Nicholas D. Kristof
The New York Times
April 6, 2008
This article begins with the sentence: "To my horror, I turn out to be a racist." After this sentence I definitely wanted to keep reading this article to see what it was talking about. The article discusses a study that has been done using a video game. People are shown images of a person, one who is black and one who is white, holding either a gun or a cell phone. The author, as well as most Americans(black and white), shot the black man faster than the white one. The author then gave evidence of other studies and then related it to the upcoming election. He examines a black man running for president and shows how people have these negative deep rooted feelings. He then mentions more studies done on these feelings as they relate to women; after mentioning these, he then relates them to the upcoming election.
This article was interesting. The first sentence definitely draws the audience in. The way he related the evidence he presented to the upcoming election made the article appear very credible. A few of the generalizations he makes could prove to be a little bit too presumptuous. However, the use of evidence to corroborate his claims was successful to me. Overall I think the article was well thought out and well researched.
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5 comments:
That is really interesting to note the generalizations most people unconsciously make. I am glad the author backed up their article with evidence and this seems to be a very interesting topic to read on about.
I think it is a very good point. You make first impressions on the first 15 seconds upon meeting someone, so when you see a presidential candidate, most Americans make their decision right then and there. The only way to change that is by researching the person and really finding out what they are about.
I think that this is an interesting and good point to make. I think that the author did a good job making himself sound credible. Also i think this is a really good thing to consider next time we are to choose someone for an important posistion.
This is a very interesting study. Some people think they might not have racist views but they might have subconscious thoughts and opinions about a certain race. I think many Americans are still raist, even though there's no reason to be. As long as parents are still teaching kids to feel a certain way towards a race, there will always be racism. This also applies to women as a minority group. I know many people who think Hillary Clinton should not be the president simply because she is a women. Personally, I want to judge someone for their character, not their looks.
All I can say is wow! The way the author started out this article is enough to make anyone keep reading. I found it very interesting that he pointed out the biases we don't intentionally make. It blows my mind that something like this can happen. I found it made the article more credible that the author used studies to back this idea up. I also enjoyed that they made the topic relevant by pointing out the upcoming election.
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