In a recent news anecdote, Jimmy Carter said that opposition to
president Obama is centered in deep-seated,
unacknowledged
racism. On
TV, one can see that the protesters are different from what
might be expected: It's OLDER people who are carrying signs
calling him a "Nazi." When we
think
about it, most of us are used to seeing young people in this
sort of protest, such as the protesters in Iran who claim the
recent election was rigged. What's going on?
In a blog on the Miller-McCune website, Tom Jacobs explains
that recent research has shown that older people have more
difficulty suppressing stereotypes than younger people do
and thus may become more prejudiced as they age. This
phenomenon has been noticed for over 60 years, but
psychologists assumed it was due to the cultural atmosphere
of the time in which these people were raised. But now they
think it's because of the way the aging brain functions: It's
not as effective at processing new information or filtering out
unwanted information. This makes it easier to fall back on
stereotypes.
We're happy to say that we have a wide variety of races and
countries among our subscribers, which is why it's so
enjoyable when they get together to
chat! At
one of our
chats a few weeks ago, a subscriber said, "You Americans are
certainly a wild
group!" Join the fun: You can keep us going for less than a
latte a WEEK (less than $12 gets you a 3-month
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today!
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