Benign Bigotry: The Psychology of Subtle Prejudice

by Kristin J. Anderson

While overt prejudice is now much less prevalent than in decades past, subtle prejudice prejudice that is inconspicuous, indirect, and often unconscious continues to pervade our society. Laws do not protect against subtle prejudice and, because of its covert nature, it is difficult to observe and frequently goes undetected by both perpetrator and victim. Benign Bigotry uses a fresh, original format to examine subtle prejudice by addressing six commonly held cultural myths based on assumptions that appear harmless but actually foster discrimination: those people all look alike; they must be guilty of something; feminists are man-haters; gays flaunt their sexuality; I m not a racist, I m color-blind and affirmative action is reverse racism . Kristin J. Anderson skillfully relates each of these myths to real world events, emphasizes how errors in individual thinking can affect society at large, and suggests strategies for reducing prejudice in daily life.

Genres: Nonfiction, Race, Psychology, Anti Racist, Politics, Social Justice

364 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Dr. Anderson is a social psychologist and fellow at the Center for Critical Race Studies at the University of Houston-Downtown.

Reviews

[Ffiona · Rating 1 out of 5]

This author knows better than you, (or any other individual), how best to think and anyone who does not think the way she does is a bigot.

Do gooders like Kristin Anderson are so overly attuned to the issue of bigotry that they go around finding it where it doesn't even exist.

Kristin Anderson wants to construct an ultra liberal social reality. She attempts to influence the reader in order to make them more open-minded and tolerant.I agreed with some of her assertions because several specific points she makes are hard to refute however in most parts her naivety made me wince.I find that liberals,like this author,tend not to be very skeptical of people and human nature in general.They seem to have massive faith in people they don't know,are less questioning of others - this is mainly due to them being overly protected/nurtured in their childhood and youth.

So many lefty progressive types seem almost delusional when it comes to how they think people function.This persists until their bubble of kindness bursts and it suddenly dawns on them that they are in serious danger.This authors worldview is known as naive prey syndrome.

Spot the bigot. It's like a 'Wheres Wally' type of game for them, where they try and find racism, homophobia, or whatever secular sin they think someone has committed, in everything, regardless if it even exists.

[Mckinley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Looking at concerns around racism, sexism and sexuality.
Strategies to refocus: contact hypothesis, jigsaw technique, inducing empathy, complex social identity, decategorization and salient categorization, values confrontation, and education (!).

[Zawn V · Rating 3 out of 5]

Books on various kinds of oppression in the United States are a dime a dozen, and typically focus on the macro level- studies on pay gaps, essays about the drug war, statistics on race-based sentencing. Rarely do they focus on what's going on behind the statistics. And while I believe that overt discrimination is alive and well (just sit in a room with a bunch of white guys for a while and see how long it takes them to make a gay joke, black joke, or woman joke), I think much of the discrimination that goes on in the US is a result of subtle prejudice that adds up into big statistics. This is the first book I've found that purported to address the, "I'm no racist, but..." or, "It's just science that women are worse at..." set. And while it's a good start, it's just a start.

Anderson is some sort of psychologist. So all of her work involves what's happening at the individual level. There are a lot of interesting studies, but I'm always skeptical of the work of social scientists and many of the studies cited are scientifically questionable and distinctly unsatisfying in the answers they offer.

Nevertheless, it's a good start. It's not going to convince your "I'm not racist, but.." friend that he is, really, in fact racist, but it might give you a good starting point for conversation.

[Carmen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kristin J. Anderson is a social psychologist and activist at University of Houston-Downtown, her research focuses on how the insidious harm of subtle prejudice—nonconsious and unintentional comments or overgeneralizations—has influence not only how we view ourselves and others, but also what we expect for ourselves and others. Anderson demystifies faulty beliefs such “Those people all look alike,” “They must be guilty of something,” “Feminists are man-haters,” “Gays flaunt their sexuality,” “I’m not a racist, I’m colorblind,” and “Affirmative action is reverse racism.” Recently, she published Modern Misogyny: Anti-Feminism in a Post-Feminist Era where she talks about the nature of sexism, anti-feminism, empowerment and choice. In here, Anderson shows that the post-feminist rhetoric portrays that empowerment is achieved throughout self-transformation instead of structural transformation through collective action. Additionally, she argues that sexual liberation has shifted to self-objectification, so now being a sexual object is a source of power—instead of political and cultural power.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anderson has written a fantastically useful and clear book for undergraduate teaching about the subtle ways in which prejudices are expressed in the post-Civil Rights Era. While much of this book is most closely focused on subtle racism (or, color-blind racism), there are also chapters on prejudice against criminals, feminists, and gays and lesbians. One great advantages of this book is that each of the chapters can stand alone or the book can be read cover to cover for an even more enriching experience. Instructors can use this book in a range of classes and in different ways, and that's one of the things that I think is so great about the book.
This book mainly presents social psychology research that has been discussed in numerous other books, so it's not exactly groundbreaking material here. However, what is unique about this book is the clarity with which Anderson presents these ideas. This book is well within the reach of even freshmen undergraduates and at the same time interesting and challenging enough for upper-division courses as well.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent introduction to prejudice and unconscious stereotyping. This could have numerous applications, but I appreciated its down-to-earth tone and examples of how discrimination happens, even when we don't think it does. It's not meant to be guilt-inducing, rather it's meant to be consciousness-raising.

[Merari Martinez · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had to read this book for my psychology of prejudice class and I actually read more of this book than was required. It was so insightful and Dr. Anderson is as great of a writer as she is a professor.