'oVictims of the Night: What is Racism in Modern Society?"r

Llewellyn D. Howell, Emeritus Professor

Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State Universityand

International Affairs Editor, U SA To day Magazine

Paper prepared for presentation at the Annual Meeting of the International Studies Association,

New Orleans, LA, FebruarY 20,2015

Groundwork: Definitions

This is a conversation rather than a formal paper. Race is a subject that has enveloped me formore than a half century, about which I've talked often and late into the night. Most of the dis-

cussions over the years have involved strongly held feelings, on my part and on the part of con-

versation partners. Nothing has been resolved. Before I leave these discussions behind, I'd like

to see thaithere has been some progress. I'm presenting some thoughts that I hope will stimulate

a better discussion and instigate something new, where forward movement is actually made.

Let's talk about these things.

How I Got Here: A Matter of Perspective

I'm White. I grew up on a farm in an all-white community in western New York. The only Blacks

that I met in those days, in the 1950s, were itinerant pickers, who stayed in various shacks around in the

farms that were temporarily employing them. I met a few more in college but didn't know them well.

During Peace Corps training in early 1963, the thought was that we should be able to distinguish be-

tween theiacial subpopulationr of Muluya. We were shown a photograph of a group of Malaysians and

asked to identifu which were Malay (who were Muslims), which were Chinese (Buddhists, Taoists, Chris-

tians, othersl, and Indians (Hindus, Christians, Muslims). Most of us couldn't do it. We were then trained

to separate tire races by facial features, clothing, and manner of presentation. We were instructed well and

by the time we arrived in Malaya we had down the basics. But then, living there and having to deal with

society, we had to hone our skiils. Separating the races was critical because each had a different way ofshaking hands, for example, different ways of dealing with meat (no pork or shellfish for Malay Muslims,

no beef for Hindus, o-r-iuorou, for Chinese). Each spoke a different language and spoke English with a

different accent. We had to look at the face and then listen for that version of English. Each was like a

different language. You couldn't listen to an lndian speak English with an American or a Chinese ear.

you had to listen with an Indian ear. Racial recognition was critical to determining which culture we were

dealing with at any given time. After two years, I was only beginning to get a grip on it.

So, my interest in race and race relations began not in the U.S. but in Malaya in 1963' The frst year

there I *u, i, Bukit Mertaiam, P.W., a small railroad junction in northwest Malaya' The second year, in

1g64,Iwas in a small Maiaysian2 village where I was serving as a secondary school math teacher, in the

I A preliminary discussion of this topic can be found as Llewellyn D. Howell, "Losing the Race to Erase Racism,"

(lSA Today Magazine, March 2011, Vol. 139, No. 2790,pp.62'65'

'ivtalaysia wasireated from Malay4 Sarawak, and Sabah (North Borneo) in October, .1963'

village school. I lived in a small cement house with a tin roof with the school's Islam teacher (a Malay)

and ifie school janitor, also a Malay Muslim who spoke no English. The school's population was almost

evenly divided among Malay Musiims, Chinese, and Indians. The three groups of students got along well

and, superficially at lIast, race was not an issue among them that I could see. Outside of the school, how-

.u"., ,*." was tieated differently. The divisions among the groups were deep. How, I asked, did it get to

be so? Was there likely to be any resolution to the problems that constantly arose there and in other so-

cieties that I could see around me in Southeast Asia?

I returned to the U.S. to graduate school with the intent of examining this problem in Malaysia and

elsewhere. This was, of couise, right at the height of the civil rights movement in the U.S. (1965)' There

was plenty to examine at home' I did.

In 1969,however, major rioting and numerous deaths occurred in Malaysia, with fighting between

Malays and Chinese. 'On "lvtay

13 ;d in the weeks thereafter, somewhere between 196 (the official

.ouriy and 2,000 (the reportei perception) people were killed in street fighting and other incidents' Ra-

cial conflict *u, ,if" in the U.S. at the same time. Both matters spurred my interest'

In 196g I began that year to lay out a PhD. dissertation proposal that resulted in a five-country (Ma-

laysia, Singapore,lndonesia, Thaiiand, and the Philippinesf survey on racial andethnic3 prejudice in

Southeast Asia with more than 2,400 respondents in 1970-7it.a In conjunction with -this

work, I conducted

;r;;"study in ffawaii, looking atracialattitudes in Hawaii's diverse population' ' I followed with anoth-

er Southeast Asian survey (Ma-laysia, Thailand, and the Philippines) in 1981-82, roughly ten years after .-

;dfi;r;G l;8, s8, a.rring a ruturiglrt y"u, i, Malaysia, I had an opportunity to survey Malaysian civil

servants with the sarne quest"ionnaire ihad used in the earlier two surveys and to make some comparisons

across the period 1970-i988.? Over the last three years, I've been studying commercial advertising on

television and the way it portrays minorities in America, especially looking at how Blacks appear'

I have continued my interest and analysis of race questions for Southeast Asia and in the U'S' over

the last several decades. It includes today, clearly, not just questions of Black and white or Malay and

Chinese but also the entire range of coloi identities thai are infused in immigration and conflict questions

around the globe. I have perioiically written about the questions and have given numerous talks on the

issue of raci, in addition to talking to my students at Thunderbird School of Global Management at ASU,

3 Although I have conducted a number ofdata-based studies on race, with extensive survey data, the presentation

here is, in good part, observational and experiential'fif"*"ff,i D. Howell, Regional Accommodation in Southeast Asia: A Stu$t of Attitudinal Compatibility and Dis'

t ance, Ph.D. Dissertation, Spacuse University, I 973'iil.*;xy, D. Howell, "bo-pur"d Attitudin;l Dimensions in Hawaii: A Combined Social Distance-Factor Analytic

Approach," Ethnicity,Vol.4,No. I (March 1977), pp. 1-18';ii;ily, n. gowlil, ClaritaCarlos, Rosalin Thumrongvit, and Joseph G. Bock, "The lnternational Attitudes of

Southeast Asians: An Evolutionary Perspective," in Southeast Reviat, of Asian Studies, Vol- V, January 1984, pp'

63-77.ilt"*"tty, D. Howell,.,Elite Attitudes and Foreign policy: A Study of the International Perspectives of Malaysian

Civil Servant s." Annual Meeting of the Associationfor Asian Studies. Chicago, April 7, 1990'--is"", ro. example, Llewellyn D: Howell, "Ethnic cbnflict Threatens International stability," usA Today Magazine,

yol.122No.257g (July 199i) p.3l; Llewellyn D. Howell and Ronald Palmer, "Malaysia: The Anxieties of Success"

in young C. Kim, ed., The ioutheast Asian Economic Miracle, Transaction Publishers, 1995;L' D' Howell, "At the

End of the Circle of pluralism," USA Today Magazine,Vol. 130, No. 2682 (March 2002),p' 63; L' D' Howell,

,,lronies of Illegal lmmigration,- IJSA Toioy Migazine,July 2006, Vol. 134, No-2734, p' l9; L' D' Howell, "Let

Me See your papers,- USA Today Magazine,July 2010, VoL l3!,-No^. -2182,p- 31; L' D' Howell, "Losing the Race

to Erase Racism," USA ioday Migariie,March 1ot t, vot. 139, No. 2190, pp' 62-65 L' D' Howell' "TV Ads in

Black and Light"" USA Today Magazine,November 2012, pp' 58-60'

The American University, andthe University of Hawaii. I regard race relations-and the issue of race

itself-to be the most critical and most intriguing of the questions before us in sociology and politics.

What I have written below is a summary of my thinking on this subject as we pass through yet anoth-

er critical political period in the U.S. and a year in which issues of race and ethnicity will dominate the

2016 presidential eiection in the U.S., socieial development, and global conflict' Matters of redistricting,

voter identification, voter registration, public versus private school participation, national education

standards, and medical "ur"

-fo, the poor (who are disproportionately from darker color groups) all will be

in the forefront as we try to march on in the 2l't Century.

What is Race?

Race is the combination physical attributes that can be seen in one individual by an-

other. Skin color is primary among these because it can be recognizedfrom the

greatest distance. But there are othervisible attributes of race.

Before we can talk about racism, we have to talk about race. Let me explain the statement above'

What is race? Race is the visual source of community. Race is what you can see, and then associations

that you make with that vision. Without it we would be lost in the ever-growing ocean of humanity.

Without it how would we be able to tell one from another, family from friends, friends from rivals, rivals

from enemies. It is the natural source of human grouping, for ordinary men and women and for educated

sophisticates and leaders. Without race, we would have to be enumerated. And even that wouldn't be

gotd on the battlefield. And we will, as we always have, battle. Just as evolution has made it so, men will

Frght for the best women. It's nature. From the simple pairing, we work our way up through families to

naltion-states and beyond. As science fiction writeri have told us for 100 years or more, we are the human

race, those from other planets are always monsters. Our separation in two sides begins with what we can

see. As political scientist Karl Deutschput it a half-century agoe, our first defense is our eyes. We can see

color hundreds of yards away, long before we can determine who is Republican and who is Democratic,

or who is Muslim and who is not. Just color.

Just from color we make associations with what we have learned, reflecting how we have been social-

ized, what we've learned in our religion, about people of that color. As a person approaches us, we add

other attributes to the equation about who this person is and whether we need to be on defense. To color

we add hair and clothing and jewelry. We also add the words the person is saying in the way they are say-

ing. We add voice itselfl ey tle time the person reaches arm's-length, he or she is completely categorized.

W"e .,know" this person and what to expect from them. A profile is complete and preparation has been

made for a set of reactions. It may be that we can hold back this profile building, as many demand, but

profile building is a natural human reaction.

There are two perspectives on race, and thus two definitions, both of which can result in use that ul-

timately we will cull "racir*." The first of these (let's call it Type I) has gotten far more attention than the

second. In fact, when the hot button term "racism" is used, it is almost always a reference to the first cate-

gory when it really should be to the second.

The first view is that from science, while the second is from sociology (Type II). In the Type r sci-

ence view, biologists, geneticists, anthropologists, and archaeologists work their way from the skin

9 See Karl Deutsch, ,.Research problems on Race in Intranational and International Relations." Race Among

Nations: A Conceptual Approach. Shepard, Jr., George W., a1d LeMelle, Tilden J' (eds')' Lexington' MA: D' C'

Heath and Co.. 19i0: tZl-iSl, and his other writings and speeches on this subject'

and structure of human beings inward to the genome.lo In the sociological Type II view, social scien-

tists work from the sl<in outwardinto society.beneticists have examined the evolution of human beings

and can compare the nature of the being or". i million years or more, working from bones and fossils and

surrounding matter into representations of life's occupations in one millennium compared to another'

Social scientists, on the other hand, deal with what they observe, that is, what they and we can physi-

cally see. Deutsch's argument a half-century ago was that ih" ."nt"t were what humans have always used

to slparate friend from-foe. And there have ahiays been qanY_of both. Human beings are not singular

entities. Simply because of their reproductive nui rr", the family is the first and primary group' After that,

neighbors are critical (tribes maybe) as protective entities. In times of scarcity humans have always had

iheiemptation of tat<ing from each othei. whether that was out of necessity when an individual or his

family was starving, oiout of choice when the individual was incapable (physically.or mentally) of mak-

ing his or her own way, t]le outcome was the same. When you need or want something, you can take it

from someone else. Tire resentment of losing one's properfy makes the thief a foe. Write this case larger,

it becomes one tribe taking from anothe. o. on" nation taking from another. In social relations, other no-

tions such as speculative d"efense, forced ideological "onr"rriot

t, and desire for power have entered the

equation. whatever the reason, at every level, himans have foes and need to be able to identifo them in

order to deal with them.

To put it simply to start, race is the combination physical attributes thnt can be seen in one individual

by oroiirr. skrn' cllir is primary among these becaisi it ,on be recognized from the greatest distance'

But there are other visible attributes of race.I'll talk more about this in a moment'

In this paper, I am dealing only with Type II sociological race and Type II sociological racism' Scien-

tific race issues call for a diffirent set of sfiits and another dimension of education and attention' I am a

social scientist and not a geneticist. It is Type II race that is at issue in almost all of the incidents that pro-

voke outrage, demonstrattns, and mob violence in 21't Century America, where the global focus seems

to reside on this irru".il *tr"iher it is the Tralvon Martin case in 2012 or the Michael Brown case in 2014

or others, it has always been argued that the shooters made their decisions on the basis of appearance, not

Ie or health predispositions. Race discrimination in segregation or housing or banks loans is based on

appearance, mainly skin color. And it is these issues-killirgr, ""ono.ic

access, societal mobility-that

generate news and media attention and academic analysis. So, when we are talking about "racism" as it

fpp"*. in the media and the courts, we are talking about sociological race.

It is important ffom the onset to be sure that we understand that race and ethnicity are not the same

thing, eventhough *uny,r." the terms interchangeably. Race, especially Type l, involves structural char-

acteristics while ethnici-ty adds culture, history, and community to the mix- Racism as it is most common-

ly discussed (and arguei) is a social ph"no*"non, and not a genetic question' The frame to this discussion

is communications ratherthan biology. The arguments aboui police ihootings of Black or Hispanic indi-

viduals has to do with how they looi, not whatls in their genes. Technically, we might want to make a

,o Two suggested sources on the evolution of genetic race (or at least the arguments 1b9ut it) are Nicholas Wade' I

Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race, and Human History,New York: The Penguin Press_,2014, and Yuval Noah

Harari, sapiens: A Brief History'of Humankind,New York: Harper collins, 2015' Also useful is Richard J' Herrn-

stein and Charles itlurray, ihu'nitl Cu*e, Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life,New York: Free Press

paperbacks, 199a. ffermstein and Murray addreJs the possible bridge between Type I and Tlpe II race' There are

too many responses and rejections oftheir arguments to list here butthe reader should consider an lnternet search

and read through some of ihem. One possible published source is Russell Jacoby and Naomi Glauberman, eds'' The

Bell Curve Debate, 1995.,, Let me stress here that race issues and racism are a global matter. lt can be argued that racism is worse in the

Middle East or Russia or Japan than it is in the United States'

new label of "ethnicism" to describe this phenomenon, rather than use racism. But even here, at the core

of ethnic determination is skin color rather than clothing, jewelry, or hair style.

Race first and foremost involves what is visible. As was presented in the recent film

"Black or White," race is what you see first in a meeting between two human beings. Color,

mainly. But one can also see a variety of attributes that signiflz membership in one or anoth-

er of the Type II racial groups. These include:

o skin coloro hair type (color, amount, length, thickness)r face shape including the position of the cheekbones, shape of the nose, size of

ears, and the shaPe ofthe skullo the color of the eyes is especially important, displaying vividly European or

Caucasian heritage. eyelid type. body size and musculature, including buttocks

r for females, breast sizel2

o for males, penis size13

Of course, race is often hidden except for the face but the critical elements of racial

recognition are here. The skin color of the face is the most immediate, shape of nose, lips,

and 6ther facial features. Type and color of hair, including facial hair----of which there are

many styles, including the three-day beard, goatees, long beards, etc. when we moved be-

yond th"t. purely physical attributes, especially jewelry and clothing, we are bringing in

ieflections of tne society in which this individual lives and chooses to affiliate with- These

accoutrements reflect culture, not biology. Adding culture to race produces what we com-

monly call ethnicity. Which leads us to human attitudes about this combination of race and

ethnicity.

What is Racism?

So, what I am really discussing here is ethnicism but I will continue to use the term

racism since that is what is found in common language in English. Racism is the attitude ofdiscrimination and hierarchical structuring of personal relations and social grouping. Rac-

ism is the most perverse of the attributes of social behavior related to race. Racism is the

practice of diffirentiating on an assumption of superior and inferior biological traits that

,, This is not often discussed in Victorian academic papers and articles but it is an important factor in sexual, repro-

ductive, and marriage relations and the ultimate miroiraces, whether Type I or Type II. Asian women (and maybe

all men) seem to thirt that larger breasts make them more attractive. The result is a booming breast enlargement

business in Asia (and elsewhere).ir-gu., t"r, discussed than breast size (in academia) but far more openly discussed among American males general-

ly, it is commonly thought that Blacks irave larger penises than Whites. This belief results in both fear and envy

urrrorg White maies anj "racist" views on Black male-White female relations. For some thoughts on this size issue,

see: Ruth K. Westheimer and Sanford Lopater, Human Sexuality: A Psychological Perspective,2"d Edition, Balti

more: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2005, pp. 75-89. (This text is in common use at community college level in

courses on psychology.) It's also useful to look at a copy of Playgirl magazine, available at your local Barnes and

Noble. The Winter 2015 issue shows well more than 1b0 penises, virtually all of them larger than what Westheimer

and Lopater describe as the average size. Ifall ofthis strikes the reader as inappropriate discussion, they should be

made aware of the availability of"material like this on the Intemet and the numbers of men, but women too, who

view this material on a regular basis, including teenagers. If you don't think penis size has anything to do with race

and racism, I suggest that you walk out into the real world'

can be recognized in physical characteristics, especially skin color- ln the common usage

(and definiti"ons--*t e"t Coogle) racism is a defensive reaction, i.e.by those that have, not by

those that don't have. In the-vast majority of global circumstances, i/ is an expression of

lighter skinned peoples toward the darker skinned. While there are circumstances of "re-

verse discrimination," there are few cases of "reverse racism" that would involve remaining

in an inferior economic or social power situation and fewer still of reversing completely a

fo*", hierarchy (Zimbabwep"rt upt being one of them, although whites still have extensive

economic power there).

Instead of diminishing in the civil rights era, racism issues have taken on near epidemic proportions in

the U.S. since the ZOOI pi"riAential camlaign oitrarack obama and more with his election and2012

reelection campaign, *ith .u"ir*, discrimiriation, and prejudice all being thrown into a mix' Demonstra-

tors showed up at health care town halls and rallils in ZOdg with signs picturing-Presidential candidate

obama as a witch doctor or with placards stating that "The Zoo Has an African [Lion] and the white

House Has a LYin' African.''la

Seven years after that election, with another election in between, "birther" contingents keep popping

up, including in Arizona with anti-obama legislation alongside, claiming that obama was born in Kenya'

not Hawaii, contrary to the Hawaii-released iorg-fo.. biJh certificate that says otherwise' Or that his

mother was not legally an American, o. u., uJ,rli(she was 18 at the time)' Or that he had dual citizenship'

The birther list goes on. Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck, Tea Party protestors, state legislators' and other

right wing "o*-"ntutors

bring race toihe fore in discussion after diatribe. One survey in early 2010

showed that nearly a quarter oTAmericarrs thought Barack gbuTu was a Muslim' despite all evidence to

the contrary and claims about his Christian mir,[te, during the 2008 Presidential campaign' During Re-

publican primaries i, eurty 2012, polls st or,"a tnat plural"ities of voters in Alabama, Mississippi, and Illi-

nois still believed that ob'ama was a Muslim." All lf th"r" issues persisted lnto th9 later stages of the

Obama presidency. Seems like we've hardly moved on-these issues, c,ertat*ry^t * the past seven years'

A large proportion of Republicans stillthink President obama was born m l(enya'- m a

youGovlEconomist ru*Ly of 1000 U.S. adults interviewed February 8-,10,2014,39% of respondents

agreed with the statementi'Know for sure he was born outside the US'"17

Affirmative Action policies are now being challenee{ a1{ even civil rights and immigration legisla-

tion are being pusheJto*ard a chopping bloJk. would all this be occurring if obama had Russian herit-

age? Jewish? Asian? Discriminatio" *a p-fti"g aI.e as embedded in society today as they were in the

days of civil rights activism and before. This isn{ just because of President obama's skin color' although

the darkness of his skin has generated *uch of the frenzy. And he is actually half white and was raised in

a white culture. f .un u.gu"ilrat he is white, if I can only ignore that vision problem'

" ,r** r","*t*-ions through 200g and was used by Tea Bag affiliates to rally groups opposed to obama,

even after he was elected. See httpr/rryra,rrrpurarEas=,",.tlbrogr2009i0-9i i2lteabag-mania- 1 1 -the-rvhite-house-has-a-

Hhr*r#tuslim Rumors persist Among Ininois Republicans: 39 Percent Believe President Is Muslim," Huffing-

tonPostonline,March28,2012. ,, 1^tl 1t1a#il; *;;;1; ;4ffi ;;r.a congressionar HopetuI: obama Yg?:i 1 f"yli, "]!/1!Jl::lirvu,r.v.l.ruff in rrnq-alaDama 26.htm l, and " 63Yo of Republicans Sfill

.t +-

trffiiltil k obama was born in the United States" was-- ^ - . ^^.- /-.-,,,. fa

^ 1 /1 lo1 I 1 ? /nnl I-recrt lt,

fut*". f... tb .etpondents thought both ways, apparently' https:lltodar-

barack-obama-birth/

Race and color have also been at the forefront of the immigration issue in every country' In Arizona'

.,illegal immigrant,, automatically implies that the person is Mexican or Cenffal American, with readily

identifiable color, features, and siature. A federaljudge has held that the profiling portions of the bill are

possibly unconstitutional and they have been stayJd. -But

the debate over the bill still lingers as Ameri-

ca,s right wing fights president obu*u', Executive order to officially stay deportation orders for illegal

immigrants who were raised in the u.S. or have parents or children who are u'S' citizens'

Prejudice based on race is both pervasive and persistent w-orld-wide. Despite the election' reelec-

tion, and presidency of Barack obama, discriminatiron and profiling are as embedded in u'S' society to-

day as they were in the days of civil rights activism and pritr.to that. Sheriff Joe Arpaio is still fighting

judicial decisions that;;; that his, un'o trir a"purt-ent's, actions in stops and arrests in Arizona are ille-

gal and prejudicial. Both of President obamat elections set off a spate of arms purchases in the u'S'

around both elections that has far more to do with his color and heriiage than with concerns about Second

Amendment rights. No other president has set off such aftetzy,whatever that president's position on the

Second Amendment.

The term racism has become an undefined epithet in the united States. Michael Levin pegs race to

assumptions about ancestral origins and, then, intellectual capabilities'r8 In the immediate' practical

sense, race is about recognition and g.ouping, not about IQ or even culture' There is an interrelationship

between how people ffiu. and theii "uttotJt

and behaviors, whether therc should be or not' but this

linkage is about ethnicity, not race. I,m setting the re"question aside for the time being since it is not use-

ful in the context of the practice of racism in the U'S'te

Stereotyping is an ordinary human ability to simplifu, jus! a: we use norms or cverages to describe

natural and sociological phenlmena. A."un ."or"-is i-ntended to enable forecasting but "the average

"iuj iorexample, i-s stilf stereotyping' Humans use race this way'

,,Racism,,isareflectionoftheuseofracetoformnotonly^separationbuthierarchy'Thelighter

skinned are higher up in ,t "

hierarchy than darkeiskinned. In China, for example, this puts Han Chinese

(in their eyes) at a superior level to Tibetans. in Malaysia, the Chinese place themselves at a higher level

than Indians o. fvfuf*|r. -Throughout

Latin America Mestizos are at ahigher level that the darker skinned

Native Americans-

This thesis argues that such prejudices (culturally ingrained discrimination and hierarchy) *"'*:::tion of the human condition, that will expand rather than contract as population grows and as ""*ryljt]:"for resource, urra ,ir.rpt" d;"" "o*pouodr.

The argument integrates racial distance theory' communrca-

tions theory, and culture theory and drawlorrtheor[s put forth by sociologist Emory Bogardus on social'

ethnic, and racial airtance anithose of political scientist Karl Deutsch on human communications and the

establishment of communitY.

18 Michael Levin, lnlryt Race Mqtters: Race Dffirences and What They Mean' 1997 '

re The relationship between IQ and race is a long-standing conffoversy, even though virtually every test of this rela-

tionship shows difl'erences in the IQ scores u""o?Jing io iuce. t -go" h"t" that the differences may be valid but that

IQ is not the issue in racism. Rathei, it is culture-bused orl u"'*ptio" made from skin color' For some references

on the issue of le and race, see William shockley and Roger Pearson , Shockley on Eugenics and Race: The Appli'

cation of Science to the'i"iriir" of Human probin*,, Sc#-To*"end" 1992; fuchard Hernstein and Charles Mur-

ray, The Bell Curve,f Sga; R rr"ti Jacoby -O Nu"*i Glauberman, eds', The Bell Curve Debate' 1995; Mark

Snyderman and Stanley Rothman, The IQ coniir"iry, the Media, and Public Policy' 1988; and many others'

7

Social Distance theory20 argues that human communities are natural mechanisms for defense and are

organized in concentric ci.cles around the individual beginning with immediate family and emanating

oritward in decreasingly familiar ranks. Those circles are determined on the basis of the immediately rec-

ognizable(mother an-dinfant family) and learned support and tlreat, the latter being established on the

basis of cognitive capabilities.

Sameness of color, of course, is one element of this determination of community but human hierarchy

has had for thousands of years and across all societies a ranking of light to dark. Racism, it appears, is

deeply imbedded in human society. Can we stop being racist? Or being prejudiced on the basis of color?

Or from discriminating? We ,." "orrturrtly

being bombarded by advocates of racial justice with claims

that we should, we mu"st, and we cur,." With littie effect' The argument, posed in these terms, is essen-

tially that we become colorblind.

I'm not going to condemn anyone for being racist. That doesn't do any good, actually' It doesn't

change anyttring. I,m not chastis-ing, or askinglr telling anyo,ne to change their physiological reactions,

o. attirdei, or 6ehavior toward p"o-pt" of darker color-and this is what this is all about, darker color'

This essay is about the basics-what is racism? Where does it come from? WlTat can we do about it?

What actual steps can we take to reduce it, slow its impact, eliminate it in the end? That's the goal'

,.Americans are engaged in a war over a word: racism," wrote Charles M. Blow in an op-ed piece in

the New york rimes;i;iy of 20 I 022. The article, entitled "obama's 'Race' 'w'ar," didn't slow the de-

bate, which continued through the 201 0 and 2012 elections and into the new 2014 Republican Congress

with the election of Tea Par[ candidates who dragged discrimination, immigration, and even "birther"

issues into another Year.

Blow noted subsequently that there exists on the America political scene a o'sentiment that the cBrrent

racial discontent is being ruelea by a black liberal grievance industry that refuses to acknowledge racial

progress, accept p"rronu-l .".por.ibility, or ackno*l"ag" its own racial transgressions." He cites Har-

,urj, Unir"rrity -of

Wurhington, and University of Virginia datato note that racial prejudice is a two-way

street. In tests taken between 2000 and2006,ih.""-quurt"rs of whites were found to have implicit pro-

White/anti-Black bias and 40 percent of Blacks had a pro-Black/anti-White bias. Self-reporting in an

ABC News poll in 2009,34yoof Whites admitted to'iome feelings of racial prejudice" while 38% of

Blacks admitted to such feelings (the latter similar to the outco-"i in the Harvard et al- studies)'" Al-

most uniformly, analysts think-Wiites are under-reporting their prejudice. This seems to be the way we

are, both having prejudices and not recognizing them'

But neither racial discrimination nor even racial prejudice is the same as racism. Discrimination in-

volves treatment as well as differentiation, and rnuy "r"n

be a corrective discrimination as is the case in

Affirmative Action policies around the globe. Prejudice is mostly directed at separation, not at perpetu-

ating advantage.

Issues of racism are not, of course, the exclusive domain of the U.S. nor are they a legacy of slavery.

in America. Race hierarchies and conflicts exist throughout history and across every continent' Africa is

,0 Thi, theory emanates primarily llom sociologist Emory Bogardus and his students. See his short books spelling

out the theory and measurements of social distalnce, esp Emory Bogardus, A Forty Year Social Distqnce Study' Los

Angeles, California: University of Southern Califomia, 1967, and ltts article, "Social Distance and lts Origins'"

Joirnal of Applied Sociologt. Jan-Feb 1925:. 55 -62'

" See, for example, the many writings of Comel West',, it -t.. M. Blow, .,Obama,s .Race, War," The New YorkTimes, July 30, 2010.

,, Charl.s M. Blow, "Let's Rescue the Race Debate," The New York Times, November 19, 2010'

rife with racial divisior,'o ,o is Europe, the Middle East, China, and Latin America. Malaysia has strug-

gled for the last four hundred years with racial sectarianism and continues today with divisions and hier-

frchies among Malay, Chinese, Indians, and others, despite what the govetnment presents in its public

relations pronouncements. Slavery is pervasive in 21't Century society.25 In virlually every instance

where slavery has been indexed (125 countries, including the U.S.), slaves are darker skinned than their

owners.

The world is separated into races and skin colors, whether we like it or not. Other criteria of organi-

zation,like religion, aspects of culture, languages, and politics, all enter into definitions of the interna-

tional social environment but none are as important as race and color.

The Universal Spectrum from White to Black

In the compendium titled Are We Born Racist?,26 Susan Fiske cites the research case by New York

University psychologist Elizabeth Phelps and her colleagues on neural responses to yearbook photo-

graphs. ,.Wi; white men in their study briefly saw pictures of unfamiliar black male faces, their brain

Ictivity spiked in a region known as thl amygiala, which is involved in the feelings of vigilance general-

lv. and the fear r"rpo,ir" specifically; the amygdala lights up when we encounter people or events we

jft;1il "oinr;,";

She adds that "severatLtne. labi, including my own, have uncovered a similar link

t"ri""n amygdala activity and white people's perception of black faces'" other studies cited in her re-

search round slmitar."u"iio6 for whites, not Blacks (much reducing the arguments about reverse rac-

ism).

Four decades ago, the renowned Harvard political scientist, Karl Deutsch,2s made this argument

about discrimination in-a communications context: as innate tools, he argued, the five human senses-

eyesight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste-are used to separate friends from enemies. Of these, touch and

taste are the least used because they are utilized in such close quarters. It will be too late to save you from

the dagger.

Some groups develop their sense of smell more than others and can distinguish between body

odors (and just even detect body odors). Hearing involves such things as machinery sounds, gunfire and

"*plorionr,"and voice communications, sometimes amplified. While all of these may help in distinguish-

ing an enemy, among these discrimination depends mostly on voice communications' The verbal content

of a communication as well as language, grammar and word usage' accent, pitch, timber, and tone imme-

diately set people together or apart.

But hearing can only become a discriminating ability when distance is minimal, especially for the

voice. Eyesight, Deutsch said, is the most powerful discriminator' We can see facial colors a half mile

2a SeeLlewellynD. Howell, "SlaverybytheNumbers," (JSAToday Magazine,March2014,-Vol' 142,No' 2826,p'

49; Joel Brinkley, .,A Modern-Duy etiltiorist Battles Slavery Worldwide," The New York Times,Feb' 4,20A6;

Nicholas D. Kristof, "skuery Isnit a Thing of the Past," The New York Times, Nov. 6, 2Ol3, Clate Morgana Gillis,

.,Insurgents took slaves us, tt .y fled Mali,';l rizona Republic, Feb. I 6, 201 3 ; Adam Nossiter, "Mauritania Confronts

Long iegacy of Slavery," flre Uew York Times,Nov. t2, 2013. In nearly all of the documented cases, the slave

owners were lighter skinued than the slaves, usually Arabs or Tuaregs. In addition to the Arab-African divisions in

Africa, the coniinent is fulI of racial and color conflicts across tribes and cultures.,t C" il ***.gr"u"rrr"r .org and check the current year (2014 is being referenced here)'

'u Jason IrA*ifr, et al., eds., Are We Born Racist?, Beacon Press, 2010'27 Are We Born Racist?, P.9'2r see Karl Deutsch, ..iGsearch problems on Race in lntranational and lnternational Relations." Race Among

Nutions: A Conceptual Approach. Shepard, Jr., George w., and LeMelle, Tilden J. (eds'), Lexington, MA: D' c'

Heath and Co., l9i0: tZS-iSt, and his other writings and speeches on this subject'

away,especially if the skin is light versus dark. Up close, eyesight instantaneously picks out colors and

classifies them (see the Bronson and Merryman study cited below). Skin color discrimination is the first

line of defense. It is so in every society, no maffer what skin colors are prevalent in that society, includ-

ing in sub-Saharan African countries. Deutsch's argument is supported in places like India where color

diicrimination is common and has been since early history and long before the advent of Western coloni-

alism.

Such prejudices (biologically and culturally ingrained discrimination) are a function of the human

condition, that will expand rather than contract as population grows and as competition for resources and

simple space compounds. Deutsch explains racial discrimination but leaves unaddressed the question

Fiske raises abouiracism and defensive fears. She confirms, though, that 'it appears to be human nature,

and many studies have shown how easy it is to provoke this kind of psychological distinction between our

'in-groups' and'out-groups'."'n

In his book, Social Distance, a seminal work published in 1959, sociologist Emory Bogardus pre-

sented a culmination of more than four decades of research into what he called "the degree of sympathetic

understanding that functions between person and person, between person and group, and between group

and group." Bogardus charted the metric social distances between "Loved Ones" (at the closest end) and..Ene-mies"

1at 1l1-g far end). He applied this instrument throughout the U.S. and his students administered

it around the globe.

ln 1967,Bogardus focused in on relations between racial groups in his bookl Forty Year Racial

Distance Study.3o Wittr an initial survey in 1926, Bogardus surveyed the American population four times,

with a concluding study in 1966. Looking at the scores from his total samples, including African-

Americans ("Negroes'), scores from the mostly white respondents put Negroes and other dark skinned

groups at the bottom of the scale consistently across that time span.

In his questionnaire, Bogardus spaced seven questions on a continuum. At the first point in his

nearness scale (posed in Western societies), Bogardus placed "Would marry into group," then "Would

have a close friends" (these are reversed in some Islamic societies). Third was "Would have as next door

neighbors," an important consideration in physically defended villages and communities. The statements

ranled down to "Would debar from my nation." Each statement poses its own understanding of how so-

cie{, is constructed. The "next door neighbors" statement is especially interesting as population expan-

sion and migration across nation-state borders has come to characterize societal development. In the

U.S., ethnicland often racial) boundaries have endured in cities and suburbs, down to racially defined real

estate firms and agents, as well as language definitions of territory (and not just 'Habla Espanol' but also,English spoken here') and vernacular newspapers. Bogardus's social distance and racial distance is

tranlUted into physical distance between homes (where we go and close ourselves in when it is dark).

Race and racism are such sensitive issues that it is difficult to have honest conversations about

them. What discussions do exist are most often framed as questions of morality. As Bogardus, Deutsch,

Fiske, and others have argued, race is about defensive community. Racism clearly includes an element of

empowerrnent, of superiority of lighter skinned peoples over darker skinned'

,, Susan T. Fiske, "Are We Bom Racist," in Jason Marsh, et al., Are We Born Racist? New Insights from Neurosci-

ence qnd Positive Psycholog,,, Boston: Beacon Press, 2010, p' l1'

'o Emory Bogardus, A Forty Year Rqcial Distance Stufii,lJniversity of Califomia, 1967 -

10

While the notion of defensive community can be readily understood, what about the superiority

of white skin?3r Or like Fiske's citation of fear inducing black skin? Like in Bogardus's 40 year study in

the United States, in virrually every society the racial ranking runs from light to dark. Why is this?

When we talk about racism in America, we always seem to be talking about what whites think

about blacks. In trying to overcome racism, we talk about a problem in the minds of white people, about

how white people (including Latinos and Asians) see black skin and automatically make negative as-

sumptions.

My own research on race has carried me from New York to Florida, from Hawaii to Arizona and

places in between. Then on to Asia, Europe, Central America, the Middle East, and Africa. I've gotten to

tnow people well from each of these corners of the world. I have systematically surveyed Southeast

Asiani, with more than 2500 respondents in five countries, over an l8 year time frame about ethnic and

racial attitudes. Over an even longer time period, I've systematically questioned Americans about this is-

sue. What I found is that non-Black people everywhere have deep set negative feelings about black skin.

Even aboutjust darker skin.

o Whites in America detour around Black males on the street, especially when they are in

groups. The motivation is fear. It is visceral.o But it is also the case that Chinese from the north of China, the lighter skinned, make

negative assumptions about darker skinned Chinese from the south of the country, as wellas even more negative assumptions about Africans or American Blacks or Malays.

r Thais think black people are "scary" (thinking again about Fiske's finding that pictures ofblack faces are threatening to whites).

. Lighter, Mediterranean skinned and Caucasian Indians from the north of India treat the

darker peoples from the south of India with disdain.

o Northern Europeans look down on the Mediterranean types,

o Arabs still enslave black Africans (take a close look at race relations in Sudan and the

Global Slavery Index), ando African-Americans have a color code that puts lighter skinned African-Americans (espe-

cially women) in some more desirable category.32

Over the years 2010 and 2011, I have examined television advertisements that include Black cou-

ples to determine whether there is color differentiation between the couple, with the initial hypothesis that

iight.. skinned Black women are chosen more often for these roles than darker skinned black women'

TIe study was done without knowing whether there was color differentiation among female black actors

(i.e. more lighter skinned actors apply-self selection) or whether there was a prejudicial process in se-

iecting the lighter skinned actors, if the hypothesis provided to be correct. Of the 7l ads observed in

wfrich glackiouples appeared, nineteen of the couples appeared to be the same color, although a predom-

inance of them *"r" of iighter colors. Of the 52 couples where there was a color differentiation between

male and female, the female was lighter skinned than the male in 43 cases and the female was darker in

only nine. The preponderance, overall, was of lighter skinned Black female actors.33 Are the lighter

skinned Black female actors being considered more attractive, either by themselves, or by actors agents,

or by casting directors? If we assume that there are equal numbers of light and dark skinned Black fe-

males and rn-ales in the population, then there is some intervention, somewhere, in favor of the lighter

skinned. What is it and whY is it?

3r Useful reading here is Joan Walsh, What's the Matter with White People? Finding Our l4ray in the Next America,

New York: Touchstone, 2012.32 Llewellyn D. Howell, "TV Ads in Black and Light," USA Today Magazine, November 2012, pp' 58-60.,'ih.."r,rlt, of the study are presented in Howell, "TV Ads in Black and Light," USA Today Magazine,2}l2'

11

There are also deep set positive feelings about whites, about light skin. "Blondes have more fun."

But Nazis didn't embed this thinking in the minds of Westerners and the rest. This thought existed in

American thinking, at least, well before the rise of Hitler and abides quite separately from National So-

cialism today. Women mostly, but also many men, dye their hair blonde, or just the ends of their hair.

Few-very iew--dye their hair black, especially not blondes. Dark dyes are just to hide gray, not blonde.

The use of black-and-white to connote something about the inner being is common in mythology

worldwide and its corollaries exist in 2l st century thinking and behavior. Think about it for a moment.

o In the Middle Ages there were white knights (good) and Black Knights (bad)-

r The bad guy in American westerns wore a black hat, rode a black horse, and often black

clothing and the good guy wore white.o Brides wear white, expressing virginity and purity. That's everywhere today.

o Black witches are evil, white witches are good. You only have to watch "the Wizard ofOz" to be reminded of this.

o lt's not just in the English language world. In Malay, the phrase sangat hitam (the words

separately mean "very" and "black") translate in the vernacular not literally but as "ugly."o In Thai, the term 'Jai dahm" is literally "black heanl" but translates as "bad," "unkind," or

even "evil." Putting the concepts of skin color together with the good/bad dichotomy is

the common Thai phrase piemu dahm, jai dahm ("black skin, black heart"). The phrase

says little about Thais or Thailand; it does speak about the nature of humanity.

r Chinese women work construction in Asia. When they do, working outside all day, they

wear long sleeved shirts, long pants, gloves, and a headcover that includes a cone shaped

visor coviring their faces. Why? To keep the sun oft not the dust and dirt. Dark skin in

Asia is ugly skin. Europeans like to tan and virtually no one else. Asians think they are

ctazy.o "Whitening" salons exist all over Asia and Hawaii, where Asian women go to have their

faces or their entire bodies lightened. What led them to this?

o In Cambodia, young girls historically have often been restricted to their homes, some-

times to their rooms with no windows, until they are of marrying age. This is to ensure

the lightness of their skin and therefore their attractiveness and prospects for a good mar-

riage.o In English, we have "black humor," "black ops," and "black sheep."

o In China, a negative turn in the stock market goes into the "black."

There are a thousand more examples of the separation and ranking of white and black, in every

region and in every race and ethnic grou,, into positive and negative, good and bad life and death, heav-

en'iy and evil. Theie divisions p."""d" colonialism and the rise of the Europeans. They are far more deep-

ly set in the division between Wt it"r and Blacks that we see in America today. They are much more fine-

ly honed than this, into gradations of light brown and darker brown. The color categories are reinforced-

not established-by religions and caste systems.

These examples may belabor the point (and I have many more of them) but it is important to em-

phasize three points here:

o first, race and color prejudices exist in every society. It is certainly not uniquely American, as

both Americans (Blacks and whites) and others often portray it to be.

o Second, the color spectrum in the raciul./color hierarchy runsfrom light to dark,from white al

the top to black at the bottom This observation argues that racism is set much more deeply in

t2

hman psychology than in sociology or politics. It is set in the human psyche, in the fear of the

dark, in tire dread of the unknown. It is a much more difficult question to answer and respond to

that which argues that racial prejudice resides in simple history. That is, it is not a leftover of the

slave trade. And there isn't any such thing as "reverse racism." Racism runs from light to dark-

Use "prejudice" or "discrimination" to talk about it being the other way around.

o Third, those at the top of the social and economic spectra hold the maior benefits of social par-

ticipation and parfia7 them out to others according to the racial spectrum "Those that has'

geis." Racism ultimately has to do with distribution of the goods and services that society (includ-

Ing that of individuals who benefit from society) produces. It's no wonder that there are com-

plaints from those at the bottom of the system'

Are We Born Racist?

Because of social sensitivity and political correctness, there are few studies which probe innate

racial prejudice. one of the few is in the report by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman, "See Baby Dis-

;;t#;,*'ifr"i. ""aysis is built around a 2006 application of a "Racial Attitude Measure" by Birgiue

Vittrup aithe Children's Research Lab at the Univei.ity of t"*us. Vittrup's experiment both looked for

inherent negative racial identification in a control group and pro-vided options for parents to attempt to

eliminate piejudicial options in their children. This latter effort failed. That is, even when parents try to

control their children,s environment to prevent the infusion of racial discrimination, they couldn't'

In their studies, they also found that white babies as young as six months old_have already begun

to discriminate among ,kir, "olo..,

and negatively toward Blacks. These studies confirm those of Fiske

and others rnAre We"Born Racist? lt is apparenily impossible to be, like Stephen Colbert pretended,

colorblind.

A member of an audience where I spoke a couple of years ago responded to this thesis by saying

that she did not want to believe it, because it would *uk" th" problem of racism insoluble. But the prob-

lem has not been resolved by epithets, accusations, or charges. It can't be solved in court' ln fact, prob-

lems with racial identity ani infusions of racism into politics and social organization have, if anything,

expanded in recent y"urr. A recent poll, published in ihe Arizona Republic in the wake of the passage of

SB l0T0andsubsequentcourtactions,findsthatasubstantialpluralityofArizonans(48%to34Yo)be'lieve that Latinos are more likely to be discriminated against compared with non-Latinos as a result of SB

1070 debate. Anecdotal evidenie gives strong supportlo this view, even though a substantial majority of

Arizonans suPPorted the bill.

The challenge is to deal with the problem in the American "civil rights" context and to see the mat-

ter as a global and pervasive condition thatwill have to be dealt with through education and socialization

in atl siietles. What can be done in the U.S.? Several things that won't be easy'

o One, the American intelligentsia has to take an active position with both right and left in re-

ducing the incendiary rhei'oric that unites racial antagonisms with guns. This is not a Second

Amendment issue. Both the 'politically correct' and emotional right wingers have avoided

addressing the nature of racism and its origins. If racial division is innate, as Birgitte

viffrup,s it dy ,rgg"sts, incendiary shouting by Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck or cornel

West won't solve the Problem.

3o po Bronson and Ashley Merryman, "See Baby Discriminate," Newsweek in September 2009 and in their 2007

book NurtureShock.

13

. Two, if the problems are innate, both psychological and social modifications in human think-ing have to be started, somewhere. The logical answer is in the schools. There is a reason for

public schools; they are a part ofthe acculturation prosess, both in what is taught about each

other and in the opportunity to mix and socialize. This is not an argument for "ethnic stud-

ies" in schools. In fact, it is the opposite. Ethnic studies programs that are populated only by

students from the ethnic group being studied (for whatever reason) don't resolve this prob-

lem, only heighten it or even exaggerate it, including in Arizona, where one such ethnic stud-

ies program has been outlawed.

Injustice isn't the issue. The issues are expanding the social distance that encompasses our group and

e*pundirg the use of senses other than sight that we use in establishing safety circles. Susan Fiske also

reports that although "people who exhibit more prejudiced attitudes or behaviors show more amygdala

."iporr" [threat or fear]...whites' amygdalae do not go off to famous black faces. Likewise, their brains

griw orristomed to new blackfa""t on", repeated exposure."3s [emphasis added] Simple exposuro-arguing for affirmative action and integration-can be a solution. Much of this work needs to be done in

the education of teachers, who often themselves are victims of their innate fears. TV ads and story pro-

gramming now are operating well out in front of American society by portraying blacks, whites, Hispan-

Ics, and Asians in common and inclusive settings like sales rooms, glocery stores, bars, school rooms, and

neighborhoods. Count the blacks in any of these commercial advertisements. You'll find that it is one in

foui or one in five, far better than we have rcalized in actual integration. They are setting the pace on

color exposure. Someone needs to do it. Thanks, Ameriprise, Geico, Cialis and many others.

Table 1: Color in Commercials 1/6t15 -2tl8n53bOne White 15

All Whites 37

Mixed race 16

All Blacks 8

Primarilv Blacks aJ

One Black 8

Hispanic J

Asian I

No oeonle T1

TOTAL 168

Television commercials directly address the issue as suggested by Susan Fiske, "their brains grow ac-

customed to new black faces after repeated exposure." As can be noted in Table 1 above, a large majority

(55%)of television commercials broadcast in the Phoenix Arizona area show some or many black faces.

Some of these are a bit incongruous, such as when there are four guys sitting around having a beer, one is

always black. ln portrayed neighborhoods that in reality are all white and Asians, one black neighbor is

intimately involvld in whatever the issue is. But, Iet it be so! It's an integrated and sharing society is what

war after, let's start by picturing it that way.

Beyond commercial socialization of the television viewing audiences, there is possibly little that can

be done to address this problem, as the audience member proclaimed. But at the moment nothing is being

done about it, while politicians and the media play the issue for what it is worth in pushing side-taking on

" Susa, T. Fiske, "Are We Born Racist?" in Jason Marsh, et al., op cit',p' 12',u ir*"y conducied with commercials from (not listed in any particular order) CNN, FOX, MSNBC, ESPN, CBS,

NBC, A-BC, TBS, Comedy Channel, and USAHOP, all broadcasting in the Phoenix, Arizona area.

l4

this and other issues. That has to stop. Race isn't going to go away. But it can't be allowed to divide anostensibly equal rights nation between white and black or between white and brown.

What Can We Do About Racism?

Racism, the prejudice against andfear of skin blaclvtess, has only one possible source, one that ex-

tends across all cultures: that is the dffirence between night and day. In the daytime we can see. In the

dark we cannot. Vflhen we cannot see, we become fearful. Dark skin is harder to see at night or in the

dark. White skin stands out and allows us to be more aware of what we are dealing with defensively. Aska military sniper. Every culture has its mythologies of good and bad. They logically and systematicallyare analogous to day and night and there are thousands of stories that reinforce that linkage. It's 'sun-

rise, the downing of a new day'. Sunset brings forth a challenge for sight senses and creates an urge toretreat and protect. It's no wonder that racism is set so deeply in the human psyche, that it remains so

prevalent, that it is dfficult to even compensate for, let alone erase. Racism, based simply on the color ofskin, has been with us as human, animal actors for many millennia. It will remain, no matter how muchyelling, blaming, or legislation is done.

In the meantime, here is what we can do to alleviate some of the misery that racism generates, and tomove forward, even at a recognizably glacial, pace.

. Address the intellectual challenge. Shouting in the streets isn't going to help, on one side or the

other. What are the roots of racism? They are not in slavery. It was elsewhere and before that.. Acculturation. At least some of the effects of racism can be mitigated by having parents-at least

those who are concerned about this-build cross-racial communication into family education be-

ginning at the earliest age. This is not likely to occur often, since the parents themselves have

deeply set racial prejudices.. (Jse schools as opportunity to mix and socialize. Marsh, Fiske, et al. suggest that exposure to

other races is the best way to reduce fears about them. From pre-kindergarden through elemen-

tary school is the best place to make this happen. I hate to mention it, but this is really affirmativeaction. Since early childhood is where most of the socialization occurs that results, ultimately, inracist attitudes, early childhood is where the issue needs to be addressed. Adults are harder to fix.

. In the mixed workplace. After schools, this is the best place to actually changes minds and fears

of adults.. Tourism. The more we personally can see of other peoples, and hear them and smell them, the

better the grip we'll have of what it means to walk in someone else's shoes.. Intermarriage and mixing of the races. This is a tough one but still the best that we'll ever be

able to do. lntermarriage between races means you have to get close to someone from another

race in the first place, and meet their friends and their families. Children are produced that are a

mixture and it's very tough for a light skinned parent to be prejudiced against a darker skinned

child. And those children have the possibility of "working both sides of the street," so to speak,

without the fundamental side-taking that occurs in settled adult populations that are racially sin-gular. TV ads and programming haven't caught up here. Couples are nearly always from the

same race, even though groups might be mixed. When four men, three white and one black, meet

up with four women, three are white and one is black. How willthe matchup work out?. Stop blaming, pointing, shouting. This isn't changing any minds but it is causing people to hard-

en their positions, reinforcing the status quo. Violent demonstrations don't help either. The Mar-tin Luther King model still works best.

l5

Where Are We?

Let me conclude by being as clear as I can on the matter of racism. Racism is not simply an atti-

tude as writers like Cornell West37 and others persist in arguing. It is not a social construct. It is far

more complex than that. It is an innate characteristic that can be easily aggravated by both verbal and

physical fistfights or worse. It can't be solved this way. Yes, affitudes and culturally promoted behav-

ior have something to do with it but the end or easing of racist attitudes and behavior begins with ex-

posure to people of different colors than oneself. Even television helps, much of the time.

There are no short term solutions to racism. But recognizingits structure in human society is a

necessary start. Compulsory, really. It's a single step, and we have generations to go before we can

rest.

1993.

t6

37 See Cornel West, Race Matters, Boston: Beacon Press,

p" Resea rch, i nvestigatian, andargument all are stagnating in

{tne7 area {of race}, Using rac$mbs an epithet or the race card as

a handy Political weaqon dr.*.1

nothin'g'to mave us fcrward."

EL-EV]SION advensenxnts aicseen by most vierven as an an-

n0yance to be toleraaed lvhiietliere is a dmecut aa the field cr

:ts a directcr ho.lC: brck the finai mo;aecnof a terse sctipt. Wilo watches tfuera? $1ole

pecpie',i:an ycu wculd thin& but amst sfthe ad r.rerving is passil'e. That is, it takes

piace rvhi.le ihe viewer gets up ior a drhkrefiil ol cames ln a conversadon'

So, r*'+ ofte* caf,Eot teil exactiy what

the ad is about*such as scme ilet; or

scme tire sale ff some oih*r coasu-'nable

Frc.:iuct*{ut rre do rernember later thati&*tu *tt" forx guys in tlre ad a:d ane oliitern was biark. We see children piayingafter school in aris and soms of tlern a:e

black some are white; some are Hispanic;

o*:asionally, one of tlrem is Asian' if you

&ink alrout it, the proportions by race iaa*ertising are ion:et&ing iike *e gopor-

tioas that we have in the U'S.*about&.1fa whitz, 16?o Hispanic, 127o black,4.5€a Asitero., a*d i.5% r\ative Amerban

With &e roughiy propordo*al place-

menl sf rt€s &om prticular ractai groupiiateracling ir: ccoperative and friendlyiashion, elevision advertrsing i:ecomes an

apent in *re creation of a multiraciai.Amer-;ca. tr aoes not reflect the acnral interac-

dsu of evec the rctqs ofstage, let alcresocietal relalions atlrt3*.. lt is the ad-

mirabie a*d ide*listic scciery in wfuch ad-

va*rising piois and casiing octur. As ai:

agert for media, the adrertisers becoineaiticai parrea in &e credion ola rnultira-cial ssciety that rioes not at-ltrwise e:rist.

This is whai xe see; i;hx ctrii&en see; a*dwhat we will try to make of orx society'

based on &e pcmism go\'1ded by adver-

tisrng as weil as our favorite nrsvies aadTV sirows. It ail sattles into our coruciars-ress w'leiier r+e wantil lo 5r ilol

Is tirere a rnasternisd st work il pian-

ning out raciai integration on teievjstonanrl subsequeatly rn society as a wirole? Is

It ttle busitss cona,'auniry? Is it csasrrmesdirectins tte business ccmmunity that cre-

ates ads? Is it the govenl.rneBt, or sorne-

how the larger soctety that wans a cenain

view to prevaii aadpresens it in the msiiaas fact? L.very fcunh neighbor in a nice

uryer class neighix,rhocd rvhete *cgsesa,.e lor sale is black Every ibur{r clild h a

iunchroom is black. Bowtiag ieat:ts are

ma& up of iour whites and one black. It isnct rhe way it is bilt it se'erri io be L{e waythat someone wants it t0 b€.

As a subset of one investigation inictiis direction-setting pheaon:enol. I have

been u'acki-ng television advertieneats inrviuch drere is an Aft.can-American ccu-

pie. This is a relatively new pi:encrce*oaover the last iew yeiirs. I am inteit:tec ia

&e couples. trut let us iirst make so:::e

*c!es en lhe ccntext in r*hich these biack

couples appezr. Seidom Co iltey appear iis

the r:niy actcrs in ihe ad Oiie::. thtre a.':

iour couples, ane of rviucir is black. Agah'

roughiy the sar::e prcprtions as you seg

rvith iadividuals.Television adve*lsing virlually :tever

sho'rs bs**id co*ples. Dr.:ang the loursecf abservatioa icr tiris study. ociy &rcewere tecord€d. including an oiCer ccupie

wi& dle male being bick a*d the rernale

beiag wirite and rvi&out ttree beilg aay

ctear idicarion that rley were manied lc

each otler-just a coupie, :cge*er' Oae

couple was Jwhite xale with a biack ie-

male. If *uee guYs waik bY in a beer a<l

with ene of &em belne bis*, tiree giris

,arill rvhistie aftet tbern and cne of them

will ix black. Thcre is rc p*iriag r:f 'oiack

acd white that miglrt irtpiy sex beiween

them, rlespite the rest oi integratron rl ele-vision advertisement. h is di-fficult to nird Isi*.atioa in q,hich a blxk maie is h a*y

wav oaired up widr a white female r'q tele-

vision advertsing. It vrtualiy is unpossi-

blc tc fi::d a bis-k fer:rale paired r-9 withthe white:nale.

Horvever, &ere are black cor:ples that

appcar in tele'rision advettising at a rea-

son*ly irigh rate. Ilr tlis study, I have un-

dertaken to obrrve aaotler pheeor*encn

aborit *hich I ressrch and write. Thet is'

is ii the case that lhere are raciai prerir-

errces t&at rua *om riak to lig&t? I r;ie*oiiced sorne consistency in actor pia::-n:ent ior teieYisior: adi'ertisiag tiut apperh suppoll that'*resis. Tc provide so*:e Ca-

ia to examine the hypot"4esis &at "iigit is

betler,'' I ,.-sldertook to pay special attcnlico

to ds in which a blark cotple appeated

and lo ttre reiative coloration betrveecthem.

Ovs the cou6e of twa yers. I rvas able

to oher*e clo:ely arridaurent ?1 eievi-.*io*r arivertisemenls that coataild a biack

coupie. Each of these obsen'atiors ti'as

randorn and unplar:d and rvere shcr"r] clPhos*x (5i11or Honoiuiu {}iarvaii) rie-visian statioas" 'llne networks inciu<ie<i

MSNBC. Fox, AMC, ABC, CBS. \BC'C\ii\I,TlrT, ESPI'i,A&E, and the Cornedy

Channel. Alhough ad:i:iuedil' relL'ctrng*re res$&her's vierving pattem' the net-

1r/orks iom rvhich tire data rias drar,rn

range FrEtty *rdely ia pclitral acd -;o;ial

pespetives-and tirey ai} l-are a per:pec-

trre. aitlrcugh ihel' ral ciaur oti:envi>e

The gadutts beilg adr:3sai iik*rvise

fatt aarltss a *'rde sp*.-::,ici. 11e,v-.*cluCcd

beer 3ds iespeciaill' lliller). T-Ilabile.Alive Vltiirnins. 1'lcDonaid's, Llberty lvlu-ruai, kogresrilc lnsuraece, baaks' Ciaiisand Vragra- Lerus..{TdiT. erxl cthe.s- Ad-vs:li-silg *'ith blark couples ciea;iy *as di-

rected at a brcad specu'.rm of pmdrcts' al-t\cug:r the prcducts pr"nariiy were o" in-

eresi to upper-miCdle class America- 1ltis

is xrclirer reflecttoa of rhe uvi"sible hand

tilat diE{ls sales oppadurrities ta palticrdar

,regtlien'Ls ai sociery Birchl irho apfraegin-&ee ar:s \1'ers itlorc iikeiy to iir''e in ile

USA TODAY * NOV:MBER 201259

uSA'loDAY * hlOvEMSEA 2012

bouses than in apar&enrE in subr-uiaa settings

ratrer than wban, and have diEosabte hcorne.Let us lcok for a srcarent at tle sxcomes cf

,he strdy. Therc are many lvays that we coulci

dissect the data but, beiore trying that. weshodd examine tlre ful! sample. The prirnaryhypothesis is &awn from tile literature that

sirows that light skin is equated with beaury.

(For scnr iateresting penpectives on this, seJason Marsil's Are We Boru Fatcist? Ne:r ht'ights.ftrm Nanrcscimce and Positive Ps-rcltol'

o8>,.)

Wb first wiil iock at &e broad categories that

are of inierest is tiris snudy and brek dorvn the

TL cases. lf societal prejudices are i:arried overinto televisicn advertising and &e selection oietors, il13 pirIlary "beauty'compo*eni in ads

with black ccuples wouid be the case rvhere

there is a darker male aad a lighter iemale {jn-cluding rwo iastances where the maie wasbtack and tlre fenraie wbite). The second cate-

gory is wlen both members of the couple are

approximaely &e same coior.lte third catego-

ry:s one in which the fsnaie is daker ard the

maie lighter (inciudiry for this study the orecase wkre the rnale was white anC the iecraiewas btack). This categorization implies the di-

rcctioo of tlre i:ypothesis that white or lighl g*sgrefwace in hr:rnan society, whatever its race

or rolor,Tire resuits for &e frrll -cample readily sup

port the hypothesis- Glt of tle 71 cases 43 pre-

sented a couple rthere the female clearly was

lighta skinried than tlre maie, while nine cases

included a darkel female' Of the cases where

&ere was a color differerre for the black cou-

ples, *rae was a mtio of rouglly 5:i in iavoroflidrrer-skimed fumales. h 19 of the cases, the

male and female acton ap,proximateiy were the

same color. The "sa6e" color was not rnea-

stred or recorded, but these pairs generaliy.lere ligbter skinned &an you wouid expect itlthe iaeer population.

It ciutrl te agued thar it makes a difference,*hether &e poduct being advertised is nrale

focusai (for exarnple, Cialis or ber or cars,\ oa:

is ianrily or fecllaie foc&sed (for example, Mc-Donaid's ol *)surafice or balking ar ellarmc-nts-but there only was one lnstance wlere the

roduct explicitiy was female directe4 for Se-

ret deodoiant). There clearly ae many other

ways to divide the praducts and the i*endedau&errce, but dris division gets lnost directly al

&e a<iveaisiag isste at hand.

\Yherr tlte cases are bifiEcaEd rccordi*g to

pro&jct oriertation (such as male products ver-

slx familyliemaie prducts), rot mlch charges'

There were 28 male-orie*ed podrct ads out oftirc 7i" Ia i9 of them- the female hari lighterskin than lhe maie- kr onty iour sf &e ads' :he

maie rryas iighter skicrrc{L There were five cases

in which the actors were of the sarae color'

Forte cases ofia.'nilyliemale product orien-

tation, there were 43 cases. Of ttese, 24 wgte

wi& a tigh:-sknred feraaie, five with a ligita-skinaed-maie. Occe more, it is a 5:i ratio oliigitet skinned female to lighter sicinned male

ia tire crxples.

60

As aa ints:esdng adjunct finCing, t\ere waefive cass; h the rnale-oriented pro&rct categoryol 28 that were same+olor actor:; (a ratic of::5.6i but 14 cases in &e farnilydernale categery out oi43 (a ratio of t:3.i). Sanre rolcr ccu-plcs clearly are Lrelter represented ia thefanity/fenrale products category.

Horvever we look at fhese results, therecleariy is sorne rysteflEtic selecton that <xcrysin acto. rccruitmerit il &e televisicn {and o&erads) rndustry. ilghter-skinned fernales are iarrnore st'ongiy repesent=d elxr: darker-skimedlexulx arnong black actors. liow &e quesdoa

that we reaily are alter should be addressed.1{'}ry?

Social conversations aboui rhe attractiveaessofwhite skh or, converseiy, the unanactive-nes ofdark skin are widespread in rlarilai andsexual relationships. Frequent observationsabout {he esmber of black baliplayers witirrvhite spouses or gir&iends and abcut tle num-ber of blondes rvho become broadcasters onmajor networks ae ernb# in casual ccnver-xtian in bars, in churcl:es. and at cocktail par-ties-and & "blon&s have mcre &.m?'

lbry citen, however, t*hen such conyersa-tions are brought up in academic surrcucdings

or in grofessional rwtings, pursuit of tle vaiidi-ty of *rese ohservatians oftea fails. lvlainiy forreasoas of social and racial sensitiviry, if notsimple poiitical csrrectness, tbese cornmcaobservalions never rnalie it to aay systenratic

sady.The pnpose cf tiris projecl is to get thai gro-

fesicnal and scientific conversatio:t going. Here

is sone data randomiy gatised but systrmali-cany anaiyzed ltke & we go tom fere?

The face of raceAssuming the validiry oi tlrc observations

above fcr a iarger sample cr the fuiI ppiatioain the U.S., several qr:estioas *eed to be a-sked

ia tlre &termiaatioc of why this par:icular dis-

trih:tion oi results is the case. l,et me pse a

few that shrxrld be ihe basis of mcre iovestiga-

tion:rArc tkre more iighter-skkme{i black fertaiestLaa lighter-skhaed black males ia Be pcputa-

tion? Tbiq does not seern likeiy, but it wouldhave to be n:led cuL It likely would involve a

genetic expla::atioa ifthat were:he case.

r Are there rnore lighter-skinned Africar-Anerictrlfemale actm who are auditionicg forroies in TV ads &an:hee are darker-skimed

black rvomen? If so, then why ;lrn'i the darker-

skinned females icoking icr tLs work? Is &eresomething in A.iiicar:-America:r culture thairtould lead lighter-skinneri fernales to seek act-

rng work aad darker-skisred fe:nales to lookfar work elsewhere, or is it somethilg in whiteculture that detsrlrnes tire seleclion for these

roles of iiglrter-skinr:ed femaie partlers?o Are acior agen8 seeking out ligfuer-skinned

black femaies instead ol their daker sicariedccunter-oarrs? If -io. thert we have io ask who are

these agents? Aie they Africa::-American. orwhite, m other? Wtrat vaiues do iley have ieiar-

ed to color and beauty? &ies tle colcr or etLnicity af t^k agent hare arydling to do wiih gei-

tbg the aspirlng actor into {he ari?

r Is it ad piducex rvho a:e k:oking icr [gner-sicin*ed biack women? Do tiry consi&r &emto * r*cIe atffictive s:rd :i]flefore r*me likelyto g'et attenticn in both black a;d white c*nxnu-nities who arc watchiog-however afientive-iy--tle adve*isenrnrs?r Is the problem wi& the viewirg public? Has

advecising research detenained that tlte view-L:rg pubiic, ei&er white or black sees ligl*er-rkinned black wcraen as mort attrastive andtl:erefore drawiag soore attentlon than iiarker-siiirwd black wornen? Dces lbis situatioo. if itindeed is the ca-re, brbg prejudice into the equa-

ticn regarding empl.oyrent ior darker-sicir.redblxk wor*ga?r k racial prejudice in the U.S. so fuply seiritat dark skn c'aroot becomi@ tobe altrac-

tive? Ii so, is &e cultural character oi Aneri-ca-aad perhaps lhe rest of lhe worid-sodeepiy emiredded with coior prejudice that itcanno: escape it?r Ae TV ads tbat conspicuorsiy are promctiagracial htegraricn in ttrcir numbers and disrlbu-tion of actors (ore black for er,'ery three or fcurlybites) just a; systematically (al&cugh pedtaps

rncon*iously) promoiing cokr value withinrace, and. theref'ore, in a sease. among races?

This ccrrem also is reflected ia tlre choice offemaie white actcrs aad tclevisioa ,s]rscastfiswhere the aursber cf bir# (leal or dyed) is

i*ordinately high. Dces &is trat$late inlo col-

ar--iu!d legal"--dlscdmination fcrr the darker-

skinaed black iemales and the aoi-blondewhites?

In systematsc studies and unsystematic con-

versations a:rd observations over aearly balt'acentury i, Asiao scciat rese3tch, il is cler to nrc

thx lernale beauty in Asia is very rroagly r-flected ia light colu. Shrys iorn India to Ha-

wari specialize in 'tkin whireaing-" in Maiay'

the word for blark $zitan) crxrtrw*ly is u-sed iomsaa 'tgiy." Pe:napc there are equivaient un-

derstandings in English as wellThis study is iniended to scratch ihe sur-

face-aad maybe scra:ch se*sitivities ailsutracejl order to provoke fl{ti:er studles, :e-search, conversalion, and thinking about the

role of race r,r tle U.S. We are stalled an this.

ReseapL inveitigadoa, aad aqurne*t all are

staglating in &is ars- L'sing racisrn as an ept-

tlret or ilre race card as ahandy pclitiral weapordoes eothi::g lo Glove us forward- Here is asr'rall s&Jdy tirat draws atentios to a Phel}ot$e-nor: iat istlst) and maybe a sccial pT obiem 'Jtt*

is broughi ittto our living rooms every day.

Wtatcanwedoaboutitl *

Lleweflytt I). Iiot+vll, fanwr lnternatiotwl AJ:

.fLtirs Editor of \iSAlirtay, is profesxtr antei-ns oj'isztenutiorrnl ntanagemer* at the Thrttz'

de$id School al Globd Matzagentet$' Glen'dole, Atil, and tke aulhor of several baoks,

ihe latest of whitlt i,i The Sorth Arnericar:

Busi*ess Ei:r"ironmeat: A Potiicai Rrsk Per-

speciive for ErxPlo-ve*.

USATODAY * NOVEMBER 2C12