Are We Living In A Post-Racial Society Essay

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Q: Are we living in a post-racial society? If I asked my friends that question then I probably would get a variety of answers. The Civil Rights Movement has made a big impact on society about race and culture issues. However, now it seems that we are now judged by the content of our character rather than the color of our skin. Marianne Bertrand and Sendhil Mullainathan wrote a paper about African-American’s facing different treatment when searching for a job. I participated in a study two months ago about black names vs. white names on a resume. I was to determine if the resume was someone was qualified for a certain job. First thing I did was viewed their experiences and education. After the study was over, the researcher told me about the experiment and said that it was about hiring someone based on their names. I did not notice it or even cared to pay attention to my resumes name. It never really dawn on me about how names can impact getting a job. Bertrand and Mullainathan discovered that Job applicants with African-American Names get fewer …show more content…

After I had taken the test, and received my very low scores I felt like a failure. One day I watched a show about the SAT tests. Apparently there has been evidence that show’s that the test is racially biased. According to Claude Steele, when strong black student’s sit down to take a difficult standardized test, the extra apprehension they feel in comparison with whites is less about their own ability than it is about having to perform on a test and in a situation that may be primed to treat them stereotypically. Steele convinced the black participants in her research was designed by blacks and it made them feel at ease and trusted the study more. I believe this was a good strategy for her in order to increase the African-American participant’s performance. Steele research gave me a better understanding on how stereotype threat can really affect academic

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