Perception is a shaky thing.
One person sees a burning sun that hurts the eyes, causes uncomfortable heat and emits dangerous solar flares. Another sees a catalyst for photosynthesis, a source of warmth that makes the planet inhabitable and an excuse to go to the beach.
So go perceptions of racism. European Americans accustomed to being the cultural majority may not grasp systemic subtleties of racism. Moreover, according to a 2013 study by psychological scientists at the University of Kansas and Texas A & M Universities, African-Americans and other minorities are typically more knowledgeable of U.S. racial history than their European American counterparts.
According to the Science Daily article, "Claims of post-racial society and other denials of racism may reflect ignorance of history, the study "indicates that African Americans had more accurate knowledge of historically documented racism compared to European Americans. This difference in historical knowledge partially accounted for group differences in perceptions of racism, both at a systemic and an incident-specific level."
Of course black folk already knew that.
It's hard to argue with ignorance. And that's a problem when minorities see history repeating itself while the majority blithely dismiss them as being "touchy," the researchers explained to Science Daily. "... these perceptions of racism are often treated as exaggerated and delusional. But theory and research from cultural psychology suggests that differences in how people perceive racism may arise because individuals from minority groups are actually attuned to knowledge that individuals form the majority group lack. Individuals form the majority group may deny past racism in the context of current events becaus tehy are ignorant about documented racism from the past.
So when African Americans get a little crazy around "stand your ground" and voting laws and Latino Americans bristle at laws targeting illegal immigration, it's because they've seen this many times before. But, evidently most European Americans don't know that.
How'd they figure that out?
Science Daily reports researchers gave 199 European American and 74 African American college students a "Black History" test. Students had to decide if statements pertaining to documented cases of past racism were true or not. Some were true and others were "plausible but fabricated" fiction.
As predicted, African Americans typically identified more accurate statements of documented historical racism than their European American counterparts.
Moreover, the test included statements to determine how ethnically self-conscious each participant was. In other words, African American students whose self-images were defined by their racial identity tended to perceive more racism. On the contrary, European American students who were equally strong in their racial identity perceived less racism. Like a negative image developing in a darkroom, it's a study in contrasts.
So now what?
There's no easy answer. But, there's an argument in favor of rethinking what kind of history is being taught in schools.
I do believe one thing. Selective historical ignorance is an old ploy. It's probably the reason Hitler got away with theories of Arian racial supremacy. The lure of racial superiority was too irresistible to an impovershed people bitter from defeat during WWI and ravaged as a result of the Treaty of Versaille. Their collective self-esteem was crushed. Without accurate information discounting Hitler's claims, it was easy for them to accept a megalomaniac's fabrications. And we all know what happened next.
The recession of 2008 and its aftermath coupled with President Barack Obama's election revealed a subtle similar pattern. Old racists verbal codes, legislative shenanigans and not-so-subtle acts of economic and systemic racism have returned with a vengeance.
The only way to combat the new rising tide of overt racism is to be well-armed with documented and indisputable facts. This study is one of them.
