I turned on the radio in my car the other day and I heard people talking about a study on implicit bias. The study clearly showed that anti-black prejudice was partly to blame for opposition to Obamacare. They researchers knew this because specific tenets of the bill were explained to subjects who were then told that the policies had been put forth by Obama or Bill Clinton.
…the association between implicit prejudice and opposition to health care reform replicated when the plan was attributed to Obama, but not to Bill Clinton — suggesting that individuals high in anti-Black prejudice tended to oppose Obama at least in part because they dislike him as a Black person.
The radio show guest pointed out that if you asked people why the opposed it they would get into various details about the proposal having nothing whatsoever to do with the race of the president who proposed it. “They’re not lying,” she said. It just doesn’t occur to them that their implicit bias against black people might be influencing their opinion.
This little tidbit of knowledge has been rattling around in my head since then. You can know for sure that people are acting out of a specific motivation, they can tell you they’re acting on a different motivation, and they aren’t lying.
I find this idea absolutely fascinating. I am convinced that white America’s love of “small government” is to a significant degree a backlash against the civil rights movement of the 1960s. But most people who advocate for small government don’t see it that way.
I am convinced that the pro-life movement is to a significant degree based on a desire to control women’s sexuality and hold onto patriarchy. But the people who demonstrate in front of Planned Parenthood certainly don’t see it that way.
I am convinced that support for Donald Trump is now and always has been significantly motivated by white fear of a multiracial and egalitarian democracy. But the insurrectionists of January 6 don’t see it that way.
And in all these cases, they aren’t lying. People’s motivations really can be about X when they believe them to be about Y. Everywhere I look in American politics I see this. Entire movements and ideologies purporting to be about this or that principle are really about something else. And the something else tends to be something we don’t want to talk about. Or think about. Or face in any way.