The Color Blind And Their Aversive Racism -- Confronting Hidden Bias

“The most effective adaptation of racism over time is the idea that racism is conscious bias held by mean people. This “good/bad binary,” positing a world of evil racists and compassionate non-racists, is itself a racist construct, eliding systemic injustice and imbuing racism with such shattering moral meaning that white people, especially progressives, cannot bear to face their collusion in it.

“(Pause on that, white reader. You may have subconsciously developed your strong negative feelings about racism in order to escape having to help dismantle it.)”

-- Katy Waldman, staff writer at The New Yorker in a review on White Fragilityby Robin DiAngelo (2018)

I am white. I have no conscious bias, yet over the years I have felt that old “tug” or “pull” every now and then – a disposition to cave to an unconscious racist bias. Listening to a decidedly racist joke without objection, affirming some kind of simple white privilege, asking myself if something is indicative of a race – these are all examples of refusing to confront my duty to dismantle racism. All are errors deep-seated in the white psyche … yes, in my own psyche … and all are undesirable biases in situations I should have confronted at the time.

I reckon I am like most whites in a state of “white fragility”: Being raised in a society in which racism is the bedrock, I am guilty of presupposing a world full of the good/bad binary. Now, I often realize I inhabit a society of friends and relations whom I know are not purposely or consciously racist … I inhabit a world where decent, intelligent whites fail to recognize their obligation to confront their own aversive racism.

Yale professor Robert Mitchell says: “Aversive racists 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.”

I believe most whites are oblivious to aversive racism. They find any suggestion that they might be prejudiced aversive as well. Discrimination occurs “in situations in which normative structure is weak, when the guidelines for appropriate behavior are vague, when the basis for social judgment is ambiguous, or when one can justify or rationalize a negative response on the basis of some factor other than race.”

(John F. Dovidio, Samuel L. Gaertner, and Adam R. Pearson. “Aversive Racism and Contemporary Bias.” November 2016.)

“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.)

In more than twenty years of running diversity-training and cultural-competency workshops for American companies, the academic and educator Robin DiAngelo has noticed that white people are sensationally, histrionically bad at discussing racism. DiAngelo says …

“Like waves on sand, their reactions form predictable patterns: they will insist that they 'were taught to treat everyone the same,' that they are 'color-blind,' that they 'don’t care if you are pink, purple, or polka-dotted.' They will point to friends and family members of color, a history of civil-rights activism, or a more 'salient' issue, such as class or gender.”

(Katy Waldman. “A Sociologist Examines the 'White Fragility' That Prevents White Americans from Confronting Racism.” The New Yorker. July 23, 2018.)

“Father, forgive them; they know not what they do.” I recall these unmatched, compassionate and merciful words of Jesus as he hung near death on the cross. The words apply to 21^st century racism in that the clash of justification and real misunderstanding occur daily. Whites have been warned not to go outside their racial comfort zone. If they do become uncomfortable racially, they repel the challenge and get back into that pleasant zone.

Confronting aversive racism as a person groomed with white fragility is not easy. In fact, acknowledging you were taught to treat every person the same, and, at the same time, addressing personal issues of unconscious racism is very difficult. Beyond the surface of bias, there exists more prejudice. If we are to eliminate racism in America, we must plot a course that includes both identifying white fragility and aversive racism and reinforcing strategies that combat these conditions.

Race shapes the lives of white people and blacks, too. But, the conspiracy of racism is hardly invisible to people of color. It is me, a white person, who must recognize the invisibility. I need to realize that combating my inner voices of racial prejudice – though subtle and barely realized – is a life’s work. I must also acknowledge I should continue to be a work in progress, a person open to new understandings and new challenges that call me to action.