Today's Washington Post reports on a study that claims to show that Republicans are more biased against blacks than Democrats are. Created quite a discussion at Ann Althouse's.
I haven't read the study and I am not a specialist in Political Psychology, so I cannot tell you how reliable those results are. However, three points:
First, the study talks about cognitive bias; that's conceptually different from stereotypes (generalizations about a group of people), prejudice (a pre-judgment of somebody, usually due to stereotyping), and discrimination (differential treatment of different groups of people). What is racism -- bias, stereotype, prejudice, or discrimination? There is no obvious definition.
Second, the main measure used by the study, it seems, is based on word-image association: Racial bias is determined by the type of words respondents associate with black or white faces, and by the speed with which the word associations are given. Biased people associate more negative terms with black faces, and they do this more quickly than others. The test is computerized (of course) and available online. You can try the test yourself at https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/. The benefit of the test is that it uses automated coding procedures and thereby reduces the impact of the political biases that researchers may have. However, at first sight I find it quite a leap of faith to accept that unthinking responses to faces capture stereotypes or even prejudice. But take a look at the online test and decide for yourself.
Third, the study is based on a quantitative comparison of Republicans and Democrats. Obviously, not all Republicans in the study were more biased than Democrats, and vice versa. So, being a Republican does not automatically mean that one is biased, and being a Democrat doesn't mean that one doesn't have any biases. And maybe the relationship between bias and party is due to some third factor -- region, for example, level of education, and so on.
If I find an online copy of the paper or more information on it, I'll post it.
2 comments:
I think Republicans undoubtedly have implicit "disregard" for all things relating to a racial minority. Modern conservatism has so sabatoged the Republican party, that racial diversity has all but vanished from being a priority to the right at all. Don't believe me... just ask a homeless native of the New Orleans Lower 9th Ward.
It is all but proven political fact that intiatives geared towards the racial minority, such as affirmative action, are proud developments by the Democratic Party. Any attempt by Republicans to refute the fact that Democrats are loyal and staunch supporters of racial minorities, would be futile.
Judge Alito's confirmation hearings were a perfect example of the opposing views on racial diversity existing between the Democrats and Republicans. Though I think it was overly played in the hearings, Alito's consistent voting pattern against minorities (including voting in favor of a police officer who fatally ahot a black male who stole a PURSE from a lady...and refusing to deem it as "unconstitutional") and his affiliation with the CAP organization, are unmistakable for their difference towards the all superior white male.
Not surprisingly, Alito is a self-described conservative, worked for Ronald Reagan (a Republican), was nominated by George Bush (a Republican), and won all but one Repulican vote in his confirmation today. Coincidence...I think not.
If there is one good thing about George Bush's juvenile approach to handling (er...mis-handling) the response to Katrina, it is that he further solidified the African American (and probably most other racial minorities) vote on the Democratic ticket. I don't think anyone who was alive during Hurricane Katrina, can INTELLIGENTLY debate the fact that it exposed our government's (an all Republican one) blatant dis-regard for the poor (and consequentially black) in our country.
In conclusion, I would like to thank President Bush for emboldening racial minorities to further pledge their allegiance to the Democratic Party for the immediate and distant future. Thanks Mr. President!
By the way, these words are coming from the mouth of a white male.
Well said!!
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