Trouble I've Seen: Changing the Way the Church Views Racism

by Drew G. I. Hart

Payne and his research team began by exposing participants to either black or white male faces. (It is important to point out that the faces flashed on the computer screen so quickly that participants were unable to say that they had consciously seen them. But even when we can’t consciously see something, we can still be affected by it.) Immediately after participants were exposed to either a black or white face, they were swiftly shown a picture of either a gun or a tool. Unlike the faces, participants were able to consciously see the gun or tool. Payne asked participants to determine whether they had just been presented with a gun or a tool. He observed that when participants had been exposed first to a black face and then to a tool, they were more likely to mistakenly identify the tool as a gun than when they were exposed first to a white face