NYTimes | Many
of these experiments on in-group bias have been conducted around the
world, and almost every ethnic group shows a bias favoring its own. One
exception: African-Americans.
Researchers
find that in contrast to other groups, African-Americans do not have an
unconscious bias toward their own. From young children to adults, they
are essentially neutral and favor neither whites nor blacks.
Banaji
and other scholars suggest that this is because even young
African-American children somehow absorb the social construct that white
skin is prestigious and that black skin isn’t. In one respect, that is
unspeakably sad; in another, it’s a model of unconscious race
neutrality. Yet even if we humans have evolved to have a penchant for
racial preferences from a very young age, this is not destiny. We can
resist the legacy that evolution has bequeathed us.
“We
wouldn’t have survived if our ancestors hadn’t developed bodies that
store sugar and fat,” Banaji says. “What made them survive is what kills
us.” Yet we fight the battle of the bulge and sometimes win — and,
likewise, we can resist a predisposition for bias against other groups.
One strategy that works is seeing images of heroic African-Americans; afterward, whites and Asians show less bias,
a study found. Likewise, hearing a story in which a black person
rescues someone from a white assailant reduces anti-black bias in
subsequent testing. It’s not clear how long this effect lasts.
Deep
friendships, especially romantic relationships with someone of another
race, also seem to mute bias — and that, too, has implications for
bringing young people together to forge powerful friendships.
“If
you actually have friendships across race lines, you probably have
fewer biases,” Banaji says. “These are learned, so they can be
unlearned.”
