere without being sure that I was welcome? Why would you go
somewhere that black people may not be welcomed? I yelled at him. I felt sad.
phone lit up. A text, from him. They said it was cool! You should come! The words
sprawled across my screen. I stared. The question would not have been proposed if I were
white. The need for this confirmation would not have existed if I were white. But I am
not. People are unconcerned with my discomfort. He was ignorant to how this situation
made me feel. His priority was to make sure that those in the fraternity were not
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uncomfortable by me. Uncomfortable by my presence. I tried to laugh it off. I couldnt. If
these were the comments said directly to me, what was discussed in my absence?
This would not have occurred if I were white. Or frankly, it would have Commented [7]:
very controversial statement
affected me differently. Yet, it showed me that the main people who do not see the
prevalence of racism are the ones unaffected by it. The people who claim not to see
color are the very ones asking their friends if they can bring a black woman to their
Racial biases begin with information as trivial as ones name. This bias is
apparent for people of all ages. According to The Huffington Post, students with
black-sounding names are more likely to be labeled by teachers as troublemakers. Commented [8]:
establish credibility
. Likewise, job applicants with such names are less likely than white-sounding
counterparts for job interview callbacks. This is in spite of these applicants having
essentially identical resumes. Residents with black-sounding names are also less
public libraries.
to be physically large. They were also assumed to be dangerous and violent. This
was not the assumption of those with white-sounding names. This phenomenon is
not exclusive to black people. Those with names that indicate Latin descent also had
violent attributions. These expectations mirror the societal fear of black and Latino
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men. Nevertheless, this irrationality often tends to cause black and Latino men to be
victims of violence.
status. The larger in size a black character was imagined to be, the lower his
financial success and social status were assumed. These characters were also
violent, it did not affect their imagined prestige. Ultimately, there are numerous
ways that racial bias can affect expectations, even when only given minimal
information.
shows children various situational images and asks them a series of questions.
These images depict situations between two races. One image is a white teenager
checking her pockets. Behind her, a black teenager is picking money off of the
ground. The interviewer asks the participant a teenage white female-`` to describe
the scenario. The participant states that the girl picking up the money is stealing it.
When asked if the two girls could possibly be friends, the participant responds no.
Not if her parents know about the situation of her stealing the money. They may be
concerned that Erica (the black teenager in the image) is a thief. Another image is
shown. This time, the scenario is depicted in reverse. The white teenager is picking
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up the money and the black teenager is checking her pockets. When the interviewer
asks the participant to describe the scenario, the participant responds, I think she is
going to return the money. She looks like a sweet girl. When asked if the participant
believed that the two teens in the image would be friends, she stated that they Commented [10]:
would be.
previous image. Nevertheless, the only difference between the images was the role
of the teens. One image, the black teen was picking up the money. The other image,
the white teen was picking up the money. Researchers believe that this
demonstrated unconscious racial bias in children. This trend was true for 24% of
children in this study, despite their race. They tended to see their own race in a
more positive way than the other. This occurred across all ages, all school types,
Hi Nailah,
I enjoyed reading your paper and you have gotten off to a great start. There are a few
grammatical errors and I would tidy the conclusion up a bit but everything else looks
good. Your citations look to be correct, and way to not overuse the citations as well. The
inclusion of the subtitles are essential to the flow of the paper and this was excellent to
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include these. Overall, the introduction is significantly strong and does a good job to grab
the readers attention and establish a clear point. I look forward to reading the final
Thanks,
Kayla Felton
Works Cited
Baker, Katherine, et al. Racial Bias in Neural Empathic Responses to Pain. Plos One.
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0084
001&type=printable
Connor, Jane. Studying Racial Bias: Too Hot to Handle? National Center for Case
http://sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/files/racial_bias.pdf
Howard, Jacqueline. New Study Confirms Depressing Truth About Names And
study_us_561697a5e4b0dbb8000d687f
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFbvBJULVnc