The Chicago nightclub tragedy: my subconscious racism
Last weekend, there was a horrible tragedy at a Chicago nightclub in which a security guard used pepper spray to break up a fight, causing a stampede that killed 21 people (Tribune story). I began reading an article sketching the lives off each of the deceased victims. As my attention waned, I simply scanned the article rather than reading about each victim. But there was a pattern in the names of the people that I was choosing to skip over: LaToya, Charita, DaShand, Ezalle; and the names that I read: Michael, Nicole, Danielle, Robert, Kevin.
I was only reading race-neutral names and skipping names that sounded African-American.
Despite my attempts to not be racist, I still have a culture bias about who I sympathize with. My friend Mary Anne did research with a Chicago GSB prof Marianne Bertrand. Recently she published a paper finding that résumés with White names were 50% more likely to be offered interviews than résumés with Black names. It had nothing to do with qualifications: she made up fake résumés.
How do we conteract such cultural bias?
This entry was posted
by site admin on Tuesday, February 18th, 2003 at 8:27 pm and is filed under Nothing in particular.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 
feed.
You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
February 19th, 2003 at 8:44 pm
I think that you just did the only thing that you can do–you thought about it, and you’re actively thinking about the fact that it exists. I think that such cultural biases are a fact of life (after all, it’s pretty natural to have more sympathy for someone who is more like you simply because it’s easier to interject yourself in their place), but we can get past them if we rely on our heads and not our guts, as it were.
When we catch ourselves doing something like what you describe (and I’ve done it before, countless times without even realizing it, I’m sure), we’ve just got to recognize it and correct for it.
February 21st, 2003 at 5:12 pm
Exactly like you did, by becoming aware of it. After which itÕs a matter of knowledge, culture and curiosity.
September 21st, 2003 at 2:02 pm
I am a visitor of Chicago and I find it quite sad of the racial conditions of this community. I do find it positive that there are strides being made to correct this wrong. The reality in my opinion is that the danger of racism of any sort is poisonous to our souls, our family, our communities and the very world we live in. It cripples our abilites to see clearly, to live freely and to love passionately.
It is a cancer that spreads so violently that it chokes the life out of even the most innocent person. Your recognition of racism within your soul is merely your innervoice telling you to rise above the self inflicted hatred and lack of knowledge and evolve into the beautiful person you are called to be.
I am considering moving to Chicago which is a great city. I have two children and I am almost ashamed/uncomfortable to expose my children to this world because my children simply love good people. Their spirits are free enough to love others based upon the content of character and not the color of skin. My children have friends of many races and ethnic backround and thus they have an appreciation of diversity. They have the self respect that is not stripped away due to racism. It is quite liberating to simply be a human being and not defined by a color line.
March 7th, 2004 at 12:11 pm
I totally understand what you are saying. I have seen people be subconsciously racist with out them realising it. I worked for a IT company as IT contractor. Because I had been with them for a long time I was responsible for training new IT contractors. I got on with all the permanent staff (98% white) very well and would never of called them racist.
What I did notice is though whenever an IT contractor was coloured he was watched like a hawk. Every thing he done was monitored and I got the impression they would got rid that person at a click of a finger if he could not do the job. I too was monitored for a solid week when I started. But when the IT contractor was white they did not monitor him or even care whether he could do the job correctly or not. Iv been out with the permanent IT guys/girls and talked with them at length and truly don’t think they were racist. The only thing that came to mind was they were being slightly racist subconsciously. I think white people subconsciously trust another white person more than they would trust a coloured person. I think dealing with racism on a subconscious level would be the next step to a better society.