Though many speak of our society as
post-racial, others contend that because of how our brains are wired, racial
divisions persist. It appears that whether we are young, middle-aged, or senior
citizens, we have a natural propensity to categorize faces by race. And we do
this within one-fifth of a second of seeing another person’s face.
When does this
bias start? It begins very early in life. Infants as young as 3 months old,
whether they are white or black, prefer to look at faces of people drawn from their
own race. Apparently, once we learn to distinguish “in-group” members from
“out-group” members—it is a challenging lesson for us to unlearn. In fact, when
shown faces of people whose race is ambiguous, if the face is smiling, we judge
it to be the same race as we are, but if it is frowning, we judge it to be of
another race.
With one
exception, virtually every ethnic group is biased in favor of its own. The
exception is African-Americans who do not appear to have an in-group bias, but remain
essentially neutral. The question is: What can the rest of us do to prevent
ourselves from displaying a predisposition in favor of in-group members? Cross-race
friendships can help as can being exposed to images of and hearing stories
about heroic people from other races.
(See Nicholas Kristof, “Our Biased
Brains,” The New York Times, May 7,
2015, p. A29)
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