Many people believe that everyone is a little bit racist and many studies agree with their evidence. A recent psychological study published on ScienceDaily.com looks at the root of racism and how it can be that everyone is a little racist. The study named, "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist, but It May Not Be Your Fault", gave people a survey with words to match based on their first reaction. Words such as black and lazy, white and greedy, old and wise, young and healthy, etc were the most popular matches and had the fastest response time. Other words were matched like summer and warm, night and cool to show that not only racial prejudices, but also other associations are made quickly by people.
Now it seems obvious that summer is warm and night time is cool, but where did we pick up these racist associations? How did we associate black with lazy or women with weak? The study points out that media and the environment have influenced us and installed these beliefs in us. The study looked at books newspapers and magazines from the BEAGLE and found that the most common words matched in the study showed up together the most in all of the literature. So does that mean we were raised or possibly nurtured into believing these things?
It is difficult to falsify these claims as it is hard to find evidence against it and this study could probably be replicated if the claims are true. However, the fact that the environment affected us enough to instill our beliefs in us shows how nurturing can really affect our behaviors in many ways. Now just because everyone may associate two words together that show racism doesn't mean everyone behaves and acts out as a racist. It is a scary thought that we might not have control of our own beliefs from an early age because the media available to us puts those ideas in our head.
Can we break free of the environment instilling the racist thoughts in us?
It is difficult to say, maybe things can change.