Extra credit for being black

Take a look at the illustration below:

Our initial impression is that square A is darker than square B.  This is because our brain recognizes a pattern and interprets what our eyes see accordingly.  As a matter of fact, square A and square B are the same shade.

Similarly, we are accustomed to blacks behaving a certain way.  Not that all blacks behave the same, but there are particular black flavors of the various personality types we encounter.  Over the years, our brains grow accustomed to this pattern and we expect it.  I am certain that leftists, in particular, internalize these patterns and adjust their judgments of black individuals accordingly.  If I encounter a black person (or a person of any other race) who is loud and obnoxious, I have no qualms about thinking this, or even saying it.  A leftist, on the other hand, will excuse such behavior since it is expected among blacks.  He will have no such tolerance for whites who behave similarly; his expectation of whites is higher – though he will never admit it.

I will freely admit that when I encounter blacks who act with humility, behave like ladies and gentlemen, dress conservatively and speak with respect, I think to myself “what a beautiful thing!”  because  their demeanor is in stark contrast to what I’ve learned to expect from so many others of their race.  It is refreshing.  And yet, because I have not excused the inferior behavior of other blacks, I do not hold the well-behaved ones to be superior to similarly behaved whites.  But leftists, having already accepted inferior black behavior as normal, expected and perfectly acceptable, will give those blacks extra credit.  In their minds, civilized blacks are superior to equivalent whites because they had to elevate themselves further from their base (default) behavior to reach their current level.

To be sure, if a leftist recognized the above psychological dynamics within himself, he would castigate himself for being racist.  He would sign up for sensitivity training because he would realize that the root of his adoration of civilized blacks lies in his lower expectations of them to begin with.

In his mannerisms, oratory skills and overall intelligence, Barack Obama is no better than many white politicians.  But since he is (half) black, leftists subconsciously expected less of him.  It is as if they were saying, “this guy is really smart for a black.  We should elect him!”

Blacks also receive extra credit in grading.   Steven Farron in The Affirmative Action Hoax (pg 127) writes:

Even without conscious intention, Blacks receive much higher grades than Whites for the same work.  Kent Harber (1998) wrote a large number of essays that he filled with errors in grammar and content.  He then asked ninety-two  White college students to act as markers and gave one essay to each, along with a brief description of the putative author, which indicated the “author’s” race indirectly but clearly (e.g., member of the Black Student Union).  The markers’ average rating (on a one to seven scale) for content of the essays they thought were written by Blacks was 3.5, but 2.7 for the essays they thought were written by Whites…

The converse may also be true.  Since we expect less of blacks, their crimes are not punished as harshly as if they were committed by whites.  Just as square A seems darker than square B, because it is in an overall lighter area, so too do the crimes of whites seem more heinous than those of blacks.  The MSM sometimes plays into this mentality with statements such as “in this quiet trusting community, nobody could have suspected that a monster lurked in their midst”.  We probably would not read such a statement if the crime had occurred in the South side of Chicago.

We are hardwired to perceive things in terms of contrast and in terms of patterns.  This is not our own doing; it is embedded in our nature.  It is a part of nature that is in us.  While we have the power to appreciate that squares A and B are the same shade of gray, we also have the power to appreciate why we see them differently.  I think there is room to celebrate both aspects of our humanity.