Study: White People React To Evidence Of White Privilege By Claiming Greater Personal Hardships
Options
1CK1S
Members Posts: 27,471 ✭✭✭✭✭
Researchers at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business have found that white people respond to evidence that they are privileged by their race by insisting that they face greater hardships in life.
In a study published in the November issue of Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, L. Taylor Phillips and Brian S. Lowery point out that progress on racial equality is limited by the fact that many whites deny the existence of inequities.
“Despite this reality, policy makers and power brokers continue to debate whether racial privilege even exists and whether to address such inequity,” the researchers noted. “One reason for this inaction might be an unwillingness among Whites to acknowledge racial privilege — acknowledgment that may be difficult given that Whites are motivated to believe that meritocratic systems and personal virtues determine life outcomes.”
“However, claiming personal life hardships may help Whites manage the threatening possibility that they benefit from privilege.”
The researchers argued that understanding the reaction to evidence of racial inequality was important because whites who did not feel that they personally benefited from their ethnicity would be less willing to support policies that were designed to reduce racial inequality.
Subjects in the study were separated into two groups. The group that was shown evidence of white privilege “claimed more hardships than those not exposed to evidence of privilege,” the study found.
A second experiment suggested “that people claim more life hardships in response to evidence of in-group privilege because such information is threatening to their sense of self.” Researchers observed that whites who read self-affirming statements before completing the survey claimed less hardships, and they found that self-affirmations could actually reverse the denial of white privilege.
“Furthermore, Whites’ claims of life hardships mediated their denials of personal privilege, supporting our hypothesis that hardship claims help people deny they personally benefit from privilege — that White privilege extends to themselves,” Phillips and Lowery wrote. “Importantly, these denials of personal privilege were in turn associated with diminished support for affirmative action policies — policies that could help alleviate racial inequity.”
Researchers recommended that efforts to reduce racial inequalities also include the education of advantaged populations.
“Our work suggests that privilege reduction efforts might need to focus not only on convincing or educating advantaged group members about privilege, but also on reducing the feelings of self-threat this information induces,” Phillips and Lowery explained. “The existence of hardships does not reduce racial privilege, since racial privilege entails comparison to someone of a different race with equivalent hardships. People may erroneously think privilege entails complete ease in life and that the presence of any hardships denotes an absence of privilege.”
In conclusion, the study postulated that whites may claim hardship “to maintain not only a positive sense of self, but also the material benefits associated with racial privilege.”
“Whites’ claims of hardship might also serve to legitimize the racial advantages they enjoy, and thereby justify a system that benefits their group.”
In a study published in the November issue of Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, L. Taylor Phillips and Brian S. Lowery point out that progress on racial equality is limited by the fact that many whites deny the existence of inequities.
“Despite this reality, policy makers and power brokers continue to debate whether racial privilege even exists and whether to address such inequity,” the researchers noted. “One reason for this inaction might be an unwillingness among Whites to acknowledge racial privilege — acknowledgment that may be difficult given that Whites are motivated to believe that meritocratic systems and personal virtues determine life outcomes.”
“However, claiming personal life hardships may help Whites manage the threatening possibility that they benefit from privilege.”
The researchers argued that understanding the reaction to evidence of racial inequality was important because whites who did not feel that they personally benefited from their ethnicity would be less willing to support policies that were designed to reduce racial inequality.
Subjects in the study were separated into two groups. The group that was shown evidence of white privilege “claimed more hardships than those not exposed to evidence of privilege,” the study found.
A second experiment suggested “that people claim more life hardships in response to evidence of in-group privilege because such information is threatening to their sense of self.” Researchers observed that whites who read self-affirming statements before completing the survey claimed less hardships, and they found that self-affirmations could actually reverse the denial of white privilege.
“Furthermore, Whites’ claims of life hardships mediated their denials of personal privilege, supporting our hypothesis that hardship claims help people deny they personally benefit from privilege — that White privilege extends to themselves,” Phillips and Lowery wrote. “Importantly, these denials of personal privilege were in turn associated with diminished support for affirmative action policies — policies that could help alleviate racial inequity.”
Researchers recommended that efforts to reduce racial inequalities also include the education of advantaged populations.
“Our work suggests that privilege reduction efforts might need to focus not only on convincing or educating advantaged group members about privilege, but also on reducing the feelings of self-threat this information induces,” Phillips and Lowery explained. “The existence of hardships does not reduce racial privilege, since racial privilege entails comparison to someone of a different race with equivalent hardships. People may erroneously think privilege entails complete ease in life and that the presence of any hardships denotes an absence of privilege.”
In conclusion, the study postulated that whites may claim hardship “to maintain not only a positive sense of self, but also the material benefits associated with racial privilege.”
“Whites’ claims of hardship might also serve to legitimize the racial advantages they enjoy, and thereby justify a system that benefits their group.”
Comments
-
So in short you have to give white folks an ego massage in order for them to acknowledge that 400 years of oppression policies and laws in a racist regime gave them a significant advantage and that black people aren't in the position their in by pure coincidence?
-
But what about black on black crime?
-
BREAKING NEWS.
-
That ? sums up Reddit in a nutshell.
-
Nazis anti semetic laws didn't give non jewish Germans an advantage....
Said no one -
*Googles "Journal of Experimental Social Psychology"*
-
Thats what you get when you play ultra conservative
This was meant to be in the NFL thread .. still applies.. -
Why are so many white people so ? weak? A bunch of ? ass ? who won't cop to the truth even when it's staring them in the face.
White fragility at its finest. -
That ? sums up Reddit in a nutshell.
Man
U aint never lie
I ? with redditt and 4chan hard for like a year
Smh
They hide behind anonymity and terribly corny jokes
Reddit is the liberal Stormfront.org
-
I don't really identify as white because most white people are taller than me.
-
Maybe its also cause most people arent satisfied with what they do and feel entitleled to more? Regret/missed chances etc, grass is always greener and yadda yadda. What is white privilege for whites living in new england or other mostly white states? You know those towns with no multicultural ? ? Those people basically live on an island/their own lil world...
-
I had a sociology professor who would spit that real ? making the white people in class feel bad and uncomfortable. The funniest part is that she is white but unfiltered.
It's a full-time job dealing with white people. I avoid them as much as possible cause i know they will do something to ? me off. It's their specialty. Their ignorance of themselves and behavior towards non whites is sickening at times. -
amenhotepiv wrote: »
I dont know why you would ? with 4chan at all..
reddit i only ? with sports and fitness there and if i do something else its just to peep news articles.. you can say that with just about every commenting section on the net -
Most White folks are oblivious as to what goes on with minorities and arrogant enough to truly believe that the "white" way of culturally doing things is the right way.
Some Whites truly believe if you work hard regardless of color you will succeed and live a relatively trouble free existence.
They think Black peoples claims of racial inequality is embellished and false more times than not; this is why you will hear them make certain comments about they do not believe the police treat Blacks and other minorities any differently nor do they think they think they got a job over an equally or more qualified minority person due to their race even when the person making the decision on the job likely was White person too.
Most White people can go live in their insulated little world and deal with few to no people who are not like them and form an opinion simply based on some ? Fox News told them.
This isn't all White people either but most of those poor and lower middle class Whites can be manipulated and led to believe any type of stupidity when the person saying it claims to be an evangelical Christian, is anti-entitlement programs, anti-? , anti-immigration, and support more lax gun laws. -
unspoken_respect wrote: »I had a sociology professor who would spit that real ? making the white people in class feel bad and uncomfortable. The funniest part is that she is white but unfiltered.
It's a full-time job dealing with white people. I avoid them as much as possible cause i know they will do something to ? me off. It's their specialty. Their ignorance of themselves and behavior towards non whites is sickening at times.
I will never forget a sociology professor I had sophomore year said "as a white woman I can listen but I'll never understand what a black person goes through nor compare my hardships to theirs. And if more white people who thought they were helping realized that a lot more can be accomplished"....I was the only black male in the class and I was shocked. I'd never heard a white person actually say that out loud before -
unspoken_respect wrote: »I had a sociology professor who would spit that real ? making the white people in class feel bad and uncomfortable. The funniest part is that she is white but unfiltered.
It's a full-time job dealing with white people. I avoid them as much as possible cause i know they will do something to ? me off. It's their specialty. Their ignorance of themselves and behavior towards non whites is sickening at times.
I will never forget a sociology professor I had sophomore year said "as a white woman I can listen but I'll never understand what a black person goes through nor compare my hardships to theirs. And if more white people who thought they were helping realized that a lot more can be accomplished"....I was the only black male in the class and I was shocked. I'd never heard a white person actually say that out loud before
Man, those types of teachers are goat. Unfortunately, most of us only seem to get one of them during our tenure in school. -
Shout out to the white members of the IC. None of that was aimed at you.
-
In my opinion, this is politics, not science. No empirical evidence was actually presented to support the assertion that there is a universal and static racial advantage that all white people have in all social circumstances and all individual interactions all of the time (is this a strawman on my part?). There's no evidence presented for this because it doesn't exist. The entire concept of 'society' that some liberals have is completely detached from real live individuals and the world as it actually is. The entire 'argument' in this article is based on ad hominems and stereotypes. Instead of objectively dismantling claims to the contrary with evidence and reasoning you focus on their character and just dismiss them as being fragile and in denial which is beyond ironic when you consider how some people respond to legitimate non-personalized criticisms of feminism, BLM, the idea of there not being a universal/static white privilege etc.
I'm not trying to be disrespectful but I genuinely don't understand how people can buy into this ? . -
Most White folks are oblivious as to what goes on with minorities and arrogant enough to truly believe that the "white" way of culturally doing things is the right way.
Some Whites truly believe if you work hard regardless of color you will succeed and live a relatively trouble free existence.
They think Black peoples claims of racial inequality is embellished and false more times than not; this is why you will hear them make certain comments about they do not believe the police treat Blacks and other minorities any differently nor do they think they think they got a job over an equally or more qualified minority person due to their race even when the person making the decision on the job likely was White person too.
Most White people can go live in their insulated little world and deal with few to no people who are not like them and form an opinion simply based on some ? Fox News told them.
This isn't all White people either but most of those poor and lower middle class Whites can be manipulated and led to believe any type of stupidity when the person saying it claims to be an evangelical Christian, is anti-entitlement programs, anti-? , anti-immigration, and support more lax gun laws.
Don't let them fool you, there may be some who are oblivious but most know their advantage, which is why go so hard to deny it or are just complicit. -
In my opinion, this is politics, not science. No empirical evidence was actually presented to support the assertion that there is a universal and static racial advantage that all white people have in all social circumstances and all individual interactions all of the time (is this a strawman on my part?). There's no evidence presented for this because it doesn't exist. The entire concept of 'society' that some liberals have is completely detached from real live individuals and the world as it actually is. The entire 'argument' in this article is based on ad hominems and stereotypes. Instead of objectively dismantling claims to the contrary with evidence and reasoning you focus on their character and just dismiss them as being fragile and in denial which is beyond ironic when you consider how some people respond to legitimate non-personalized criticisms of feminism, BLM, the idea of there not being a universal/static white privilege etc.
I'm not trying to be disrespectful but I genuinely don't understand how people can buy into this ? .
Shut up, ? . -
aight aight white privilege does exist sure.
but maybe you'd be mad too if you went to the club and couldnt dance. -
Claims of hardship lol it's almost like they're saying if the playing field was even then they'd be at a natural disadvantage.
-
-
Watch them deny this too.
"Much intelligence is wasted on ignorance when the need for an illusion is great" -
hilarious
only in america
http://youtu.be/WACvvlxHkPo