Brianna Pena

5-082014
American Society: The Desensitization to Race
I will never forget the day when I was walking through my quad, and there was a group
of guys, primarily white, breakdancing. It was interesting to watch, that is, until an African
American man walked through and said Nigga, you white, go play some chess, or something.
The ignorant comment had rolled off his tongue so naturally without skipping a beat, and thats
when I knew that racial slurs like this had become a natural occurrence in our society. People
have become desensitized to the use of this language because we live in a society that sees no
boundaries, and are influenced greatly by the media. Now, beginning at a young age, children
are exposed to inappropriate language and images because we live under the false pretenses that
it is okay to do and say certain things because a public figure had done or said the same thing.
Therefore, the children of Americas society go unprotected against the inappropriate media be-
cause they are being raised by a culture that deems this sort of behavior just.
This desensitization to negative, demeaning language exists because of its integration into
everyday American language. We hear demeaning words on the street, in the media, and in mu-
sic, and these media all have high impacts on our lives, so we believe that using these terms have
become acceptable. We have also seen these terms used for comedic purposes, allowing them to
be filtered into our brains as okay to use. A perfect example of this would be the use of the

word cracka
1
, a word that is a racist term that we have all become accustomed to; therefore we
dont see it as a racial slur.
According to the First Amendment, Congress shall make no lawabridging freedom of
speech.
2
However, the United States Constitution is written in such loose terms so that it can
continue to be relevant in the years to come. The Constitution essentially is surrounded around
the aspect of common law, which is based upon precedents, which is based upon the previous
courts decision. The implications of the Constitution, the First Amendment specifically, are
normally figured out after the fact, and a case regarding the freedom is brought to the courts.
Based on previous Supreme Court cases we have determined that the freedom of speech clauses
does not include the right: to incite actions that would harm others (shouting the words fire in a
crowded theatre), to make or distribute obscene materials, to burn draft cards as an anti-war pro-
test, to permit students to print articles in a school newspaper over the objections of the school
administration, for students to make an obscene speech at a school-sponsored event, for students
to advocate illegal drug use at a school sponsored event,
3
thus making the use of racist terms le-
gal in society.
Racial ideals vary from generation to generation, and that includes the language that has
evolved around race. Every day I hear some kind of racial slur that teenagers, and adults, say to
one another. However, these racial slurs are not always meant to have a negative connotation,

1
Urban Dictionary, "Urban Dictionary: Racist ." Last modified May 12, 2005. Accessed April 7, 2014.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=racist.
2
"What Does Free Speech Mean?." USCOURTSGOV RSS. http://www.uscourts.gov/educational-
resources/get-involved/constitution-activities/first-amendment/free-speech.aspx (accessed April 29,
2014).
3
Ibid

some people use these words as a way to show camaraderie, for example. This increased expo-
sure to racial slurs has desensitized us to the negative language that was once taught to be de-
meaning and socially unacceptable. I believe that this desensitization stems from the global per-
ception of America being culturally insensitive, which entails the constant racial profiling and
stereotyping that people are subjected to on an everyday basis.
The American Psychological Association (APA) has conducted countless tests on the
concept of cultural insensitivity in mental health research, and the results show that cultural
insensitivity stems from procedural norms in the development of content validity based on ex-
perts rational analysis of concepts, in linguistic translations that try to conform to the exact terms
of standardized instruments, and in the uncritical transferring of concepts across cultures.
4
In
this specific experiment, researchers went into Puerto Rico with predetermined thoughts and be-
liefs of the country, and allowed those stereotypes get in the way of gathering research that was
the more truthful to the actual perceptions of the country. This concept is also applicable to peo-
ple as opposed to just an entire nation itself. Just like how the researchers had a previous notion
of the country, and completely disregarded any collected information, I firmly believe that peo-
ple participate in the same actions, disregarding any previous knowledge and norms because cer-
tain actions are seen as acceptable today, these acceptable actions being the use of racial slurs
in everyday language.

4
Methodological sources of cultural insensitivity in mental health research.
Rogler, Lloyd H. American Psychologist, Vol 54(6), Jun 1999, 424-433. doi: 10.1037/0003-066X.54.6.424

For many years, the process of desensitization has overcome American society. We
have entered the digital age, therefore making inappropriate images and ideas easier to access
than they once were before. This increased exposure is one of the primary reasons as to why we,
as Americans, have been desensitized to the racial language that exists in our common vocabu-
lary. Media scholars Paul Hartmann and Charles Husband explore and analyze the treatment of
race by the mass media. The results of the data collected show that the mass media have played
an important role in defining for the white public the meaning of blacks [living in Britain], the
prevailing nature of which is negative,
5
therefore proving that with our increased exposure to
the racist remarks being told within the media have desensitized us to this negative language.
Scholarly authors Hartmann and Husband conducted another separate experiment show-
ing that the perpetual variation in racist speech harm across European, Asian, Hispanic, and Af-
rican Americans appeared to be mediated by their cultural backgrounds and socialized patterns
of interaction.
6
Combined with the researchers previous studies, we are able to see that minori-
ty groups perceive racist speech as moderately harmful, which can be traced back to what can be
introduced as the social identity theory.
7

Social identity theory is a persons sense of who they are based on their group member-
ship, as proposed by Henri Tajfel. He also said that the groups that people belonged to was an
important source of pride and self-esteem. Based on the information gathered we can infer that
the targets of the racial slurs have accepted this idea of negative self-concept. This idea has fol-

5
Paul Hartmann, and Charles Husband, Racism and the Mass Media , (Totowa, New Jersey: Rowman
and Littlefield , 1974)http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED106879 (accessed April 7, 2014).
6
Ibid, 679
7
Ibid, 678-679

lowed them since they were born, therefore that is all that they know. We can also see that the
ethnic minorities may be less vulnerable because this language has become a social stigma de-
fined by their cultural identity.
8
Therefore ones ethnic heritage is associated with perceptions of
racist speech harm. Psychologists have defined social identity theory as basically a cognitive
property in terms of peoples self-conception as group members.
9
Psychologists define a
group, psychologically, if three or more people associate themselves with each other based on
shared attributes that distinguish them collectively from other people.
10
The social identity
theory is thought to concern different aspects of our society such as prejudice, discrimination,
ethnocentrism, stereotyping, intergroup conflict, conformity, normative behavior, group polariza-
tion, crowd behavior, organizational behavior, leadership, deviance, and group cohesiveness.
11

Unfortunately, this use of racist speech in our everyday language is something that will
take time to eliminate from our vocabulary. If people were more aware of the repercussions that
this use of racist language has on society, perhaps the transition of this language out of American
vocabulary would be more uncomplicated. With our blatant disregard for this negative language
weve become desensitized to it, therefore when we do hear it, its not seen as such a surprise as
it wouldve been in the past. Many experiments have been implemented to study this use of rac-
ist language and find out its cause and effect. This research has proven that minorities, for exam-
ple, have heard this racist language for so long, that its become a source of pride. To have a

8
McLeod, Saul. "Social Identity Theory." Simply Psychology, 2008.
http://www.simplypsychology.org/social-identity-theory.html
9
Michael Hogg, Social Identity Theory , (Peter Burke,
)http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=8Jzkgbq2vYwC&oi=fnd&pg=PA111&dq=social identity
theory&ots=41918FEuj4&sig=VG7JSzRwuSyAjr6Z221CZv4n4qo
10
Ibid. pg 111
11
Ibid, pg 113

negative language be a source of pride and belonging shows that the American society should
reevaluate the words that we choose to use.