Study details the power of negative racial stereotypes

[AlphaCentauri]

Source: LA Times

Barack Obama's election as president may be seen as a harbinger of a colorblind society, but a new study suggests that derogatory racial stereotypes are so powerful that merely being unemployed makes people more likely to be viewed by others -- and even themselves -- as black.

In a long-term survey of 12,686 people, changes in social circumstances such as falling below the poverty line or being sent to jail made people more likely to be perceived by interviewers as black and less likely to be seen as white. Altogether, the perceived race of 20% of the people in the study changed at least once over a 19-year period, according to the study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Changes in racial perceptions -- whether from outside or within -- were likely concentrated among those of mixed ethnicity, researchers said.

"After Michael Milken goes to prison, he'll be no more likely to say he's a black person or any less likely to say he's a white person," said Amon Emeka, a social demographer at USC who was not involved in the study. " Clarence Thomas might say he's transcended race, but he wouldn't say that he's a white person, and certainly no one on the planet would say he's a white person."


Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-sci-race9-2008dec09,0,5929450.story

[Captain Hilts]

1. And the most common stereotype...overweight people are stupid!

In fact, if you are in a waiting room, waiting to be interviewed for employment, and you are sitting next to someone who is overweight, your chances of hiring go down!

Hell, we still prefer our leaders to be tall, elected and otherwise.

[No Elephants]

2. Whoever saw Obama's election as a harbinger of a color blind society must have been asleep or daft.