Are you unconsciously racist? My opening question is purposely direct and intended to rile you, since this topic can only be addressed with passion: how do you plead to the charge of endorsing intolerance? As you ponder your response, I will examine a facet of present-day national shame.
Convictions continue to be handed down by judges across the country for the recent riotous behaviour that followed several grievous assaults and the tragic murders of three young children in Southport on 29 July. These grotesque gatherings – ignited by false news expertly fanned by the usual opportunist and sinister suspects – may lead many to conclude that racism within our nation has worsened over the decades.
Racism and fake news are nothing new
I would regretfully have to disagree with this assertion, since our domestic history is plagued with awful examples – none more relevant than the York Massacre of 1190 where lies were similarly deliberately weaponised by actors of influence. Accounts of blood libel, which falsely accused Jews of murdering Christian children for ritual purposes, were already circulating and fuelling anti-Semitic sentiments that erupted in riots. Local aristocrats, Richard Malebisse, William Percy, Marmeduke Darell, and Philip de Fauconberg, who owed substantial debts to Jewish moneylenders, saw the disorder as an opportunity to erase these liabilities by inciting violence against the Jewish community.
Popular fiction has routinely reflected the injustice of malicious scaremongering with the 1999 epic The Green Mile – resting upon the false accusation that a black man had killed two white girls – representing a particularly harrowing example.
Are our prejudices hidden?
But what of my provocative opening, and how accepting am I of difference?
Following the killing of George Floyd on 25 May 2020, I wrote a piece on Black Lives Matter (BLM). I shared my thoughts with a black friend who signposted me to Project Implicit, created by researchers at Harvard University. This study explores hidden social cognition – the thoughts and feelings outside of conscious alertness. There is a series of online tests to detect our unconscious bias. I eagerly completed the process with, I thought, the predicted outcome being very much aligned to my confidence in my utmost impartiality. Yet I was very much surprised when the results diverged from this hitherto steadfast position. Had I been hiding stuff from myself? I detest racism. How was this even possible?
Psychologists Mahzarin Banaji and Anthony Greenwald authored the book Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People, based on their theory of implicit bias (also referred to as unconscious bias). The bottom line is that we human beings are hot-wired to favour those who look like us. This affinity bias occurs naturally and is activated within nanoseconds of meeting another person. As my colleague added, this social classification prompts an immediate, often negative, conversation in our heads about that person without knowing anything about them beyond an initial recce of their face and outward appearance.
So how can we begin to change the current discourse?
To counter this we need to gather more reliable intelligence. Often this can be achieved by simple dialogue, by accessing trustworthy content, and with supporting triangulation – the social science approach of combining several dependable evidential streams.
Firstly, I would advocate that prejudice is wholly permissible – we can’t help it. Those that act anti-socially or engage in criminal behaviour with intent to harm others will always receive my wrath; yet this type of conduct may not rely only on a conscious perception of ethnicity, sexuality, religion, or any other type of visual or inferred difference, but is hard-wired and unconscious.
Secondly, we all have a responsibility to engage in the deradicalisation of those that occupy our orbit of contact. Conversations with those who bend their knee to misinformation by accepting without question spurious claims peddled by agent provocateurs with not so hidden agendas is – I grant you – not easy; however, forgive me if I am being a tad naïve but the fact that they soak up false news is a starting point. There may, nonetheless, exist a modicum of inquisitiveness.
Evidence of our own lived experiences is persuasive, leading me to the contention that an easy-in would be to pose the question: “Of the people you know and regularly meet in your community who don’t look like you, how many of them cause you anxiety?” The upshot – assuming there is a sliver of willingness to engage – may be that the answer will be zero. The reality is that when many address racism they mean ‘the others’ – the ones they have never met – but have been indoctrinated to fear by the usual agitators. Depending on the outcome of this initial salvo, the options are limited to a continuing dialogue or an exit. Signposting (for those willing to engage in a continuing dialogue) is crucial and I would leave at least a couple of follow ups; for example, Full Fact on immigration and the Refugee Council (top ten facts about people seeking asylum).
Cognitive dissonance is disturbing
However, our natural gravitational pull to the status quo makes the premise of simple answers to complex questions compelling. American social psychologist, Leon Festinger, coined the term cognitive dissonance and contended that humans crave psychological stability in order to function in the often complex world around them. He observed a cult which believed that the earth would be destroyed by a flood that never happened. The less fanatical believers accepted that they had been foolish, yet the extremists, many of whom gave up their homes and jobs to work for the cult, reinterpreted the outcome as justification that they were right all along since their collective belief had prevented the catastrophe.
This latter example shows that a key conviction, often concocted by falsehood which threatens the resultant mental discomfort, can motivate a thought pattern that calms the cognitive dissonance. For many of us, coping with conflicting intelligence is hard work and stressful. Festinger concluded that some people would ultimately resolve this discord by irrationally trusting whatever they wanted to believe.
Hence, attempting to shift the dial on bigotry can be challenging – if not impossible with some – but this shouldn’t prevent you and I from attempting to turn the tide on the sinister cloud that presently hangs over the once very United Kingdom.
