Page 169 - Microaggressions in Everyday Live Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation

From Old - Fashioned Racism to Modern Racism 143

Bucceri, et al., 2007). These researchers and scholars do not deny that major
advances in positive race - relations have occurred because of legal, political,
and social forces against racism, but they cite an increasing body of evidence
suggesting that prejudice is alive and well under the labels “ modern racism, ”
“ symbolic racism, ” “ aversive racism, ” and “ racial microaggressions. ” These
modern forms of racism have been described more thoroughly elsewhere,
so we will only briefly mention them here.

In general, the body of literature on the morphing of racism suggests that
while old - fashioned racism has declined significantly, it has manufactured a

new face: it is more covert, has become implicit, and is not under conscious
control (Dovidio, et al., 2002; Jones, 1997; Nelson, 2006). Central to our under-
standing of modern racism is the outstanding work of Dovidio and colleagues
(Dovidio & Gaertner, 1991, 1993, 1996, 2000; Dovidio et al., 2002; Dovidio,
Kawakami, Smoak, & Gaertner, 2009; Kawakami, Dunn, Karmali, & Dovidio,
2009) on aversive racism. According to the aversive racism theory, individuals
who believe in equality and embrace democratic ideals may continue to harbor
nonconscious racist attitudes and beliefs toward people of color.
In predicting what facilitates or impedes the expression of modern racism,

they identified several guiding principles derived from their research. First,
egalitarian beliefs of most Whites generally operate on a conscious level where
deliberate and careful thought can be used to guide their actions related
to race - related situations. Open displays of bias, prejudice, and racism are
unlikely to occur when conscious cognitive processes and awareness can be
brought to bear on actions or decisions. Second, if one does harbor unconscious
negative attitudes toward people of color, they are most likely to occur when
more spontaneous responses are called for and/or when careful cognitive
deliberation is not possible. In other words, modern racists are most likely to
express their implicit negative attitudes and behaviors in the form of micro-
aggressions under the following conditions:

• Situational ambiguity — When the situation is ambiguous and unclear,
right or wrong responding is not obvious. For example, when White
participants witnessed Black or White motorists in distress alone, they
would offer help to both at approximately the same rates. However,
if Whites believed others also witnessed the emergency situations along
with them, they were less likely to offer help to Black than White motor-
ists. One of the reasons given for inaction was “ I thought others would
step in to help. ” We know, however, that this reason does not explain the

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