Canadian / American Study Finds High Tolerance for Racism - But Isn't That Realistic?

According to a recent study conducted by Yale University, the University of British Columbia and York University (coincidentally my Alma Mater) a majority of people do not find racist slurs offensive. According to the results of the test, which put student volunteers in a situation where they made a racial remark about a black student (also a volunteer), to an unassuming student.

The study, which included researchers at the University of British Columbia, involved 120 York University students. Volunteers thinking they're waiting for an experiment to begin are exposed to racism: The experimenter walks into the room and introduces two men -- one black, one white -- posing as fellow participants. After the experimenter leaves the room, the black man stands up, says, "Oh, I forgot my cellphone," and gently bumps the white man's knee as he walks out.

The white man either says nothing, or, "Typical, I hate it when black people do that," or, in the "extreme slur" condition, "clumsy nigger."

Other groups didn't actually experience the event, but they read about it or watched it on a video, and then were asked to predict how they would feel, and which man they would choose as a partner for a later anagram task. The volunteers were multi-racial, but black participants were not included because the researchers wanted to see how people who don't belong to the target group respond to racial slurs.

People who didn't experience the racist comments were much more likely to say that they would be upset by the white worker's slurs, and that they wouldn't work with him.

But students who actually experienced the event were less upset, scoring significantly lower on a "negative emotional distress" scale.

When no racist slur was made, people didn't differ in their choice of the white (53%) versus black man as their work partners. When a racist comment was made, people showed a slight preference (63%) for the white man.

So what does this mean? Apparently, people who are not on the receiving end of racial slurs are not compelled to correct those who say them. Also, the opinion of those use racial slurs doesn’t seem to change the opinion of the receiver, despite their obvious bias. I’m not surprised at all – saddened a bit, but not surprised. And it’s not because I am looking for racists under every rock, either!

On the other hand, I do think that depending on the situation, countering someone’s racist remark is not as easy as you think: From May’s Machete who discussed the study:

I find this surprising myself since the first and last really racist person I had to deal with for any amount of time constantly made me incredibly pissed. I was nanny for a summer in Erie, PA for a really racist couple. The guy made a comment one day about how he was worried that his son played with the one black kid in the neighborhood, "because he might think it's okay to grow up and marry those people" and I wanted to slap his face. I didn't, of course, cuz I needed the job, but luckily I dealt with his wife most of the time.

Maybe it's just me, but I don't understand why intolerance is so widely tolerated.

What happens if by responding, you could lose your job? Lose your best friend or a significant other? Are people really willing to be confrontational, versus “sticks and stones will break my bones and names will never hurt me?......well not me, you.

A couple of month ago I wrote about the reactions of my co-workers when there were some racial remarks were said in my workplace the day after Obama’s election. I was a bit disappointed in one…well two people in particular, one whom I consider a good friend -because they did not counter the remarks. It wasn’t about defending my honor, as the remarks were specifically targeted towards me, but they were targeted to the ethno-cultural group in which I am a proud member of. So even it wasn’t a personal attack, it was still offensive. So if they can shrug it off, what does that say about how they really feel about you?

In the Blogosphere, you can always find a differing opinion. Calling the premise of the study “racist” Biker Bernie says that black are actually, more racist than whites:

Truly it has been my experience that blacks in general are more prejudice/racist than whites. One aspect of this is again that the article is an eloquent example. The non-black world is so afraid of a word that no one will say it or put it in print. It is just a word when being used in context, nothing more nothing less. There is no acceptable reason to me to type “the N-word” instead of “nigger” when not being used as an epithet…..Enough is enough. I am no longer afraid of the word nigger, nor have I been for some time. No word spoken should ever spark a beating, stabbing, shooting, murder, or a group attack on one person. This can never be justified.

Trash me all you want over this subject because I will know the more volatile your posts, the more you know I am right.

I agree with Vogue Republic on this:

I think this speaks to the fact that there is a pervasive bias that affects how we react to and treat others based on their assumed race. I worry, in particular, that this comparatively new cloaked racism is more problematic than overt racism. Today, the few public discussions that happen devolve into useless tropes (see the CNN comment board). While most people find discussing the topic of race to be uncomfortable. For many, they view it as a verbal minefield and the fear of intolerance of a poor choice of words, incorrect assumption, or communicative mistake leads to silence instead of better discussion.