Patel

Priya Patel

Adam Padgett

ENGL 102

02/28/2017

Are You Secretly a Racist?

Inquiry: Is the definition of a racist we perceive to be today, just a way of covering up the racism

that is actually going on in present day

Proposed Thesis: I argue that racism is not as prevalent in todays society as it used to be in the

pre 1960s, yet we dont realize that there are subtle racial biases, in the 21st century, that are held Comment [HGE1]: Clear and strong thesis. I think that this
is good enough to use as your thesis in your research paper.
in all minds subconsciously without realizing.

Antoinette. "Exposing Bias: Race and Racism in America." Harvard Extension School. Harvard

University, 13 Feb. 2017. Web. 27 Feb. 2017.

This Harvard article is an interview between two professors who teach race in American at the

University. They are talking about how there is a bias towards certain races that everyone holds Comment [HGE2]: Try to use direct quotes more. They
might provide some more credibility to your argument.

in our society and that is what is causing oppression of races. It also talks about how in the past,

in America, your social status was based on your race. This can linger to future generations and

cause others to believe so without have a valid reason of why? Often biased actions are

individualistic. This article is credible because it is from Harvard University and the questions

are answered form well accredited professors who are professors at the university. This source

is suitable for my paper. It helps show how racism and race is viewed in todays society and that

bias is what leads to it.

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Blake, John. "The new threat: 'Racism without racists'" CNN. Cable News Network, 27 Nov.

2014. Web. 27 Feb. 2017.

Blake talks about how there is racial bias happening in America currently. This was explained

through the psychological experiment of two pictures. One picture of a white man with a knife

attacking an unarmed white man and the second being the white man with a knife attacking an

unarmed black man. In the first picture, when asked, many people got the answer correct when

asked who was holding the knife. In the second picture however, both black and white who

answered, said that the black man was holding the knife. This is showing how no matter what Comment [HGE3]: This article and your analysis of it are
really great, and they really help to support your argument.

race we are we have bias within and out of our race. This experiment shows that there is racial

bias and that humans are always biased and put certain people in groups based on race. They

however do not consider it racism until something great or profound is done to a certain race.

This source is credible even though it is news because the article was found from a google

scholars search. The article is from 2014 and is relatively new. The article could be biased in

experiment, again we dont know if those people didnt identify with being racist in the

beginning of the experiment. This source would defiantly be suitable for my topic because it is

talking about how racism is subtler now and isnt really seen as racism.

Brown, Geraldine. "The Millennials (Generation Y): Segregation, Integration and Racism."

ABNF Journal, vol. 28, no. 1, Winter2017, pp. 5-8.

The central claim of this source is that racism has changed as the generations have. In

generation Y, also known as the millennials, racism has become more varied among many racial

groups rather than a few main groups we were used to in the past (Brown 7). Brown explains
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how when asked about racism, the first thing to pop up in our minds is the history of learning

about one race dominating another minor race (Brown 7). However, the case with racism has

become vaster in this generation. He states that even if one is not racist towards another race,

they are also racist within their own. Certain cultures very importance based on the shade of

their skin within their race (Brown 7). The source itself seems credible due to it being a peer

reviewed source. She is the current editor of the ABNF journal, a RN, and has a PhD in Nursing.

This article is biased in the sense that it is targeting the millennials yet that varies from 1980s

to the early 2000s, so it kind of implies that there was no racism within a race before then. This

source is suitable for my project because it goes over a key topic, which is what is racism and

that has changed over the generations.

Kristof, Nicholas. "Is Everyone a Little Bit Racist?" The New York Times. The New York

Times, 27 Aug. 2014. Web. 27 Feb. 2017.

In this article Nicholas Kristof is talking about how there is stereotyping within each race. For

African Americans you think that young males are related to criminal activity. However, there is

also those who think that Americans are white. Not all Americans are white. The main point in

this article is that they are people who believe in equality yet they have a biased view on the

world, and that is what is cause racism to happen. There is an experiment that is described as

well. A student from the University of Colorado used a online shooter game to test if there was

bias between white and black. The students were the police officers who were shown a series

of black and white males with some holding guns and some holding innocent objects. In the

result more blacks were shot in the video game, especially with undergraduate students Comment [HGE4]: This experiment is really interesting
and backs up your argument well.
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playing. This source is somewhat credible, it is a popular article rather than peer reviewed, and

was written in 2014 so relatively new. The author is a human rights & women rights activist, as

well as interested in health and global affairs. The article could be biased in that we dont know

everyone who was used in the experiment. That information might vary the results. Was it

student who believed they werent racist going in? This source is suitable because it shows how

we subconsciously stereotype certain races. When doing so you may not realize why but your

mind automatically puts certain groups of people in certain categories leading to racism.

Northup, Temple. "Is Everyone a Little Bit Racist? Exploring Cultivation Using Implicit and

Explicit Measures." Southwestern Mass Communication Journal, vol. 26, no. 1, Sept.

2010, pp. 29-41.

This source is more focused on the journalism side of the racism. The article talks about how

there is a unbalanced view of each race in media in todays news. One example is of how

African Americans are seen more as criminals than other races due to racial stereotyping.

Especially in the eye of the media (Northup 38). Due to this being the media it easily allows

others to be influenced causing the general population to associated criminals with a certain Comment [HGE5]: If there are any facts or statistics that
support this claim, then it might be a good idea to include
them in your analysis.
race over others. This article is credible since it is a peer reviewed source and the author,

Temple Northup, has good knowledge of mass communications. This article could be somewhat

biased because the article only talks about media being racist when the title is Is Everyone A

Little Bit Racist. The title can be misleading in the way that others think its generalized but

instead there is just one topic. This source is somewhat suitable for my topic; I use the example

to stress that we automatically correlated a race to an activity without realizing it.

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Mullainathan, Sendhil. "Racial Bias, Even When We Have Good Intentions." The New York

Times. The New York Times, 03 Jan. 2015. Web. 28 Feb. 2017.

The author in this article is writing about how there is subtle discrimination that is happening

more currently but we dont realize it. This doesnt mean you are consciously being racist but

rather subconsciously. We have snap judgements that come from associating certain races to a

category. This article is somewhat credible even though the article is from New York Times,

because the author is a Harvard professor. The bias in this article could be when the article says

that Many studies show yet there is no detail of the studies in which they show more

prejudice shoves toward a race. We dont know who was involved in these studies. This article

would be somewhat suitable for my topic that it explains how more racism occurs

subconsciously for those who are have nothing but well intentions.