-
长篇阅读考前实战练习（二）
Obama's success isn't all
good news for black Americans
[A]
As Erin White watched the
election results head towards victory for Barack
Obama, she felt a burden lifting from
her shoulders.
a validation for my
whole race,
[B]
Van
derbilt
University
in
Nashville,
Tennessee.
there
had
always
been
thesethings in the back of my mind
questioning whether I really can be who I want.
It was like a shadow, following me
around saying you can only go so far. Now it's
like a barrier has been let
down.
had expected - that Obama would
prove to be a powerful role model for African
Americans. Some hoped his rise to
prominence would have a big impact on white
Americans,
too,
challenging
those
who
still
harbour
racist
sentiments.
traits
that
characterise him are very contradictory to the
racial stereotypes that black
people
are
aggressive
and
uneducated,
says
Ashby
Plant
of
Florida
State
University.
Sting
in the tail
[C]
Ashby
Plant
is
one
of
a
number
of
psychologists
who
seized
on
Obama's
candidacy
to test hypotheses
about the power of role models. Their work is
already starting
to
reveal
how
the
effect
is
changing
people's
views
and
behaviour.
Perhaps
surprisingly, it is not all good news:
there is a sting in the tail of the Obama
effect.
[D]
But
first the good news. Barack Obama really is a
positive role model for
African
Americans,
and
he
was
making
an
impact
even
before
he
got
to
the
White
House.
Indeed,
the
Obama
effect
can
be
surprisingly
immediate
and
powerful,
as
Ray
Friedman
of
Vanderbilt University and his colleagues
discovered.
Dramatic shift
[E]
What
can
explain
this
dramatic
shift?
At
the
start
of
the
test,
the
participants had to
declare their race and were told their results
would be used
to
assess
their
strengths
and
weaknesses.
This
should
have
primed
the
subjects
with
threat
——
an
anxiety
that
their
results
will
confirm
negative
stereotypes, which
has been shown to damage the performance of
African Americans.
Obama's successes
seemed to act as a shield against this.
inspired and energised by his victory,
so the stereotype threat wouldn't prove a
distraction,
Lingering racism
[F]
If the Obama effect is
positive for African Americans, how is it
affecting
theirwhite compatriots
(
同胞
)? Is the experience of
having a charismatic
(
有魅力
的
)
blackpresident modifying lingering racist
attitudes? There is no easy way to
measure racism directly; instead
psychologists assess what is known as
bias
positive
and
negative
words
—
such
as
or
—
with
photos
of
black
or
white
faces.
A
similar
test
can
also
measure
how
quickly
subjects
associate
stereotypical
traits
—
such as
athletic skills or mental
ability
—
with a particular
group.
[G]
In
a
study
that
will
appear
in
the
Journal
of
Experimental
Social
Psychology,
Plant's team
tested 229 students during the height of the Obama
fever. They found
that implicit bias
has fallen by as much as 90% compared with the
level found in
a similar study in 2006.
team
can't
be
sure
their
results
are
due
solely
to
Obama,
they
also
showed
that
those
with
the
lowest
bias
were
likely
to
subconsciously
associate
black
skin
colour
with
political words such as
strongly on their mind, says Plant.
Drop in bias
[H]
Brian Nosek of the
University of Virginia in Charlottesville, who
runs a
website that measures implicit
bias using similar test, has also observed a small
drop in bias in the 700,000 visitors to
the site since January 2007, which might
be
explained
by
Obama's
rise
to
popularity.
However,
his
preliminary
results
suggest
that change will be much slower coming
than Plant's results suggest.
Talking
honestly
[I]
now
have
the
opportunity
of
expressing
support
for
Obama
every
day,
says
Daniel
Effron
at
Stanford
University
in
California.
research
arouses
the
concern that people may
now be more likely to raise negative views of
African
Americans.
honestly
about their feelings regarding race issues, which
may not be such a bad
thing.
[J]
Another
part
of
the
study
suggests
far
more
is
at
stake
than
the
mere
expression
of
views.
The
Obama
effect
may
have
a
negative
side.
Just
one
week
after
Obama was elected
president, participants were less ready to support
policies
designed to address racial
inequality than they had been two weeks before the
election.
Huge
obstacles
[K]
It
could,
of
course,
also
be
that
Obama's
success
helps
people
to
forget
that
a
disproportionate number of black Americans still
live in poverty and face huge
obstacles
when trying to overcome these circumstances.
such a salient
(
出色的
) image, we generalise
it and fail to see the larger
picture
—
that there's
injustice in every aspect of American
life,
the University of Washington in
Seattle. Those trying to address issues of racial
inequality need to constantly remind
people of the inequalities that still exist
to counteract the Obama's effect, she
says.
[L]
Though Plant's
findings were more positive, she too warns against
thinking
thatracism
and
racial inequalities
are no longer a
problem.
is for people to think
everything's solved.
[M]
These
findings do
not only apply to Obama,
or even just to race. They should
hold for any role model in any country.
the
same
effect
on
our
views
of
women
if
Hillary
Clinton
or
Sarah
Palin
had