black…MYstory

By being in the corporate workforce over the years, I have noticed that subtle racism abounds. A lot of “open-minded” people have some very interesting notions about people of color. A lot of us may have seen it as prejudice or unconscious racism but, these never quite seemed to capture the essence of the problem. Now, a study published in the American Psychologist has offered a phrase with I think articulates these views quite nicely — “racial microaggressions”.

These microaggressions, according to the study, can actually be more damaging than many acts overt racism because these microaggressions, instead of coming from adversaries, are often coming from friend, neighbors and co-workers. As a result, hurt and confusion abound.

However, beyond hurt feelings, there are more damaging results on a societal level:

The implications extend into the forensic realm. Studies of police and probation officers show that they often use racial cues to assign blame. An African American who commits a crime is likely to be seen as inherently bad or criminal, while a white person who commits a similar crime is more likely to be excused based on external factors, such as peer influence, poor parenting, or mental illness. Recommended punishments differ accordingly, resulting in greater likelihood of arrest, prosecution, and imprisonment for African Americans.

The unconscious nature of these biases helps to explain divergent rates of arrest, prosecution, and imprisonment despite a lack of conscious racist intent on the part of criminal justice professionals. (Other forces, of course, include persisting economic equalities.) Interestingly, the race of the professional is irrelevant. African American police and probation officers engage in just as much negative racial stereotyping of African Americans as do whites.

It is good to see that the questions about how subtle racism undermines society are being asked. This is a tougher issue to tackle but, if it continues unacknowledged and unchecked, we will never get to the heart of why racism continues to thrive today.

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