Secret Racism

A new study out of York University in Toronto suggests that people are far more racist than they think they are. Or, more specifically, far more racist than they say they are. Researchers had test subjects wait in a room with two other people (one white and the other black) who were tasked with roleplaying a particular scene. One scene had the black person bump the white person on the knee when leaving the room, prompting the white person to mutter to the test subject something along the lines of "I hate it when black people do that." If that seems pretty bizarre, it's because it is. I've heard lots of odd stereotypes about black people, but being chronic knee bumpers isn't one of them. Anyway, a second, more severe scenario was set up where the white person used the world famous Worst Word for Black People after having his knee jostled. In both scenarios, the responses of the test subjects to this display of racism weren't nearly as emotional or outraged as the subjects predicted they'd be when presented with a hypothetical act of overt racism. In other words, they claimed to be more offended by racism than their reactions to it would suggest. The authors of this study seem to think that this indicates a strain of subconscious racism in people, but I think that might be jumping to a conclusion. It seems just as likely that people are indeed outraged by racism but are just too timid to publicly confront actual racists. Once, when I was in line at the grocery store, some guy whispered a racist comment about a black woman ahead of us in line. I wanted to shove my zucchini down his throat and box his ears, but I'm a pussy. Plus, I had a zucchini salad to make. My inaction didn't mean I secretly agreed with the guy. The only race I hate is the Tour de France. Fucking pedal pumpers... More details here.