societal "culture wars" over offensive con- Bushman, B. J., & Pollard-Sacks, D. (2014). Supreme Court decision on violent video Correspondence concerning this comment tent and, thus, be more prone to bias. games was based on the First Amendment, not 2. Increasing research suggests that should be addressed to Christopher J. Ferguscientific evidence. American Psychologist, user motivations are more critical than conson, Department of Psychology, Stetson Uni69. 306-307. doi:10.1037/a0035509 versity, 421 N. Woodland Boulevard, Unit tent in understanding media effects. I submit that media psychology would do well Consortium of Scholars. (2013). Scholars' 8281, Deland, FL 32723. E-mail:cjferguson open statement to the APA Task Force on 11 [email protected] to learn from our neighboring field of comViolent Media. Retrieved from http://www munication, wherein users and their moti.christopherjferguson.conii/APA%20Task%2 vations are thought to drive the user/media Dot; 10.1O37/a0035807 0Force%20Commentl .pdf experience more so than content (Sherry, Elson, M., Moh.seni, M. R., Breuer, J., 2007). I also echo the eloquent arguments Scharkow, M., & Quandt, T. (2014). Press Racism Inflation of Granic and colleagues (2014), who arCRTT to measure aggressive behavior: The gued for a balanced approach to underunstandardized use of the competitive reaction G. E. Zuriff standing media effects. time test in aggression research. PsychologiWheaton College cal Assessment. Advance online publication. 3. Media, even with objectionable doi:10.1037/a0035569 content, may have both positive and negaMillions of Americans will be outraged, tive influences. Where objectionahle con- Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family and rightly so, by Neville, Awad, Brooks, Statistics. (2013). America's children: Key tent is concerned, it is too easy to adapt Flores, and Bluemel's (September 2013) national indicators of well-being, 2013. Rescholarly inquiry to social "culture wars," assertion that "racial color-blindness is trieved from http://www.childstats.gov/pdf/ which can distort both the development of ac2013/ac_l 3.pdf . . . actually an expression of ultramodern our hypotheses and the interpretation of our Ferguson, C. J. (2013). Violent video games and notions of racism among White Ameridata. If media effects are indeed user the Supreme Court: Lessons for the scientific cans" (p. 455). These authors have exprodriven, then these effects are idiosyncratic. community in the wake of Brown v. Enterpriated the concept of color-blindness and That is, the same form of media may have tainment Merchants Association. American have distorted it beyond recognition. very different influences on different indiPsychologist, 68, 57-74. doi:10.1037/ First, Neville et al. (2013) included viduals. Perhaps this is uncontroversial, but a0O3O597 media psychology has tended to communi- Ferguson, C. J., & Kilburn, 3. (2009). The public within the concept of color-blindness the beliefs that racism no longer exists in cate in the language of general, global efhealth risks of media violence: A meta-anaAmerica and that being White in America fects when it would be better served by use lytic review. The Journal of Pediatrics, does not bestow certain advantages. What 154(51 759-763. doi:10.1016/j.jpeds.2008.11 of a more nuanced, conditional language. is the justification for this other than to .033 4. A sociology of media research apmake it easier to flnd correlations between Granic, I., Lobel, A., & Engels, R. C. M. E. proach highlights the view that science is (2014). The benefits of playing video games. color-blindness and measures of racism? imperfect and does not exist in an objective American Psychologist, 69, 66-78. doi: Their construct of color-blindness is not social vacuum. We are all human and re10.1037/a0O34857 spond to social narratives, political pres- Hoffman, A. J. (2014). Violent media games and what most Americans have in mind when they speak of color-blindness. sure, funding opportunities, emotional reaggression—is it really time for a mea culpa? Contrary to their assertion, coloractions to objectionable content, and a American Psychologist, 69, 305-306. doi: blindness, in its essence, means that in desire to obtain moral high ground and 10.1037/a0035289 social influence. Understanding how these Mitchell, G. (2012). Revisiting truth or triviality: many, perhaps most, contexts, an individprocesses influence the science itself, 1 arThe external validity of research in the psy- ual's race ought not to be taken into account. Examples include deciding whom to gue, will help us to avoid repeating mischological laboratory. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 7(2), 109-117. doi: hire for most jobs, who can vote, and detakes of the past. 10.1177/1745691611432343 cisions before the law (e.g., guilt or innoI conclude by saying that I believe we can move past debates on media violence Pinker, S. (2011). The better angels of our na- cence at trial). In other contexts, however, ture: Why violence has declined. New York, considerations of race are appropriate. This and that scholars on both sides of the issue NY: Viking Press. is the case, for example, in treating an must be part of this advancement. We can't Sherry, J. (2007). Violent video games and ag- individual in psychotherapy, in selecting a be satisfied with the way things were, pargression: Why can't we find links? In R. Pre- representative sample of Americans for a ticularly as new data emerge to reveal ways iss, B. Gayle, N. Burrell, M. Allen, & J. Brysurvey, or when trying to fully understand in which our thinking can be improved. ant (Eds.), Mass media effects research: This does not mean we should lambast the Advances through meta-analysis (pp. 231- someone. It certainly does not mean lack of awareness of racism in contemporary past, but neither should we reify it. It is 248). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. time to move forward with a more sophis- Tear, M. J., & Nielson, M. (2013). Failure to America. ticated perspective on media effects that Second, even if this lack of awaredemonstrate that playing violent video games focuses less on moral objections to certain diminishes prosocial behavior. PLOS One, ness of the state of race relations is nevS(7), e68382. doi:10.1371/journal.pone content and more on media consumers and ertheless incorrectly included in the con.0068382 their motivations. cept of color-blindness, such ignorance is Van Looy, J., Quandt, T., Elson, M., Ivory, J. D., not the equivalent of racism. Whereas Mäyrä, F., & Consalvo, M. L. (2013, June). Neville, Lilly, Duran, Lee, and Browne REFERENCES Mapping the field of digital games research: (2000) seemed to understand that colorResults of a large international survey. Paper Anderson, C. A., Shibuya, A., Ihori, N., Swing, blind ideology and racial prejudice were presented at the 63rd annual conference of the E. L., Bushman, B. J., Sakamoto, A "distinct concepts" (p. 66), although perIntemational Communicaton Association, Saleem, M. (2010). Violent video game efhaps correlated, 12 years later, Neville et London, England. fects on aggression, empathy, and prosocial al. (2013), in contrast, have equated the behavior in Eastern and Western countries: A Walton, D. (2008). Informal logic: A pragmatic two. The latter position means that anymeta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, approach (2nd ed.). Cambridge, England: 136{2), 151-173. doi:10.1037/aOO 18251 one endorsing their concept of colorCambridge University Press.

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blindness is ipso facto a racist whether or not he or she shows any racist behavior or attitudes. What is the justification for this? Neville et al. (2013) write as if racism in America has changed merely its appearance but not its essence; as if opposition, on grounds of fairness, to preferences for racial minorities in college admissions (e.g., Zuriff, 2004) is the same as opposition to voting rights for racial minorities; or as if not having a Black person as a close friend is on a par with running Blacks out of town by midnight. By distorting the concept of racial color-blindness, hy equating their distorted concept with racism, and by ignoring changes in racism over the decades, Neville et al. (2013) have assured that virtually all White Americans, even the most fair-minded, can he said to be racists, a proposition apparently dear to their hearts. REFERENCES

Neville, H. A., Awad, G. H., Brooks, J. E., Elores, M. P., & Bluemel, J. (2013). Colorblind racial ideology. American Psychologist, 68, 455-466. doi:10.1037/a0033282 Neville, H. A., Lilly, R. L., Duran, G., Lee, R. M., & Browne, L. (2000). Construction and initial validation of the Color-Blind Racial Attitudes Scale (CoBRAS). Journal of Counseling Psychology, 47, 59-70. doi:10.1037/ 0022-0167.47.1.59 Zuriff, G. E. (2004). Is affirmative action fair? American Psychologist, 59, 124-125. doi: 10.1037/0003-066X.59.2.124

Correspondence concerning this comment should be addressed to G. E. Zuriff, 120 Foster Street, Cambridge, MA 02138. E-mail: gerald.zmiff® verizon.net DOI: 10.1037/a0035733

The Real Meaning of Color-Blind Racial Ideology Edwin A. Locke University of Maryland (Emeritus) I was disappointed by the Neville, Awad, Brooks, Elores, and Bluemel (September 2013) article on racial color-blindness. It was a very puzzling mixture of psychology, sociology, sense perception, the subconscious, and politics. Its view of what "color-blindness" consists of was denying color and denying that people lack equal opportunities. I think the article missed the. essential meaning of color-blindness. Let's start with what I believe is the essential issue as expressed by Martin Lu-

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ther King Jr. in his "I Have a Dream" speech. His idea was that we should judge people not by the color of their skin hut hy the content of their character. I always assumed he meant moral character. Now does this mean we should pretend there is no such thing as skin color differences? This is obviously impossible. Skin color is directly perceived; it's a given. What I believe King meant was that we should make skin color unimportant (nonfundamental).This is not the same as denying its existence. King wanted us to move from the sensory-perceptual level to the conceptual level when judging others; to know a person's character, you have to observe their statements and actions, and then you have to think. (This applies to anyone judging anyone.) This is hard work and takes time. Neville et al. (2013) never, to my dismay, suggested that to reduce prejudice people need to he trained in how to judge other people—to go beyond the skin and look at the deeper levels. Isn't this the fundamental meaning of color-blindness as King saw it? His idea was intended as a metaphor—not a denial of reality.

one would agree that at the very least everyone should be free to act to try to achieve their goals without being physically coerced hy others. This brings up one more issue that could be considered an expansion of King's idea. In addition to judging people on their character, I think he would favor judging them on what they can do (their capabilities, abilities, performance). This is relatively easy in sports because performance is clearcut (winning or losing), but it is harder in other fields. Here people need training in how to achieve objectivity. Symphony orchestras often select new members by making them perform behind a curtain. Tests can be given and job applicant files can he looked at with race and other nonessential attributes removed—at least itiitially. This only scratches the surface of what can he done. There is no magic solution to race prejudice, but shouldn't we he doing everything in our power to make race less important—in line with Dr. King's ideal— rather than more important, as Neville et al. (2013) implied?

Since no racial group has a monopoly on moral character, a corollary of King's idea is that people should be treated as individuals, not simply as members of a collective. All Whites and all Blacks are not the same. They are not interchangeable units. It is dehumanizing to view people primarily as members of a racial group rather than as individuals. Every person is different from every other person in numerous respects. The concept of racial color-blindness does not mean that no prejudice exists today. Again, this is obviously false. But King's principle represented a moral ideal, not a journalistic description of modem society. One thing we can say about modern society is that things are infinitely better now than they were at the time of Jackie Robinson ("42"). This is not the same thing as saying society is perfect; of course, it is not. Now what about equal opportunity? This is a tricky subject. In reality, no two individuals in society have exactly the same opportunities. Again, it is hopeless to pretend that everyone starts out equal in money, parenting, and so forth, whether White, Black, or any other color. To make everyone strictly equal we would have to have a Spartan dictatorship in which people were forcibly seized by the state at birth and raised in government institutions. This is inconceivable. So what is the alternative? Here we get into contentious political-philosophical issues that are beyond the scope of this comment. But I think every-

REFERENCE

Neville. H. A., Awad, G. H., Brooks, J. E., Elores, M. P., & Bluemel, J. (2013). Colorblind race ideology: Theory, training, and measurement implications in psychology. American Psychologist, 68, 455-466. doi: 10.1037/a0033282

Correspondence concerning this comment should be addressed to Edwin A. Locke, 2451 Norwalk Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90041. E-mail: [email protected] DOI: 10.1037/a0035694

The Reality of Racism Based on the Illusion of "Race" Joseph J. Locascio Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School If I'm understanding Neville, Awad, Brooks, Flores, and Bluemel (September 2013) correctly, they were arguing that "color-blind racial ideology" is often used as a cover for a modem, sophisticated, and still harmful version of racism. I'm not a scholar in this area, hut the authors clearly are, and I didn't find a single one of the many points they made that doesn't seem to me to have some validity and merit. However, I'm still left with an uncomfortable sense of unease that in citing the many ways in which people might use what are good sentiments for wrong intentions (and

April 2014 • American Psychologist

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