Quote:
Originally Posted by loramin
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If, hypothetically, the following was true:
A) there is in fact an incredibly pervasive and deep-rooted set of pattern matching algorithms in our brain, left over from a time long ago in our evolution
B) these "algorithms" are responsible for institutional racist thinking (to put it another way, seeing a person of ___ color on TV doing ____ does convince your brain that in general people of ____ color do ____, because those pattern matching bits aren't sophisticated enough to tell what's on TV apart ... because they evolved long before TV existed)
C) that a person's thinking can be changed by changing the pattern inputs
what kind of proof would convince you of it?
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I have proof before my very eyes, Lora. I aint saying TV and media cannot help absolve racism, but not in the way you are describing it as. Simply playing TV shows that depict blacks in a positive light is not going to dissolve the distrust and utter fear/hatred prejudiced whites have for them.
Granted, I will say that depictions of blacks that are negative can serve to only fortify those whites prejudices because those depictions give them a readily available moment of "haha see there?! They all are thugs just like that!"
Fact of the matter is you have to go further than just pleasant visual recognition of other races on TV or in movies to beat down racism and that requires actually getting to know those of the race we distrust/hate.
This is no easy task, because people rarely willingly face those they fear or hate. That's why often times workplaces, schools, etc. help break down racism because these are neutral environments where often times people of many races are thrown together whether they want to be or not.