Racism, as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race. Likewise, in William Wan and Sarah Kaplan’s article they explain racism in America as “an us-them mentality” Throughout the article there are several studies to answer questions such as; What causes people to be racist? Will racism disappear over time? Including many other questions of course.
In Wan and Kaplan’s scientific article, they set the tone of the article by describing the “torch bearing white supremacists” that were marching through Charlottesville shouting racial slurs and slogans. It describes the awfully violent actions that happened…show more content… Yale University social psychologist, Jennifer Richeson said “People learn to be whatever their society and culture teaches them. We often assume that it takes parents actively teaching their kids, for them to be racist. The truth is that unless parents actively teach kids not to be racists, they will be.” Richeson believes that it comes from the environment around us. Wan and Kaplan bring up a study that was done at Tufts University, which 55.3% of their population is White against the 3.5% being African American students. The study found that even with the TV show on mute displaying scenes with no discrimination, the nonverbal body language of the black and white actors interacting was enough for viewers to test higher for implicit…show more content… This answer leans more towards Knowles’ theory of why people are still racist. His theory focuses more on the psychological and biological end of people’s reasons to be racist. It also, without really saying her name, touches on Richeson’s theory of the environment playing a part. Knowles says that he has been studying “everyday racism” for almost two decades. He hasn’t seen a significant change in baseline levels of bias among Americans. However, he thinks, more vicious forms of racism are being unleashed, in particular by President Trump. Now, I’m not bringing my political views in to reading this article and I do not believe that the writers nor the psychologists intended to bring their views into the writing. However, Knowles states that the president did NOT show any disapproval of the hate groups that organized in Charlottesville until a few days after it was
