Racism is an issue still deeply engrained in every aspect American life. This country’s history was rooted in slavery and inequality among races. While there has been progress to create a fair and equal America for the future, many citizens stubbornly cling to their preconceived racial prejudices. For my experiment, I would like to further study themes of racism and discrimination by exploring the difference in racism between genders. Are white men more likely to hold racist attitudes than white women? I’m interested to see if women hold less racist beliefs than men because of their lower held status in society. Do white women feel empathy toward those facing racial injustice due to their own unequal standing? Or are their racial beliefs worse
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I’ve based this theory off of research from a study that showed the poor were more empathetic, and more likely to give back to others than the wealthy. Will white women be more empathetic towards African Americans because they too understand the struggle of living with less privilege? More specifically, my hypothesis is that an increase in privilege due to gender will increase the tendency of racial discrimination. To test this hypothesis, I’ll look for racial discrimination in my study through the roommate search process. The participants in my experiment will be randomly selected white men and women between the ages of 25-30 looking for a roommate in Boston. For the study, I will send two individuals one white and one black, to interview separately with the white participants looking for a roommate. I will have both the black and white roommate hopefuls be of the same age (26), same height and build, same personality and answer the questions in the same way. These hopefuls will be cheerful, easy to get along with, and willing to pay whatever is needed for rent. For the female’s searching for a roommate, I would send in a white woman and black woman for them to interview, and a white man and black man for the white male participant to interview. After the interviews with both the black and white individuals are over, I (the researcher) will ask the white participants who they would rather live with and why. Their answer will determine their racial bias. Once the data is collected, I would be able to find if white females are more, less or equally racially discriminant to white
I’ve based this theory off of research from a study that showed the poor were more empathetic, and more likely to give back to others than the wealthy. Will white women be more empathetic towards African Americans because they too understand the struggle of living with less privilege? More specifically, my hypothesis is that an increase in privilege due to gender will increase the tendency of racial discrimination. To test this hypothesis, I’ll look for racial discrimination in my study through the roommate search process. The participants in my experiment will be randomly selected white men and women between the ages of 25-30 looking for a roommate in Boston. For the study, I will send two individuals one white and one black, to interview separately with the white participants looking for a roommate. I will have both the black and white roommate hopefuls be of the same age (26), same height and build, same personality and answer the questions in the same way. These hopefuls will be cheerful, easy to get along with, and willing to pay whatever is needed for rent. For the female’s searching for a roommate, I would send in a white woman and black woman for them to interview, and a white man and black man for the white male participant to interview. After the interviews with both the black and white individuals are over, I (the researcher) will ask the white participants who they would rather live with and why. Their answer will determine their racial bias. Once the data is collected, I would be able to find if white females are more, less or equally racially discriminant to white