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 f
Obama’s Success Isn’t All Good News for Black Americans A) As Erin White watched the election results head towards victory f
admin
2022-11-13
31
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. "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. "
B) 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 characterize 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
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 "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.
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.
E) 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
F) 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. 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
G) 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.
Drop in bias
H) 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 had 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. 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 color with political words such as "government" or "president". This suggests that Obama was strongly on their mind, says Plant.
I) Brian Nosek of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, who runs a website that measures implicit bias using similar tests, has also observed a small drop in bias in the 700000 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
J) " 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.
K) 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
L) 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. "Barack Obama’s family is such a salient (出色的) image, we generalize it and fail to see the larger picture—that there’s injustice in every aspect of American life, " says Cheryl Kaiser of 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 effect, she says.
M) Though Plant’s findings were more positive, she too warns against thinking that racism and racial inequalities are no longer a problem. " The last thing I want is for people to think everything’s solved. " These findings do not only apply to Obama, or even just to race. They should hold for any role model in any country. "There’s no reason we wouldn’t have seen the same effect on our views of women if Hillary Clinton or Sarah Palin had been elected, " says Effron. So the election of a female leader might have a downside for other women.
Beyond race
N) 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?
O) 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 crudest of all the twists to the Obama effect.
Ashby Plant, along with some other psychologists has been focusing on studying the power of role models.
选项
答案
C
解析
由题干关键词Ashby Plant、psychologists和the power of role models定位到C段第一句和最后一句。同义转述题。定位句提到,包括阿什比.普兰特在内的一些心理学家一直致力于研究榜样的力量。他们将辩证地分析“奥巴马现象”所引发的正面和负面效应。题干中的focusing on studying对应原文中的seized on和test hypotheses about,故选C。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/uPR7777K
0
大学英语六级
相关试题推荐
A、Peopleshouldlearnmultiplekindsofknowledge.B、Themoreknowledgeyoulearn,themoresuccessyouget.C、Knowledgeisthe
A、Tobuildarelationshipwiththeirsubordinates.B、Toemphasizetheimportanceofhardwork.C、Toexplainwhytheyareableto
A、Tipsonhowtomakefriendseasily.B、Difficultiesthespeakerhasencounteredwhenmakingfriends.C、Tipsonhowtobecomea
A、Toattendnewschools.B、Totakenotesontabletsinclass.C、Tousetechnologiestospeeduphandwriting.D、Totakenoteson
A、Americangovernment.B、Politicalsystem.C、Politicalelection.D、Governmentandpolitics.A演讲者提到,搬到堪萨斯州后,开始教授自己最喜欢的科目:美国政府(Ame
A、Hisskillofmakingagoodresume.B、Hisattitudetohiscolleagues.C、Hisexpectingsalaryofthejob.D、Hisperformanceint
A、Closebutunequal.B、Friendlybutformal.C、Strainedandformal.D、Equalandinformal.D
A、Thepredictionsexploretheprospectofnewprofessions.B、Thepredictionswidentherangeofhealthcarecareers.C、Thepredi
A、Hemadeuphismindtoworkforthedisable.B、Hedecidedtoworkinanautocompany.C、Heunfortunatelyhadacaraccident.D
A、Alocalenvironmentinstitute.B、Acompanyproducingeco-friendlybags.C、Acompanyproducingplasticbags.D、Aninstituteres
随机试题
A.阿司匹林B.华法林C.潘生丁D.普通肝素预防房颤栓塞并发症首选
口服避孕药物的作用原理为
关于职业健康安全初始评审的描述,正确的是()。
某县级市人口为25万人,中间高四周低,南、西、北侧均有河流通过,西侧有铁路客运站和货运站,南侧有一级公路。规划向南发展,并在铁路东西规划了工业和物流用地,结合北侧的水系规划了湿地公园,并有15公顷的广场用地。请论述规划存在哪些问题,为什么?
穿堤闸基础在人工开挖过程中,临近设计高程时,保护层暂不开挖的范围是()。
下列描述中不属于用来判断《专利法》所确定的实用新型的特征的是()。
依据一次能源的不同,发电厂可分为()。
公元前五世纪前后,东西方几乎同时出现的第一次思想文化高峰期,被称为人类的轴心时代。代表当时中两方文明杰出成就的标志性人物是()。
在国际单位制七个基本单位中,不包括下面哪个?()
行使管制权的主体是乡级以上人民政府的公安机关。
最新回复
(
0
)