Cobb

" In the end, I don't think that race will be as potent as other factors.."

and....

"It doesn't matter whether or not something specifically 'racist' happens to you for it to affect your attituded and performance, surely your ordinary white male can understand what might happen in their workplace if Christie Brinkley were introduced."

There's a fallacy here. You are conflating something being due to "race" with individual level "racism." In this case I don't think you should. What the research points out clearly is that race IS the central factor. This is the benefit of experimental research...if done right it controls EVERYTHING EXCEPT THE POSITED CAUSAL VARIABLE. Now whether it is individual level racism of the Mark Fuhrman type, I can't say. Let's say it's not. Does that make it better?

Correct me if I'm wrong, how many factors did the research test for? I can't imagine, for example, that the level of performance anxiety felt by black students who are told that they are going to fare worse than whites, would equal the level of anxiety felt by women who might be sold into slavery, or a refugee at a border crossing.

This is a relevant bourgie test for the effects of social conditioning on certain tasks, but in the scope of all subconscious suggestive effects on cognitive processes it is just the tip of the iceberg.

I should have said that it had broad implications outside of educational testing.

What I am very interested to know is how such an experiment effectively measures the extent to which an individual believes essentialist characteristics about race, ethnicity, religion or class. Surely a black person who 'acts white' might seem to have deeper identity problems than one who is proud of her blackness. But who would be more profoundly affected in such cases. Or are all blacks equally black with regard to performance anxiety that can be generated? It's a very important question.

To the extent that such research can determine the strength of belief in the essentialism of a social trait, there are all sorts of 'cognitive temperaments' we can assess. This is where my analogy comes in. What I'm trying to explain is that science can show that there is no 'black thing' that non-blacks can't understand. That behaviorally, there can be a certain analog in other people's experience.

One last point which is a commonsense observation. When my brother went to live in Memphis back in 87, he said that all the blacks were beat down. That they still didn't look at whitefolks in the eye. That they were more colorstruck than anyone he ever met. That they looked over their shoulder more, and that white cops scared the hell out of them. To him, they appeared 'country'.

Are such blackfolks likely to be more or less prone to stereotype threat? What does that say?

"One last point which is a commonsense observation. When my brother went to live in Memphis back in 87, he said that all the blacks were beat down. That they still didn't look at whitefolks in the eye. That they were more colorstruck than anyone he ever met. That they looked over their shoulder more, and that white cops scared the hell out of them."

Well, that's very interesting. I've lived in Memphis since 1982 and I've never seen any black people afraid to look me in the eye. I don't suppose your brother and I ever crossed paths. It would be interesting, if we observed the same people and events, to compare his perceptions to mine.

Stereotype threat, though, I can well imagine. I heard a caller to a black radio station once say that black kids were systematically denied an education in the public schools. This in spite of the fact that we've had black superintendents for many years, majority black school board, black principals and teachers, 89% black student population, etc. What is this "system" cheating the black kids? Who are they? I can guess that people with that mindset are vulnerable to stereotype threat because they're already convinced that they are going to be screwed no matter what.

Wild guess. Black man white woman kissing in public. Do people do a double take in Memphis?

People don't typically kiss in public around here. But we do have lots of interracial couples.

The newspaper does a nice "how we met" feature every week or so, picking out a young or old married couple and letting them tell their story. There have been some very nice ones. One in particular was about a white woman and black man who were best friends for years until they finally realized (or rather, she did, because he had known it for a long time) that they were meant for each other. Each set of parents had liked their kid's choice but worried about what they would face as an interracial couple, but they themselves said they hadn't had any unpleasantness.

As for double takes, people do double takes for various reasons. I do anytime I see anyone or anything interesting or attractive. I don't think you can read too much into double takes. When the day comes that nobody notices anybody else, I think that will be a sad day.