Aversive racists discriminate only where bias can be excused nonracially

Evidence

“Aversive racism” (Dovidio & Gaertner, 2004) assumes that most Whites today sincerely hold an egalitarian value system, but that negative racial affect remains common, perhaps more often taking the form of discomfort or uneasiness than of hostility. Whites have trouble acknowledging anti-Black feelings, so aversive racism is often expressed in subtle ways that protect nonprejudiced self-images. For example, people racially discriminate by avoiding minority-group members in distress when failure to help can be explained on the basis of some factor other than race (e.g., the belief that someone else might intervene). … In contrast, “ambivalent racism” describes many Whites as having both humanitarian and individualistic beliefs, and priming either can cause people to express either pro- Black or anti-Black opinions in a seemingly inconsistent way (Katz, 1981). — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2169

Categorization

• XREF: Directly updates contact-theory claims: intergroup contact reduces old-fashioned prejudice while aversive forms may persist unmeasured. — connects to: Aversive racism pits sincere egalitarian values against unacknowledged anti-Black feelings. — Anthony G. Greenwald and Mahzarin R. Banaji, Implicit Social Cognition: Attitudes,…, 198
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2169