Subconscious Racism: blacks are lazy, poor and violent, ergo: inferior.
YouGov’s recent peek into racial attitudes shows whites overwhelmingly annoyed by discussions on race, the usual entry point into a conversation on black living. An earlier poll shows a slim majority of whites believing African Americans don’t face much discrimination today.
Gilens suggested these perceptions not only shape social interactions between blacks and whites but they eventually infect white electoral behavior. That behavior has managed to stunt black entry into the vaunted middle class: Because we think of blacks as poor, we also think of them as irresponsible, lazy, and violent.
Blacks, at 13 percent of the population, represent 22 percent of the poor and 14 percent of those receiving “safety net” benefits. Yet, according to a Center for Budget and Policy Priorities report, whites—at 64 percent of the population and 42 percent of the poor—receive 69 percent of government benefits.
The commonly held view that African Americans perpetually feed from the government trough could use a bit of course correction. The largest beneficiaries of safety net programs—food stamps included—are white people. Yet these same white recipients are the most likely to vote for Republican candidates who oppose the existence of such programs. GOP candidates, in turn, frequently dog whistle black poverty stereotypes as both a cultural confidence booster and a vote grabbing tool for white voters. Recall 2012 GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum’s comments during a campaign stop in Iowa: “I don’t want to make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money.”
http://www.psmag.com/politics-and-law/are-we-talking-enough-about-the-black-middle-class
