Dealing With the "Gut' Impact of Aversive Racism

“Research that shows that only a small proportion of Americans today have old-fashioned kind of racism, explicit kind of racism. But the majority of white Americans, because they’ve grown up in a culture that has been historically racist in many ways, because they’re exposed to the media that associates violence, drugs and poverty with certain groups.

“Most white Americans, the majority of white Americans, about two-thirds to three-quarters, have the unconscious, implicit, racial biases.”

John Dovidio, Professor Psychology at Yale University

In an attempt to better understand the racial divide of 2020, people are examining their personal beliefs and feelings of both empathy and bias. John Dovidio, PhD, a professor of psychology and public health at Yale University, has studied issues of social power and social relations, both between and among groups and individuals. His work explores both conscious (explicit) and unconscious (implicit) influences on how people think about, feel about and behave toward others based on group membership. He has conducted research on “aversive racism,” a contemporary, subtle form of prejudice, and on techniques for reducing conscious and unconscious biases.

Dovidio says, “Whites spend a lot of time pretending they don’t see race.” But, he said, unconscious bias is pervasive, and unconscious biases by whites impact nearly every aspect of black lives, including vital areas such as health care and employment.

(Audrey Hamilton. “Speaking of Psychology: Understanding your racial biases.”

American Psychological Association. November 2015)

Dovidio cited what he calls “aversive racists” who “sympathize with victims of past injustice, support principles of racial equality, and genuinely regard themselves as non-prejudiced, but at the same time possess conflicting, often non-conscious, negative feelings and beliefs about blacks.”

These negative feelings are rooted in basic psychological processes (e.g., social categorization) that promote racial bias. In addition, the negative feelings that aversive racists have toward blacks do not reflect open hostility or hatred. Instead, aversive racists’ reactions typically involve discomfort, anxiety, or fear.”

(Robert Mitchell. “Yale professor examines unconscious biases by whites.”

The Harvard Gazette. December 7, 2015.)

Dovidio believes attitudes do help us orient ourselves to others and the environment, and he concludes the world would be chaos if we changed our attitudes toward people and objects too easily. Here is how he describes change …

“Attitudes typically evolve slowly, often becoming more complex and nuanced over time; rapid, wholesale change in attitudes is rare. One of the best ways to change attitudes is through intergroup contact. Attitudes are not simply about the way you think about a group; they are also about how you feel about a group.

“In America, whites have been able to change their minds about racism faster than they have been able to change their deep-seated, and often unconscious, feelings. The vast majority of white Americans currently know we should be non-prejudiced and egalitarian. But the emotional impact, the “gut” impact, that race has on people still lags behind.”

(Staff. “Five Questions for John Dovidio, PhD.” American Psychological Association.” 2009.)

That difference between people's white “minds” and their “unconscious feelings” delineates an important understanding, one that illustrates much of the racism we see today. And, it also speaks to quite a problem of comprehension. White people are challenged to identify and change feelings that are often not plainly or easily expressed – usually subtle and easily mistaken emotions of which they are largely unaware.

Dovidio explains …

“Aversive racists typically don’t discriminate against a black person in situations where right and wrong are clearly defined. To discriminate in that situation would be obvious to other people and yourself; aversive racists don’t want to appear and don’t want to be racially biased. However, because of their unconscious negative feelings and beliefs, aversive racists will discriminate, but primarily in situations in which right and wrong are not clearly defined or in which they can justify or rationalize a negative response on the basis of some factor other than race.”

(Staff. “Five Questions for John Dovidio, PhD.” American Psychological Association.” 2009.)

Here is what I, a white person in a rural Southern Ohio Appalachian county with a 2.7 black population, has learned from Dr. Dovidio:

1. “Old-fashioned,” clearly defined as “wrong” racism is largely gone.
2. An unconscious racism has taken its place.
3. Today, white “minds” may not be prejudiced, but white “feelings” of racism remain.
4. Whites often rationalize these negative feelings in a way that may ultimately disadvantage minorities and benefit the white majority.
5. Thus, discrimination that disadvantages blacks will occur, but in a way that permits the denial of racial motivations.
6. Aversive racists have a good set of values; the problem is they're not as good as they think they are.

Aversive racism is characterized by “a conflict between the denial of personal prejudice and unconscious negative feelings and beliefs, which may be rooted in normal psychological processes.” The fact that implicit racism is elusive supports the need for more subtle strategies for its measurement.

I think the key word in the definition of aversive racism is “rooted.” For many whites, ingrained prejudiced feelings – whether weakly identified or hidden – prevent them from realizing racial equality. I am sure this also can be said about blacks. (But that is another post dealing with vastly different motivations and understandings.)

Many whites are very predisposed to cognitive categorization. They freely recognize differences when they interact with races they consider “outgroups” in order to control their own environment. This can cause a normative, often invisible, system of social practices, emotions, and discourses that are perpetuated through all levels (individual, interpersonal, intergroup, and institutional) that privilege one social group and disadvantage and marginalize others.

Aversive racists don't think of themselves as racists at all, so if someone even dares to point out a prejudiced view they possess, aversive racists quickly deny any such offense. They believe they are not racists and they are likely to become offended if called to task.

How common are bitter disagreements? Nearly all interracial encounters are prone to the manifestation of what psychologists label as racial “microaggressions” – brief and commonplace verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults toward people of color. These microaggressions unfortunately impair the development of a therapeutic alliance.

The good news is that shared identity between members of different groups – in this case, experiences shared between groups of whites and blacks – can redirect the forces of social categorization toward the reduction of racial biases. Very simply, that means that meaningful contact between the races reduces prejudice and increases love. We should seek out friendships with people from different groups in order to increase our brain’s familiarity with different people and to expand our point of view.

Also, people can acknowledge differences, rather than pretending they are ignoring them. They can celebrate diversity. At the same time, they can try to consciously identify the qualities and goals all might have in common. Joanna Lee Williams, an associate professor affiliated with Curry’s Youth-Nex, a research center to promote youth development, says …

“We are pushing researchers to establish more complex methodologies. Paying more attention to the myriad ways in which race and ethnicity function as contexts for youth development, rather than ignoring these issues or treating them as surface-level categories, can promote healthy development among all youth.”

And, finally, when we encounter examples of unambiguous bias, we should speak out against them. Why? Because that helps create and reinforce a standard for yourself and the people around you, in addition to providing some help to those who are the targets of explicit and implicit prejudice.