Editorial: Time to talk about race
- 29 March 2008
- From New Scientist Print Edition.
IT WAS inevitable that Barack Obama's speech on race, delivered on 18 March, would be dissected mainly in the context of another race - that for the US presidency. But whatever it means for his candidacy, the deeper significance of the speech is that it might just spark a mature dialogue on this most incendiary of issues. There is a solid body of research on which to base this discussion, if we can rise to the challenge.
Race is an important factor in US society, as the polarised support for the Democratic presidential candidates has revealed (see "Why pollsters are flummoxed on Clinton and Obama"). Opinion formers often tiptoe around the subject - or worse, exploit it to promote controversy. So it was significant that Obama acknowledged that it is understandable for black people to feel angry about the discrimination and economic inequity they face, and for whites to feel resentful about affirmative action and having their fear of urban crime dismissed as racial prejudice. Most importantly, he also argued that it is possible to confront these issues.
Right now, white and black Americans have very different perceptions of racial discrimination. According to a CNN poll conducted in January, just 12 per cent of whites but 56 per cent of African Americans see discrimination against blacks in their neighbourhood as a "very serious problem".
Overt racial hatred may be in retreat, but there is evidence that bias persists. For instance, linguist John Baugh of Stanford University in California, who can adopt the accents of white, black or Hispanic Americans, has used this ability to expose discrimination in the housing market. And research suggests that even avowed "non-racists" harbour subtle racial prejudice - apparently a consequence of humanity's tendency to form a series of "in groups" (New Scientist, 17 March 2007, p 40).
These biases are not immutable, however. Social psychologist Jack Dovidio of Yale University has shown that subtle interventions, such as showing people videos of discrimination, can reduce subsequent prejudice. The media could do a better job of highlighting such research. Instead, attention tends to focus on controversies such as the simplistic debate over race and intelligence that erupted from the book The Bell Curve in 1994.
Fanning these flames is easy. It gives succour to closet racists, while letting liberals rage against racism without facing their own prejudices. Far more productive would be a debate over the implications of research by Dalton Conley of New York University, who found the main factor limiting achievement by African Americans to be the low accumulated wealth of the typical black family - just one-eighth that of its white counterpart.
This is a real tragedy, and not just for the groups directly affected. In a dynamic economy, opportunity is not a zero-sum game. Give all individuals, irrespective of racial group, the chance to fulfil their potential and everyone will prosper.
If you want more information, you might read some of these related articles. You do not, however, need to read them for the essay.
- Racial stereotyping persists in 'non-racists'
- 17 February 2008
- Editorial: Racism still runs deep
- 17 February 2008
- Are we born prejudiced?
- 17 March 2007
- Hidden fear of outsiders leads to racial bias
- 6 August 2005
- Brains drained by hidden race bias
- 17 November 2003
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