This particular bias was a combination of “invisible whiteness” and media bias in reporting: if three white teenagers are arrested for a crime, not only are news media much less likely to show their mug shots, but they’re less likely to refer to them as “white teenagers.” In fact, nearly the only time groups of teenagers were explicitly labeled as being “white” was in stock photography catalogues. But if three black teenagers are arrested, you can count on that phrase showing up a lot in the press coverage.
Many people were shocked by these results, because they seemed so at odds with our national idea of being a “post-racial” society. (Remember that this was in mid-2016) But the underlying data was very clear: when people said “three black teenagers” in media with high-quality images, they were almost always talking about them as criminals, and when they talked about “three white teenagers,” they were almost always advertising stock photography.
The fact is that these biases do exist in our society, and they’re reflected in nearly any piece of data you look at.
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