Comments on: Positive expectations will yield more positive IR interactions!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 16:41:35 +0000

Of course. After all that, people are going to be suspicious. What do you expect?

By: Ben

Ben — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 16:25:38 +0000

I’d never heard of the other glitches, and certainly not in any of the articles about this issue. Thanks for enlightening me

Oh black people definitely have a hard-earned right to be sensitive. And we have the hard-earned privilege that when we talk about racism, folks listen. But we also have a responsibility to be rational about those accusations, or else we’re just abusing that privilege.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 02:58:28 +0000

so it’s only natural that P E O P L E would laugh and wonder why a billion dollar company, with it’s resources, seems to make so many funny mistakes?
makes sense.
no comment, wolf boy?

By: John

John — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 16:01:44 +0000

^ “… unfortunate stereotype that minorities, especially black people, are hypersensitive about race…”

Just want to chime in here, not that I thought you meant any harm.
American minorities, ESPECIALLY African Americans, have a right to be sensitive about race issues & the media today (I’m sure we don’t have to go into why).
Lots of people, including Caucasians, speculated on Walmart’s ‘glitch’ in print & on the web.
If a dude’s going to think it’s just the black community crying wolf- that’s his problem. He probably thinks in those terms, anyway.

Walmart has made some rather obvious racial ‘glitches’ in the past… when I say obvious, I’m talking Archie Bunker-comedy obvious. (Just off the top of my head- the 2005 ad w/ the Nazi book burning, or having that African American Executive arrested because he was armed w/ deadly gift cards.)
But yeah, it was probably just a giltch. A comedic glitch Walmart can add to it’s list of comedic glitches.

By: Ben

Ben — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 19:25:58 +0000

I’ll admit I didn’t totally follow your response, but I’ll attempt to clarify my statement (because what is the Web, if not a forum to endlessly repeat oneself? ).

I meant to call attention to the article’s point that, according to the non-black participants surveyed, their negative expectations were not based on traditional racist stereotypes of black people, but on a stereotype that doesn’t receive much attention: that blacks are hypersensitive about race. I’m not saying that it’s true or false, and I’m not saying that black people should or shouldn’t be sensitive to a greater degree than others.

But I am saying that, according to the study, this stereotype is detrimental to race relations, and is fully within our control. Therefore we ought to address it. A good first step might be to avoid instantly freaking out about something like the Wal-Mart incident, because I think such allegations are too often made carelessly.

It would have been a worthy enough post to say “Look at this embarrassing mistake Wal-Mart has made. Let’s laugh at them while we can and hope they correct it soon!” But it wasn’t presented as a mistake, it was presented (disingenuously?) as a deliberate association of apes with black people. (I guess I’m referring more to posts on C&D and other blogs since Jen and Carmen are not black…)

Anyway, I’m not trying to quiet dissent. I’m trying to get that boy to stop crying “wolf.”

By: justin

justin — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 11:44:35 +0000

You quoted that women in half and both halves are redundant anyway. They are just saying that “those who had low/negative expectations tended to stay away from people of x race and had less interactions in general, granting them a smaller chance of having positive experiences.” again and again. You can say that about anyone with any degree of racism, heck any ones who‘s race conscious. I think the subtle difference they hint at is that white peoples concern about racial bias isn’t based in personal experience but that’s just my biased reading and if that’s anything substantial it comes from;
“Plant’s previous research that found that people who have little experience dealing with members of another race have more anxiety about such interactions and greater expectations that those interactions will be negative”
You added all that stuff about stereotypes. ‘Regardless of whether or not that’s an accepted stereotype, ask yourself, why would you accept hypersensitivity as a stereotype of a black people?’ Do you think people are not entitled to be sensitive, are you trying to quiet dissent? How would you feel if I left the word TYPICAL after your messages?
What do I think you have to gain? I think your referring to your situation, things that have happened to you and your imagining them into the text. There’s a reflected glory thing going on.
My story on the other hand, I hope it’s a contrast to that study. Was it an interaction ? Were the expectations of those involved and the outcomes of the incident positive or negative? Could the first noise have been a scream and the following passes been an attempt to cover up an even more disturbing situation?
PS; I am going to try and leave less messages on this blog. Sorry if I’ve gotten carried away.

By: Ben

Ben — Sun, 08 Jan 2006 22:44:00 +0000

i wasn’t aware i had anything to gain from this… how am i tipping the balance of a tautology in my favor? how is that even possible?

regular html tags work for bold and italic text.

By: justin

justin — Sun, 08 Jan 2006 10:16:12 +0000

How does Ben write in bold and italics? Did who ever is moderating this do it for him?

By: justin

justin — Sun, 08 Jan 2006 02:56:35 +0000

I’m sure it’s a tautology. So Ben wants to tip the balance in his favour.

By: Ben

Ben — Sat, 07 Jan 2006 20:09:45 +0000

“For the non-black participants, it was their concern about the likelihood of coming across as biased that predicted their anxiety interacting with black people.”

Take, for example, the “Planet of the Apes” post on this blog (and others). The accusation was that Wal-Mart was deliberately associating apes with black people, and is therefore racist. Now, I believe a lot of bad things about Wal-Mart, but I am unwilling to believe that this was deliberate. It just doesn’t make sense. A more plausible explanation, in my mind, is that a glitch in the automatic recommendation function caused unrelated titles to be recommended together. I thought, “I’m sure Wal-Mart has a perfectly good explanation for this,” and sure enough, they did. (Thanks, MMW, for posting the update.)

However, the episode furthers an unfortunate stereotype that minorities, especially black people, are hypersensitive about race, to the point where they will shoot first (i.e. immediately become offended) and ask questions later. And it is this stereotype, according to the study, that most impedes positive interaction between blacks and nonblacks.