98 Patrick M. Whitehead
Not only has Psychology: A Concise Introduction been a popular
introductory textbook among undergraduate psychology instructors
(achieving five editions), but its author is an important figure in the
evaluation of introductory psychology textbooks—publishing articles in
the Society for the Teaching of Psychology flagship journal Teaching of
Psychology for many decades. This includes a recent pair of articles on the
quality of the recent influx of open-access textbooks (Griggs & Jackson,
2017a; 2017b).
In the first page of the chapter, Griggs clarifies the many-century old
sensation – perception problem discussed in the introduction, above: “We
perceive what our brain tells us to perceive. This means that sometimes our
view of the world is inaccurate”, and “Beauty is not in the eye of the
beholder,” he explains, “but rather in the brain of the beholder” (p. 101).
The chapter goes on to outline three common ways in which sensation and
perception are related—detection, difference, and scaling.
According to Griggs, perceptual judgments are consequences of brain
activity, and this includes race-based biases. Such a viewpoint is
demonstrated in the Canadian Broadcasting Channel heading for the
Wilson et al. study: “Our Brains see Black Men as Bigger, Stronger than
White Men of Same Size.” Admitting that I have race-based biases in
perceptual judgment takes responsibility for the role that I am playing in
racial discrimination. Saying that my brain makes race-based biases in
perceptual judgment does not. Conveniently, it seems as though race-based
biases in perceptual judgment are part of the neurological packaging of
adults in the US. If it is understood that racism is a neurological issue, then
it would not be a stretch to hypothesize that a certain level and location of
neurological stimulation (or injection of neurotransmitter) might correct
this problem.
The view that racism is neurobiological is an example of what Adams
and Salter (2013) call the “view from nowhere” where racism is as abstract
a concept as the activation potential of a neuron (citing Nagel, 1986; p.
789). Both are descriptions are at the level of pure objectivity, viewed in
detachment from personal meaning. Moreover, the neurobiological
perspective applies equally to racism as it does to depression, development,