racism is real and it can not only cause
psychological pain but also
physiological damage to those who
experience it so today we're going to
look at the science of racism using
studies and evidence to see exactly how
it impacts individuals uncover what
makes people racist in the first place
and understand what we can do to
successfully combat it right now every
time a resume comes across somebody's
desk the name on it makes a difference
after sending out over 1 300 fake
resumes in response to employment ads
scientists found that resumes with more
traditionally sounding black names
receive 50 fewer callbacks than those
with more white sounding names again
these resumes are literally identical
except for the names this shows how one
aspect of racism can have a significant
impact on opportunities now classism is
a huge issue studies show that if you
grow up in poverty you'll experience
more discrimination than people that are
wealthier than you but even when black
and white people grow up in wealthy
families and have similar education even
though they start wealthy black boys are
more likely to end up poor one of the
major factors can start as early as
preschool where teachers are more likely
to punish black students over white
students for the same behavior even in
adulthood prison sentences for the same
crime are 10 percent longer for black
men and the use of force is 3.6 times
higher when studying the existence of
racism towards indigenous people in
australia 45 of indigenous families
reported racism and interestingly
scientists began to link these
experiences to poor mental health status
sleep difficulties obesity and even
asthma which brings up an important fact
racism can truly be damaging to your
health now racism involves a set of
people holding power
over other people and that imbalance and
power is what causes stress and again
this can be measured experimentally when
latina students were paired with people
they'd been told had racial bias against
them their cardiovascular stress
response went up
compared to those who were partnered
with people they told had no bias
against them at all another study of
korean immigrants found that
discrimination was linked to
debilitating mental health effects and
the scientific community is now
validating how racism plays a
significant role in the formation of
health disparities so much that there
are now links to breast cancer
hypertension and heart disease the
chronic stress of racism can have people
leaning on negative health behaviors
like smoking and drinking in fact the
amount of racism that a person
experiences in a year is positively
correlated to the number of drinks and
cigarettes consumed of course you'd
expect that if you go to your doctor
your health would be in good hands but
racial biases exist here as well
hundreds of medical physicians were
asked to look over a case of either
black or white patients who likely just
suffered a heart attack those who scared
higher on a racial bias test were less
likely to prescribe black patients a
drug that would reduce blood clots and
prevent heart attacks in fact half of
white medical students and residents
still believe in false biological
differences between white and black
patients like that black patients are
more pain tolerant than white patients
because of less sensitive nerve endings
and thicker skin these false beliefs
negatively contribute to medical
treatment and doctors with these biases
don't outright refuse care to black
patients and they probably don't
consider themselves racist yet these
biases persist in society and
institutions which means that many
people still hold these beliefs and
values for example studies show that
most people receive the faces of other
races to be more angry than faces of
their own race now these findings make
some people uncomfortable because it's
hard to look at your own bias and where
you sit and perpetuating some of these
values and beliefs that don't do the
good that we think we're doing now the
good news is there's a lot that we can
do to combat racism and unlearn our own
biases right now the thing is
we're not born racist we learn biases
from our environment and how we are
raised when children are adopted before
the age of eight by someone of a
different race they actually develop the
same facial recognition patterns of
their adoptive parents rather than their
own race it shows that our ability to
quickly judge other races is learned
from our parents or our environment this
is why talking about racism and
anti-racism
is so important if you do all racial
bias the important thing to know is that
you can change your brain a study of
brain scans showed that a specific
brainwave pattern occurred and those
with racial bias when they saw a face
that they perceived as threatening but
immediately after a brain away from the
rational part of the brain the
prefrontal cortex
came in and challenged that initial
brain wave our brains and the neurons
inside them are constantly rewiring this
means that you can literally retrain
your brain and combat racist thoughts
and here's an example of how a study
found racial bias lessened after
subliminal exposure to counter
stereotypes participants were shown
faces of popular celebrities of diverse
races including beyonce and this kind of
priming led to decreased bias within
seconds to minutes this emphasizes the
scientific importance of representation
in media this might seem a little
obvious but people who spend more time
with different races and different
backgrounds show less bias this is
called contact theory where intergroup
contact reduces intergroup prejudice
it's why something like segregation
increases racist behaviors and ideas and
finally ideas and even science
flourishes when diverse people work
together a study that analyzed the last
names of 2.5 million research papers as
a proxy for ethnicity found that when
authors work with people of different
races and backgrounds their work
received 10 more citations and prestige
these are scientifically based studies
that we used as examples of how to
combat racism the most important thing
is to be aware aware that racism exists
aware that it is damaging and aware that
it is up to you to combat it all
together