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I'm not racist, I have black friends

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"I'm not racist; I have black friends" (variant: "Some of my best friends are black"[1][2]) is a saying sometimes used by white people to claim that they are not racist towards black people. The phrase, which gained popularity in the mid-2010s, has since sparked many internet memes and debates over racial attitudes.[3][4] Its use in a discussion related to the election of Donald Trump as US president in 2016, on the US television show Black-ish,[5] led to widespread discussion in the media of the "old trope".[6]

A 2004 study in Basic and Applied Social Psychology listed the phrase as a "common [claim of] innocence by association".[7] A 2011 study published in the Journal of Black Studies suggested that African Americans were rarely impressed by whites claiming to have "Black friends", and that the claim was more likely to make African Americans think that the person making it was in fact more, not less, prejudiced.[8] The phrase is cited as an instance of "resistance to antiracist thinking",[9] and some suggestions for dismantling the logic of the phrase include "it is like saying there is no such thing as sexism because we all have a close friend or family member who is a woman".[10]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Jackman, Mary R.; Crane, Marie (1986). "'Some of My Best Friends Are Black . . . ': Interracial Friendship and Whites' Racial Attitudes". Public Opinion Quarterly. 50: 459–86. JSTOR 2748753.
  2. ^ Sønderskov, Kim Mannemar; Thomsen, Jens Peter Frølund (2015). "Contextualizing Intergroup Contact: Do Political Party Cues Enhance Contact Effects?". Social Psychology Quarterly. 78 (1): 49–76.
  3. ^ Eligon, John (February 16, 2019). "The 'Some of My Best Friends Are Black' Defense". The New York Times. Retrieved December 4, 2020.
  4. ^ Smoot, Kelsey (June 29, 2020). "White people say they want to be an ally to Black people. But are they ready for sacrifice?". The Guardian. Retrieved December 4, 2020.
  5. ^ Butler, Bethonie (January 11, 2017). "Blackish dissects Trump's win and finds the humanity in our political discord". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
  6. ^ Schwartz, Ian (January 13, 2017). "ABC's Black-ish: 'A Vote For Trump Is A Vote For Racism'". RealClearPolitics. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
  7. ^ Winslow, Matthew P. (2004). "Reactions to the Imputation of Prejudice". Basic and Applied Social Psychology. 26 (4): 289–297. doi:10.1207/s15324834basp2604_5.
  8. ^ Winslow, Matthew P.; Aaron, Angela; Amadife, Emmanuel N. (2011). "African Americans' Lay Theories About the Detection of Prejudice and Nonprejudice". Journal of Black Studies. 42 (1): 43–70.
  9. ^ MacKay, Kathryn L. (2011). "Review of Anti-racist health care practice by Elizabeth A. McGibbon and Josephine B. Etowa". International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics. 4 (2): 164–168.
  10. ^ McGibbon, Elizabeth Anne; Etowa, Josephine B. (2009). Anti-racist Health Care Practice. Canadian Scholars' Press. p. 159. ISBN 9781551303550.
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