Preference for white people is deeply ingrained.
In one experiment Black children preferred a white doll to a brown doll. Whether it was the doll that the children ‘would like to play with’ (67% vs 32%), the doll that ‘is the nice doll’ (59% vs 38%) or the doll that ‘is a nice colour’ (60% vs 38%), the children reliably picked the white doll more frequently than the brown one.
In another study, Ugandan children overwhelmingly exhibited a pro-White bias; despite themselves being Black, they chose to play with White children over Black children 78% of the time.
This is not surprising when you consider the way that white and black people are portrayed in literature. Can you name a single children’s book in which the main character is a human being who is not White? Of the 9,115 children’s books published in the UK in 2017, just 1% of them featured a non-White person as a main character (compared to the 18% of the UK that isn’t White).
Whether it’s a children’s book, a comic book, or a news programme – if you see ethnic minorities represented at all, they probably won’t be represented favourably. No wonder the bias towards white people is deeply ingrained.
Encouragingly, research has identified ways that racism can be reduced.
If people from different racial or ethnic groups interact with each other (particularly under certain circumstances), racism will decrease, and people will be happier around each other. Even in the particularly challenging context of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, intergroup contact has been shown to reduce racism.
Some research suggests that the worse your attitudes are at the start, the more effective contact will be at reducing your prejudice.
Four necessary conditions for getting intergroup contact to work have been identified: (1) the participants should have common goals; (2) the participants should be in a cooperative environment; (3) the participants from the different groups should have equal status; and (4) the intergroup contact should have the approval of authority.
Other research identifies the power and importance of education, including education specifically about racism.
Both ways to reduce racism have been highlighted in my book. They are ways that the church needs to take a lead in reducing racism and offering a positive contrast to wider society.
Tony Thompson
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