Page 171 - Microaggressions in Everyday Live Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation
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From Old - Fashioned Racism to Modern Racism  145

                         attempt or pretend not to notice differences. In other words, racism is least
                         likely to emerge in situations where behaviors would appear prejudicial
                         to others. This statement is also related to situational ambiguity, but the
                         dynamics are broader. One particular study presented participants with
                         records of Black and White students and told White participants to rate
                         them for admission. The two criteria they looked at were grade - point aver-
                         age (GPA) and SAT scores. When both criteria were equally high or equally
                         low for Black and White participants, they were rated equally. However,
                         when presented with candidates that had either high GPA/low SAT or
                         high SAT/low GPA, Whites selected the White candidate more often. White
                         participants would often favor the White candidate by shifting the impor-
                         tance of the criteria they used for their ratings. A Black person with high
                         GPA and low SAT, for example, would be denied because SAT scores were
                         more important. However, if Blacks had high SAT, but low GPA, the raters
                         would also decide against the Black candidate, in this instance because

                           “ GPA was more important ” ! In other words, the definition of the  “ most
                         qualified candidate ”  shifted depending on the race of the candidate.

                         In summary, it is clear that the modern forms of racism operate in such a
                     manner as to preserve the nonprejudiced self - image of Whites by offering them
                     convenient rationalizations for their actions; they are prevented from recog-
                     nizing their own racial biases or the implicit prejudicial attitudes they harbor
                     toward others. Such a form of self - deception is reinforced by several continu-
                     ing and problematic beliefs: (a) racism is a sickness and does not exist in good
                     and decent human beings, (b) racism is only associated with dramatic and
                     overt hate crimes, and (c) good citizens do not engage in such heinous acts.

                         Racism as Only a Sickness
                       It goes without saying that many people perceive White supremacists, Ku
                     Klux Klan members, or Skinheads as suffering from some defect of charac-
                     ter, pathology, or even mental disorder. Who could argue, for example, that
                     John William King and his two accomplices, who killed African American
                     James Byrd in Jasper, Texas, were not depraved murderers? Recall that these
                     men chained Byrd to the back of a pick - up truck and dragged him for miles
                     until his body was shredded and he was decapitated. The actions of these men
                     were certainly those of  “ sick minds. ”  In fact, some have argued that racism

                     should be classified in the American Psychiatric Association Diagnostic and
                     Statistical Manual (American Psychological  Association, 2000) as a mental









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