The book will show that identity contingencies have a strong effect on standardized test scores, memory, comfort level, etc. This is an example of an identity contingency, something a person deals with because of a given social identity. 1 An introduction: at the root of identity 1Ĭlaude Steele first realized he was black when he learned blacks couldn’t swim at the neighborhood pool except on Wednesday afternoons.

(Incidentally, this makes a strong argument for affirmative action in certain cases.) Moreover, it proposes several steps we can take counteract these stereotypes. The book is very revealing, showing through many careful experimental studies how stereotypes have wide-ranging effects beyond our conscious awareness-for example, how just simply being in a society where there are stereotypes can depress academic performance of black students or math scores of female students. It seems an annoying daily accommodation, perhaps, an attempt to make whites feel at ease to grease the wheels of social interactions-unless we fully recognize the potential consequences of white dis-ease for black lives.These are my notes on Whistling Vivaldi: And Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us by Claude Steele. The incongruence between Staples’ musical choices and the stereotype of him as a predator were meant to disrupt the implicit, unexamined racist assumptions about him. Dangerous black men do not listen to classical music, or so the hope goes. It was a signal to the unvictimized victims of his blackness that he was safe. To counter the negative effects of white fear, he took to whistling Vivaldi.

An African-American man, Staples recounted how his physical presence terrified whites as he moved about Chicago as a free citizen and graduate student. The title of Steele’s book alludes to a story his friend New York Times writer Brent Staples once shared. Social psychologist Claude Steele’s book Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do revolutionized our understanding of the daily context and cognitive effects of stereotypes and bias. Ferrell, who was African-American, may have been too hurt, too in shock, to remember to whistle Vivaldi to signal he was a victim and not a threat.

Whistling vivaldi