White Symbolic Racism in America
the stereotype that Black people are morally inferior to White people, and that they violate traditional White American values such as hard-work and independence. beliefs may cause the subject to discriminate against a certain race and to justify this discrimination as a concern for justice. However, these beliefs operate to maintain the racial status quo in a manner described by Social Dominance Theory. Some prejudiced people do not view symbolic racism as prejudice since it is not linked directly to race but indirectly through social and political issues. Sears & Henry (2005) created five characterizing themes that justify the opposition to social policies designed to promote equality, while still supporting the abstract idea of equality:
1. Racial prejudice and discrimination no longer exists.
2. Any Black-White differences in economic outcomes is a result of Black people’s lack of motivation to work hard.
3. Black people’s anger over inequality is unjustified since they are unwilling to work to get what they want.
4. Black people seek special favors rather than working to get ahead.
5. Relative to White people, Black people have been getting more economically than they deserve.
Symbolic racism is a form of modern racism, as it is more subtle, indirect, and rationalizable than old-fashioned, more overt forms of racism, such as those characterized in Jim Crow Laws. As symbolic racism develops through socialization and its processes occur without conscious awareness, an individual with symbolic racist beliefs may genuinely oppose racism and believe he or she is not racist. Symbolic racism is perhaps the most prevalent racial attitude today.
Read more about this topic: Symbolic Racism
Famous quotes containing the words white, symbolic, racism and/or america:
“With a few exceptions, the critics of children’s books are remarkably lenient souls.... Most of us assume there is something good in every child; the critics go from this to assume there is something good in every book written for a child. It is not a sound theory.”
—Katharine S. White (1892–1977)
“The instincts of merry England lingered on here with exceptional vitality, and the symbolic customs which tradition has attached to each season of the year were yet a reality on Egdon. Indeed, the impulses of all such outlandish hamlets are pagan still: in these spots homage to nature, self-adoration, frantic gaieties, fragments of Teutonic rites to divinities whose names are forgotten, seem in some way or other to have survived mediaeval doctrine.”
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)
“Few white citizens are acquainted with blacks other than those projected by the media and the so—called educational system, which is nothing more than a system of rewards and punishments based upon one’s ability to pledge loyalty oaths to Anglo culture. The media and the “educational system” are the prime sources of racism in the United States.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)
“I thought that when they said Atlantic Charter, that meant me and everybody in Africa and Asia and everywhere. But it seems like the Atlantic is an ocean that does not touch anywhere but North America and Europe.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)