OT: Sorry, that made me laugh...I can't even imagine how that would even work in New York...you'd be waiting forever to get a ride; the Redditor mentions a previous name analysis of drivers (TLC releases names/licenses of taxi drivers as another dataset) indicating that maybe half of all NYC taxi drivers are Muslim.
After living in New York, I have a Pollyannish belief that if you were inclined to be unconsciously racist...you'd give up that inclination in day-to-day life...or else, how could you cope with the sensory/panic overload? Everyday you're exposed to hundreds, sometimes thousands of people of every ethnicity and religion, just being normal.
Despite the diversity of NYC as a whole, my anecdotal experiences suggest that people can still harbor those sorts of unconscious thoughts while living their entire lives in a "diverse" city. I say "diverse" because there are lots of enclaves in NYC, sometimes with stark divides across streets. (See the Dot Map [1]). Outside of gentrifying/gentrified areas like Long Island City or Prospect Heights, or white flight areas like Morris Park, neighborhoods look rather homogeneous. (Exercise for the reader: see if you can find out where the Landmark/Historic Districts are in Brooklyn.)
Unfortunately, last time it was posted, it was noted that that map has drawing bias. The dots are drawn in order of race, not randomly, and so the earliest color dots are underrepresented and the later dots overrepresented. I'm afraid I can't remember the which order they are drawn in. Just something to keep in mind.
Interesting, I wasn't aware of that, thanks for bringing it up. From the code[0], it looks like it's drawn in the order [White, Black, Asian, Hispanic, Other]. You're definitely right, that would skew things.
"or else, how could you cope with the sensory/panic overload?"
Leave your apartment, walk past some people that you just know are stupider than you, get a coffee served to you by some guy you just know is less hygienic than you are, when you park your bike make sure you lock it because some of the people nearby have criminal tendencies.
What overload? What panic? Some people carry these attitudes around with them all day, every day, and they don't panic about it.
It probably comforts and reassures them, knowing that they are intrinsically smarter/more hygienic/law-abiding than other people. And they don't even have to prove it!
Is there any research as to whether racist attitudes correlate more with perceived superiority or with fear? I wonder if this varies, e.g., by country.
> After living in New York, I have a Pollyannish belief that if you were inclined to be unconsciously racist...you'd give up that inclination in day-to-day life...or else, how could you cope with the sensory/panic overload?
I don't think that subconscious racism really works like that. I doubt that those types of racists are afraid of other races in that sense; they don't think that their cab driver is carrying a briefcase full of C4 in the trunk. They probably just have negative prejudices against 'em ("they're dumb", "their food smells", "they're just here to steal jobs").
And for every positive and neutral experience, they'd be likely to have a negative one as well - and they'd filter out and ignore the positives, while giving more credence to the negatives.
Or the unconscious becomes conscious. I've known lots of people who are (a) around plenty of people outside their race and creed every day and (b) racist as fuck.
After living in New York, I have a Pollyannish belief that if you were inclined to be unconsciously racist...you'd give up that inclination in day-to-day life...or else, how could you cope with the sensory/panic overload? Everyday you're exposed to hundreds, sometimes thousands of people of every ethnicity and religion, just being normal.