Concepts of Racism & Discrimination
The paper requires you to demonstrate an understanding of the concepts of racism/discrimination. Use the following questions to help guide your reflections:
- What does it mean to be a subtle racist? Please include a referenced definition and example.
- Why could there be significant differences in perceptions and values of members within the same ethnic group? Be specific.
1. What does it mean to be a subtle racist? Please include a referenced definition and example.
Subtle racism is a person who has the implicit racial or any other negative attitude towards particular group. This subtle racism is one of the most ambiguous form of racial discriminations. It’s known as ambiguous as the actions of the perpetrator are indirect and they often express them through innuendos. Subtle racism is attributed by many other factors other than racist beliefs thus influencing the behavior as the perpetrator. The main goal of the subtle racist is to cause harm to the people with different ethnic background. The subtle racism has biased decisions which rationalized or hidden with an explanation that the people within the society are willing to accept. Within the heart of the subtle racism, one is able to find a deliberate policy of omission, denial and also obfuscation within people’s issues. In that case, the subtle racism is mostly not detected but inculcated inherited within each group of the new members of any social situation (Shabbir & Hyman, 2014).
For example, the white people say that they have the egalitarian values, behavior which is influenced by the subconscious prejudices and also their cognitive where their prejudices were buried deeply in their psyche. Most of the time, the prejudices and racism cause cognitive dissonance which is a physiological conflict which results from the incongruous beliefs and some attitude which co-exit simultaneously. Most of the time, white people pretend to have liberals to believe in equal rights for all people but the actions they portray suggest otherwise. The whites have therefore learned ways they can verbalize their equality needs by denying subtle racism within themselves.
2. Why could there be significant differences in perceptions and values of members within the same ethnic group? Be specific.
There could be significance differences between the people of the same ethnic group because people belonging to the same ethnic group shapes the way the interact with each other attribute the behavior of others. In that case, there are the significant differences which occur when the members of the same ethnic group argue on perceptions on racism as they are influenced by the group membership. The example of the differences is how Blacks and Whites have the prevalence on racism which help them in suggesting ways in which the group might have the different construal’s from the same behavior. The reason for the discrepancy among the participants which are motivated differently perceive the racism because of the racial group membership thus they degree their group which is implicated within the job.
Everyone in the ethnic group strive to defend and protect the individuals in their group thus considering the white racism may lead to main reason for the white people to feel threatened thus egalitarian which implicate the racism against the ethnic and racial minorities. In most cases, the white people are motivated to adopt a big behavior threshold making it a way to afford ingroup benefits of doubt in very ambiguous situations (Parker & Baltes, 2017). Members of the same ethnic group tend to compare the race relations which is subjects to racism caricatures to ideal standards which are true racial respect and equality, some beliefs on racial progress which is tempered. The differences help in controlling where some of the people tend to think how worse a situation can be and others think about the ideal future thus helping them to consider how things can be worse.
References
Parker, C. P., & Baltes, B. B. (2017). Support for affirmative action, justice perceptions, and work attitudes: A study of gender and racial–ethnic group differences. Journal of Applied Psychology, 45-98.
Shabbir, H. A., & Hyman, M. R. (2014). Deconstructing subtle racist imagery in television ads. Journal of business ethics, 421-436.