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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 10, 2018)
January 10, 2018 The Skanner Page 5 Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The Dangerous Belief That White People Are Under Attack By Clara Wilkins Wesleyan University (THE CONVERSA- TION) In August, the Jus- tice Department decided to investigate instances of bias against Whites in university admissions. Since then, campuses have been flyered with “It’s okay to be White,” and in November, vio- lence erupted at the Uni- versity of Connecticut during a speech about discrimination against whites. Are White people actu- ally under attack? After all, in the U.S., whites have historically been viewed as perpe- trators of bias, and racial minorities as the victims. But perceptions of this relationship have shift- ed. According to a recent survey, the majority of Whites — 55 percent — now believe that Whites experience racial dis- crimination. What’s more, Whites believe bias against Clara Wilkins their group is increas- ing, while believing bias against Blacks is declin- ing. What’s behind this dramatic change in atti- tudes? Research from my lab and others has found that social changes are a big reason. We’ve also found that these percep- tions of bias — despite not being grounded in reality — can have real consequences. The threat of social changeThere’s comfort in predictability, and people have a psycholog- ical tendency to favor the status quo. For some, a preference for the status quo also means a preference for a social order in which whites have more status, power and wealth than racial minorities. This reality — still in- grained in American so- ciety — was seemingly interrupted by Barack Obama’s historic presi- dential win in 2008. After his election, many started believing racial progress was tak- ing place. There was the sense that more racial minorities were occu- pying the high-power, high-status positions historically reserved for whites. For many, this was a good thing. But for the subset of White Ameri- cans who think that they rightfully deserve to have a higher status than racial minorities, it was unsettling: Were they falling behind? Was so- ciety becoming stacked against them? Had Whites become victims? In a series of studies conducted while Obama was president, psychol- ogist Cheryl Kaiser and I were able to show how this phenomenon played out. We asked participants to either read an article about racial progress or a neutral article. Then we assessed whether they believe Whites ex- perience racial discrimi- nation. We also assessed the extent to which they endorsed the racial hier- archy. Among White partici- pants who endorsed the racial status hierarchy, those that read about racial progress believed whites experience more bias than those who read a neutral article. It’s important to note that this wasn’t the case for all whites: If partici- pants rejected the racial hierarchy, they didn’t increase the belief that whites are discriminat- ed against after reading about racial progress. Essentially, this study indicates that some whites don’t welcome so- cial progress — they ac- tually respond by seeing themselves as victims of discrimination. The country’s growing racial diversity is also likely fueling percep- tions of anti-White bias. While Whites currently comprise the majority of the U.S. population, re- cent census projections suggest that within the next several decades, whites will become a nu- merical minority. According to recent research, if Whites are alerted to this trend, they are more likely to fear being discriminated against. In sum, social change — whether it’s racial progress or increasing demographic diversi- ty — has caused some White Americans to see themselves as victims of racism. My other research with psychologist Joseph Wellman suggests that this phenomenon isn’t benign. It leads some to adopt perspectives that could, ultimately, exacer- bate social inequity. For Whites who are particularly eager to maintain the racial so- cial order, the idea of an- ti-White bias is particu- larly alarming. It implies that the entire social sys- tem is unstable, and they are eager to restore it. These people might at- tempt to “reestablish” the group’s position because they believe it has been damaged. This could play out in a number of ways. One way is through support for other White people who claim to be victims of racial dis- crimination. There’s a tendency to respond neg- atively to Black people who claim to be victims of discrimination: People see them as complainers who use racism as an ex- cuse for their shortcom- See BELIEF on page 7
