
White Liberals Present Themselves as Less Competent with Minorities - isoskeles
https://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/white-liberals-present-themselves-as-less-competent-in-interactions-with-african-americans?unflag
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isoskeles
I'm resubmitting this because it was interesting and flagged for most likely
dubious reasons.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18488711](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18488711)

Someone commented that the headline is inaccurate:

> Headline is wildly misleading. The research actually says that they are less
> likely to use "words related to competence (that is, words about ability or
> status, such as 'assertive' or 'competitive')." Something like "White
> liberals use less assertive/forceful language when interacting with African-
> Americans" would be more appropriate.

> I agree that this could be seen as patronizing and problematic, however
> well-intentioned. But the headline is just awful.

It is not inaccurate. My reply to that person, which cannot go through because
this submission was flagged:

No, the article covers what you just said in terms of political speeches, but
the article also continues. They designed an experiment where people were
given a task that involved word use, and certain words were associated with
higher or lower competence (not to be confused with being _related to_
competence). Example: sad vs. melancholy. Note that neither word has to do
with competence, but the use of "melancholy" would be associated with someone
who is more competent with the English language.

> The researchers found that _liberal individuals were less likely to use
> words that would make them appear highly competent_ when the person they
> were addressing was presumed to be black rather than white. No significant
> differences were seen in the word selection of conservatives based on the
> presumed race of their partner. “It was kind of an unpleasant surprise to
> see this subtle but persistent effect,” Dupree says. “Even if it’s
> ultimately well-intentioned, it could be seen as patronizing.”

