On race perception in Michigan

[rmeidaking]

In today's Detroit Free Press, there's an article on the arrest of Elias Abuelazam in the serial stabbing case. At the end of that article, there is this section

Comments

[maiac]

I've seen a couple of news reports that said the description and sketch didn't much resemble the suspect, and that such a nonmatch is often the case.

I'm expecting The Usual Suspects to fall into a different perception trap, and use this arrest as an excuse to shriek about Muslims wanting to kill us all -- even though, according to a couple of reports I've seen from non-U.S. news media, the suspect is a Christian.

[infant_phoenix]

From a cognitive psych perspective, perception is mainly about saturation levels

[novapsyche]

Cognitively speaking, in most areas of the United States, if a black person notices only that the person is not black, they will assume the person is white without thinking about it, because we are so saturated with the "black vs. white" paradigm.

I had not heard this before. Can you direct me to some sources/research regarding this concept? My education is in the sociological sciences, not psychology; however, I am quite familiar with neurological terminology. I would find such an avenue of thinking about the construct of race fascinating.

[infant_phoenix]

Research doesn't directly address this, as far as I know, but I made a logical conclusion based on what the research does support, which is that we have mental constructs for recognizing people around us based on what groups of people we are raised with and/or near.