Whites say they are racism victims

The hell hasn’t frozen over just yet. But a new study might make you think it has. According to researchers at Tufts University, white Americans now believe that they are victims of racial bias more than Black Americans. Beyond that, whites actually believe the prejudice shown toward them has increased since the prejudice against African-Americans has decreased.

"It's a pretty surprising finding when you think of the wide range of disparities that still exist in society,” said Samuel Sommers, a psychologist at Tufts, “most of which show Black Americans with worse outcomes than whites in areas such as income, home ownership, health and employment.”

A full 11 percent of white Americans surveyed said that whites are “very much” targets of discrimination in the United States. By contrast, only two percent of Blacks believed they were “very much” targets of bigotry.

“These data are the first to demonstrate that not only do whites think more progress has been made toward equality than do Blacks, but whites also now believe that this progress is linked to a new inequality—at their expense," Sommers writes in the May issue of Perspectives on Psychological Science.

A nationwide sample of 208 blacks and 209 whites to complete questionnaires asking how much racial discrimination each group experienced from the 1950s onward. While both groups agreed on the amount of racial discrimination in the 50s, whites believe that racism against blacks decreased faster than blacks do. (Read: Rare Individuals Have No Racial Biases)

The biggest difference, however, was that whites believe that anti-white bias has increased as anti-black bias has decreased. On average, the researchers found, whites rated anti-white racism as more prevalent in the 2000s than anti-black bias by more than a full point on a 10-point scale. Eleven percent of whites said whites are currently "very much" targets of discrimination, compared with 2 percent of blacks who said blacks are "very much" discrimination targets.

The study suggests that whites see racial equality as a zero-sum game, in which one group wins at the other's expense.

"These data are the first to demonstrate that not only do whites think more progress has been made toward equality than do blacks, but whites also now believe that this progress is linked to a new inequality -- at their expense," Sommers and his colleagues wrote in May in the journal Perspectives on Psychological .

Films directed by Afro-Americans have more Afro-American characters

A study has suggested in the Hollywood movies directed by African-American directors have more African-American characters with speaking roles than movies not directed by African-Americans.

One fitting extrapolation of this small study is that the race of directors may really matter. And one key to diversifying content would be to diversify who is at the helm," said USC Annenberg’s Dr Stacy L Smith.

Project administrator Marc Choueiti, Smith and teams of undergraduate researchers annually viewed the top 100 grossing movies released theatrically in the United States and Canada since 2006.

This report had examined in particular the presence or lack thereof of African-Americans and other ethnicities in the top 100 grossing films from 2007 and 2008.

According to the research, five African-American directors headed up a total of six of those top 100 productions in 2008.

Nearly 63% of the characters with speaking lines in those six films were African-Americans. In the other top 94 films from the same year, less than 11 percent of the characters with speaking lines were African-Americans.

In 2007, 13% of overall speaking roles in the top 100 movies went to African-American characters, but that percentage rose to 50% in films with black directors.

This report had examined in particular the presence or lack thereof of African-Americans and other ethnicities in the top 100 grossing films from 2007 and 2008.

According to the research, five African-American directors headed up a total of six of those top 100 productions in 2008.

Nearly 63 percent of the characters with speaking lines in those six films were African-Americans. In the other top 94 films from the same year, less than 11 percent of the characters with speaking lines were African-Americans.

In 2007, 13 percent of overall speaking roles in the top 100 movies went to African-American characters, but that percentage rose to 50 percent in films with black directors.

Smith said that the recent findings from the same data set for female characters and female directors run along the same general lines.

"It could be that a person in a position of power is advocating on behalf of their group, but the flip side to this is that the people responsible for green-lighting the picture may be associating black directors and female directors with 'black' storylines or 'female' storylines.

Blacks Americans See Mainstream Films:No Niche

A Studios that target African-Americans in their ad campaigns for movies are making a mistake by focusing narrowly on films that feature African-Americans or on storylines that might be especially relevant to black moviegoers, according to a study conducted for BET Networks. The study, "REEL FACTS A Movie Goer Consumption Study," observes that African-Americans are bigger movie fans than the general population as a whole, averaging 13.4 visits to movie theaters per year vs. 11 for the general moviegoer population. In what might be considered a pitch for ads for all types of films on BET's cable network, the study concluded, "Contrary to what many studios and marketers think, African Americans are a valuable patron of different genres of film and see the platform of television as an important resource in making a decision in this category." It noted that 65 percent of black moviegoers decide what films they want to see based on what they have learned about them in TV commercials.

Matthew Barnhill, senior vice president of market research at BET Networks, said: “The African-American community has diverse tastes, an appetite for quality movies and entertainment that can range from blockbuster mainstream action films to African-American romantic comedies."

In the study, only three of the top films in 2010-11 mentioned by African-American moviegoers had a predominantly African-American cast or storyline, or a lead African-American actor.

The study found that the genres that African-Americans spent the most money on were comedy, action adventure and romance.

A special note to Hollywood -- this should not be interpreted as a reason to make fewer films with black casts. It simply means that black folks are open to many genres and films, regardless of race.