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Study Says Nervous Whites Ignore Black People

In this post-Imus, post-Kramer society, white folks are more scared then ever of “saying the wrong thing” and getting Al Sharpton on their case for being racist. But rather than confronting their fears by, you know, talking to actual black people, a new study has found that whitey is more likely to just pretend they don’t exist.

The Northwestern University study called “The Threat of Appearing Prejudiced and Race-based Attentional Biases” asked 15 white students to take a simple computer test showing a black face and a white face with the same expression. The students overwhelmingly looked at the black face first, but would quickly move their attention the paleface, apparently a more comforting sight. They concluded:

Study participants indicated that they worry about inadvertently getting in trouble for somehow seeming biased. As a result, the study suggests, they behaved in a way that research shows people respond when faced with stimuli that cause them to feel threatened or anxious: they instinctively look at what is making them feel nervous and then ignore it.

In honor of everyone someday living in perfect harmony, watch Paul McCartney & Stevie Wonder’s “Ebony & Ivory” after the jump.

[EurekAlert]