首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Obama’s Success Isn’t All Good News for Black Americans A)As Erin White watched the election results head towards victory for Ba
Obama’s Success Isn’t All Good News for Black Americans A)As Erin White watched the election results head towards victory for Ba
admin
2020-06-08
22
问题
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. "In that one second, it was a validation for my whole race," she recalls.
B)"I’ve always been an achiever," says White, who is studying for an MBA at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. "But there had always been these things 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."
C)White’s experience is what many psychologists 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 harbor racist sentiments. "The 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. "He’s very intelligent and eloquent."
Sting in the tail
D)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 "Obama effect" is changing people’ s views and behavior. Perhaps surprisingly, it is not all good news: there is a sting in the tail of the Obama effect.
E)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.
F)They tested four separate groups at four key stages of Obama’s presidential campaign. Each group consisted of around 120 adults of similar age and education, and the test assessed their language skills. At two of these stages, when Obama’ s success was less than certain, the tests showed a clear difference between the scores of the white and black participants—an average of 12.1 out of 20, compared to 8.8, for example. When the Obama fever was at its height, however, the black participants performed much better. Those who had watched Obama’s acceptance speech as the Democrats’ presidential candidate performed just as well, on average, as the white subjects. After his election victory, this was true of all the black participants.
Dramatic shift
G)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 "stereotype threat"—an anxiety that their results will confirm negative stereotypes, which has been shown to damage the performance of African Americans.
H)Obama’s successes seemed to act as a shield against this. "We suspect they felt inspired and energized by his victory, so the stereotype threat wouldn’t prove a distraction," says Friedman.
Lingering racism
I)If the Obama effect is positive for African Americans, how is it affecting their white compatriots(同胞)? Is the experience of having a charismatic(有魅力的)black president modifying lingering racist attitudes? There is no easy way to measure racism directly; instead psychologists assess what is known as "implicit bias", using a computer-based test that measures how quickly people associate positive and negative words—such as "love" or "evil"—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.
J)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. "That’ s an unusually large drop," Plant says.
K)While the 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 "government" or "president". This suggests that Obama was strongly on their mind, says Plant.
Drop in bias
L)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
M)"People now have the opportunity of expressing support for Obama every day," says Daniel Effron at Stanford University in California. "Our research arouses the concern that people may now be more likely to raise negative views of African Americans." On the other hand, he says, it may just encourage people to talk more honestly about their feelings regarding race issues, which may not be such a bad thing.
N)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.
Beyond race
O)We also don’t yet know how long the Obama effect—both its good side and its bad—will last. Political sentiment is notoriously changeable: What if things begin to go wrong for Obama, and his popularity slumps?
P)And what if Americans become so familiar with having Obama as their president that they stop considering his race altogether? "Over time he might become his own entity," says Plant. This might seem like the ultimate defeat for racism, but ignoring the race of certain select individuals—a phenomenon that psychologists call subtyping—also has an insidious(隐伏的)side. "We think it happens to help people preserve their beliefs, so they can still hold on to the previous stereotypes." That could turn out to be the cruelest of all the twists to the Obama effect.
Now people have the opportunity to express their feelings for Obama and they can talk honestly about racial issues.
选项
答案
J
解析
此句意为“现在人们有机会表达对于奥巴马的感情了,也可以诚实地谈论种族问题”,根据题干中的have the opportunity to express their feelings for Obama可以定位到J段中的People now have the opportunity of expressing support for Obama every day(现在人们有机会每天表达对奥巴马的支持)和it may iust encourage people to talk more honestly(一方面这使人们可以更加诚实地表达有关种族问题的感受)这是对二者意思的总结,因此,正确答案是J。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/fnP7777K
0
大学英语六级
相关试题推荐
Afterdecadesofdecline,theshareofmotherswhostayhomewiththeirchildrenhas【C1】______risenoverthelastseveralyears,
Throughouthistorymanhasobservedsuchnaturalcyclesastherisingandsettingofthesun,theebbandflowoftheoceantide
Throughouthistorymanhasobservedsuchnaturalcyclesastherisingandsettingofthesun,theebbandflowoftheoceantide
A、Hewastakingpicturesofthescenery.B、Hewaswaitingtoattendasecretmeeting.C、Hewasdoinghisjob.D、Theweatherwas
Withitsrecession-friendlycoffeeprices,plentifultablesandavailablebathrooms,McDonald’srestaurantsalloverthecountr
A、10,000.B、7,950.C、240.D、4,750.D细节题。根据文中提到的ThenumberofpeopletakingtheirownlifewasalreadyincreasingintheUS,butt
A、ItwasestablishedinGeorgeWashingtonUniversityin1937.B、ItwasestablishedintheNationalMuseumofAmericanHistoryin
ItisgettinghardertogoanywherewithoutsteppingonapieceofLego-relatedhype.TheLegoMovieisnumbertwoattheAmeric
Morethan15millionAmericansundergosurgeryeachyear,butsomeelectiveoperationsmaybemoreaboutthesurgeon’spreferen
A、Usesomeover-the-countermedicineinstead.B、Quittakingthemedicineimmediately.C、Takesomedrugtorelievethesideeffec
随机试题
患者,女,20岁。反复发作喘息、呼吸困难,咳嗽2年。查体:双肺散在哮鸣音,心脏无异常。下列检查结果有助于明确诊断的是
A、炒黄法B、炒焦法C、炒炭法D、麸炒法E、米炒法牛蒡子的炮制宜采用
患者,男性,63岁。确诊慢性阻塞性肺疾病近10年,因呼吸困难一直需要家人护理和照顾起居。晨起大便时突然气急显著加重,伴胸痛,送来急诊。体检重点应是()。
根据行政复议法律制度的规定,下列选项中,对行政复议第三人的表述正确的有()。
下列选项中,属于客户风险内生变量的基本面指标的是()。
我国历代许多教育家都十分重视掌握知识的巩固问题。下列选项中,意在强调巩固性教学原则的有()。
拒不执行判决、裁定罪的主体为()。
下列各句中,语义明确、没有歧义的一句是:
甲某故意将自己的摩托车放在马路中央,进入手机店假装购买手机,选一款最高档的手机拿在手中,假装仔细察看。待过往汽车开过来被其摩托车拦住去路时,他假称去移开挡路的摩托车,骑车逃跑。但因慌不择路,在逃离时撞倒3个行人和一辆摩托车,致车毁人亡。甲某的行为(
A、Torotatetominus45°.B、Tostretchthebodyfirst.C、Toexperienceclimbing.D、Todemonstratetechniques.B讲座中提到,该攀岩中心有一个小的热
最新回复
(
0
)