96 Patrick M. Whitehead
more than whether or not racial discrimination occurs. The Martiniquais
scholar Frantz Fanon has courageously blazed a path for subsequent
scholars to follow. His book Black Skin, White Masks explains the change
that occurred in Algerian men and women after they traveled to Paris.
They would return home with a new way of speaking, dressing, and
interacting with one another. The problematic assumption that was implicit
in this change of behavior was that the traditional Algerian way of being
was somehow deficient—less than that of the Parisians.
Such a methodological shift would be decidedly qualitative, and would
feature the perspective and identities of the young black males. Such a shift
would be unlikely in a field that is deeply suspicious of the subject’s
vantage point and of the veracity of their words.
The Role Played by the Psychologists in Hiding Racism, Privilege
The final concern about the study in question is so large that it is
difficult to see except through the lens of CRP. It has to do with how
psychological science contributes to the construction of everyday realities
of racism. In the media coverage of the problem of racial discrimination,
there is an implicit belief that the general public is good, discerning, and
just. It is only the instances in which persons are not good, discerning, and
just that are seen as aberrations. Moreover, the unspoken standard of such
judgments are those made about white persons.
In their study, Wilson et al. (2017) have concluded that (non-black)
people perceive young black males as bigger and more threatening than
young white males. It is implied that the perception of young white males
is accurate, and may be used as the standard against which other
perceptions are compared. Wilson et al. explain:
Americans have thus struggled to understand these sustained patterns
of force decisions by police. ...[W]e proposed that the stereotype of
young Black men as physically threatening... may create conditions that
prepare perceivers to show distorted perceptions of Black men’s physical
size and formidability. (pp. 59-60)