Study Indicates Whites Largely Ignorant of Black Life In The US

An Ohio State study reveals that white people would require 1 million dollars to give up television for the rest of their lives while deeming being black for the remainder of life worthy of 10 thousand dollars in compensation. The study reveals the intense and quite deep ignorance and devaluation of the black experience in the US.

Almost as interesting (and disturbing) are the caustic remarks found on from progressive whites in response to the article. The banter is almost as racist and acidic as one might find on FreeRepublic or Stormfront. And of course the anonymity of the web demands the consideration that some of the posters might very well be Freepers and Stormfronters. But not most of them. And the comments to this article are consistent with the racist retort to most articles discussing race on Alternet.

From the article,

As part of the studies, whites of different ages and geographic regions were asked how much they deserved to be paid for living the rest of their lives as an African American.

Respondents generally requested less than $10,000 to become black. However, they said they’d have to be paid $1 million to give up television for the rest of their lives.

To juxtapose that finding the researchers asked another set of questions.

In another scenario, the references “white” and “America” were omitted, and participants were asked to select between being born a minority or majority in a fictional country called, “Atria.” They were warned of the disadvantages that the minority group faced — the same disparities faced by black Americans — and they said they should be paid an average of $1 million to be born a minority.

This indicates to me a white psychological schism worthy of much discussion. The resistance to reparations and honest identification with the realities of blacks in the United States seems to be related to specifically black people and not to the situation of injustice and the concept of reparations. This can only lead to an analysis of the news media, the educational institutions and the government as a whole as an institution, some of the biggest things that influence white thought and mental/psychological framework. Hopefully there will be much more discussion (I’m sure there will be derision) about this study and what it represents.

Read the article.

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