I hope they will become radicalized by this moment and begin to fight fiercely for racial justice; but more than that, I hope they start at home, in their own minds and hearts. As I tell my students: a white person rushing to do racial justice work without first understanding the impacts, uses, and deceptions of their own whiteness is like an untrained person rushing into the ER to help the nurses and doctors—therein probably lies more harm than good.
The answers are all around you if you are willing to look and listen. Contact us at letters time. By Savala Nolan. You can follow her on Instagram and on her blog. TIME Ideas hosts the world's leading voices, providing commentary on events in news, society, and culture. We welcome outside contributions. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of TIME editors.
Related Stories. It's Time to Rethink the Language of Accessibility. Already a print subscriber? To find out, I had to hear what whites were saying. I listened to the protesters, talked with my white friends and read articles and social media posts. What I found was white people overwhelmingly depicting black people as desperate and defeated, with no way to pull themselves out of their misery. It has been embedded into the consciousness of whites that all blacks are the same and that they all face impossible barriers to improvement — from standardized tests to the black men being arrested on the nightly news.
A growing number of whites believe that black life is unrelentingly grim. The media give a distorted view of black life. We see this in the stories they choose to report — and those they eschew. In , police shot and killed 54 unarmed men; 22 were black. Compared with the percentage of blacks in the US population, that figure looks disproportionate — but black people commit a disproportionate amount of violent crime and thus tend to have more interactions with the police.
Among whites who say blacks face disadvantages, views on the obstacles black people face vary by age, education and partisanship. In turn, white Republicans are more likely than white Democrats to point to family instability, lack of good role models and a lack of motivation to work hard. The public is more split on whether blacks are treated less fairly than whites or about equally when it comes to hiring, pay and promotions, applying for a loan or mortgage, or in stores or restaurants.
Meanwhile, very small shares think whites are treated less fairly than blacks in any of these situations. On many of these items, the views of whites and blacks are nearly opposite. The only situations in which majorities of both groups — but still, far larger shares of blacks than whites — say blacks are treated less fairly are in dealing with police and by the criminal justice system. Majorities of black adults say blacks are treated less fairly on all the items. In fact, blacks are about twice as likely as whites to say that blacks are treated less fairly when seeking medical treatment, applying for a loan or mortgage, voting in elections, in stores or restaurants, and in hiring, pay and promotions.
In all other situations asked about, the views of Hispanics fall between those of whites and blacks. Younger whites, especially those younger than 30, also tend to be more likely to see inequality in the way blacks are treated. White Democrats and Republicans have vastly different views of how blacks are treated relative to whites. In other situations, the gaps are even wider.
White and black estimates of bias in the s were similar. Both groups acknowledged little racism against whites at that time but substantial racism against blacks. Respondents also generally agreed that racism against blacks has decreased over time, although whites believed it has declined faster than blacks do.
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