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Background

Aversive Racism is a theory proposed by Samuel L. Gaertner & John F. Dovidio (1986) based on the idea that evaluations of racial/ethnic minorities are characterized by a conflict between Whites' endorsement of egalitarian values and their unacknowledged negative attitudes toward racial/ethnic out-groups. As opposed to old-fashioned racism, which is characterized by overt hatred for and discrimination against racial/ethnic minorities, aversive racism is characterized by more complex, ambivalent racial expressions and attitudes.^[1][2]

Aversive Racism Studies

In an experiment conducted by Gaertner and Dovidio in 2000, white college students were asked to assess the credentials and to make hiring recommendations for prospective white and black job candidates with either strong, weak, or marginal credentials. The results showed no overt discrimination when the applicants clearly had strong or weak credentials. Signs of aversive racism appeared only when the applicants possessed marginal credits. Black candidates were recommended more than 20% less than the same white candidates who had the same marginal credentials.[1]^[3]

Aversive Racism in Popular Culture

Aversive racism has been hypothesized in the 2008 presidential elections with the emergence of the first biracial candidate, Barack Obama. During the latter half of the campaign, Obama showed a decent lead in the polls ranging anywhere from 2-10%.^[4] A survey conducted by Stanford University claimed support for Obama would have been "six percentage points higher if he were white".^[5] New York Times journalist, Nicholas Kristof explained, "a lot of the votes Obama loses will come from the well educated whites, who do in fact believe in racial equality, but unconsciously have no intention on voting for a black president".^[6] Obama was criticized for his "lack of experience", possibly subconsciously as a way for these people to rationalize not voting for Obama, a form of Aversive Racism.

References