For more than 30 years, psychologists Mahzarin Banaji and Anthony Greenwald have been studying the unconscious biases that take root in our brains, coloring everything from hiring decisions to how doctors mete out medical care and judges pass sentence. If you don’t think you harbor any such mental stowaways, tugging […] Read more »
The Persistence of Racial Resentment
Although there was plenty of discussion during the 2012 presidential campaign about the Hispanic vote and how intense black turnout would be, the press was preoccupied with the white vote: the white working class, white women and upscale whites. Largely missing from daily news stories were references to research on […] Read more »
Obama’s Unwanted Legacy: The Renewed Influence of ‘Old-Fashioned Racism’
As he looks back on his first term, President Barack Obama can take satisfaction from a series of significant accomplishments. But according to a new analysis by a Brown University political scientist, his rise to power has also produced a less-welcome result: A renewed alignment between political preference and “old-fashioned […] Read more »
The (Continued) Politics of Racial Resentment
… In remarks that dovetail Romney’s, VP nominee Paul Ryan indicated that urban, minority turnout was to blame for their loss. These comments reflect a broader theme: that Obama did not understand the problems of white Americans, and primarily focused his policies on the needs or demands of racial minorities. […] Read more »
What’s Up with White Women in 2012? Nothing new!
… What’s up with white women? Absolutely nothing. White women have not reversed or changed course. In 2012 and the two elections before that, white women voted about the same way they’ve been voting since the 1970s: almost always for the Republican Presidential candidate. Surprise that white women are doing […] Read more »
Political Racism in the Age of Obama
… Four years ago, when Mr. Obama became our first African-American president by putting together an impressive coalition of white, black and Latino voters, it might have appeared otherwise. Some observers even insisted that we had entered a “post-racial” era. But while that cross-racial and ethnic coalition figured significantly in […] Read more »