The Dartmouth Scar Experiment

By W. F. Twyman, Jr.

And they are starting to listen to your audio book. They are up to the Green Book and traveling down South. R. was there during your presentation at UCSD. Yeah, she remembers you talking about the Green Book and traveling down South but there was no punch line, no racial horror. There was an expectation and people did not get the horror. — Morning Conversation with my Wife

In my life and for the most part, there has been no story arc of racial horror. I have never been lynched. I have never been murdered in a blaze of racism by a white cop. I know not the indignity of handcuffs, the feel of a crack pipe, the dishonor of a deadbeat Dad, the travails of an unwed young mother, the thrill of meeting a stick up man like Omar Little from the Wire in real life. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omar_Little

It is amazing that R. remembers my Black History Month presentation back in February 2014. That was ten years ago! And that her take away was I didn’t serve up a punch line of racial horror. There is a reason why I love the movie American Fiction so much. It is also telling that our friends reading the audio book are skipping the parts written by my co-author, Jennifer Richmond, and just reading my parts. My friend I. foresaw readers would not be interested in what a white woman has to say about race. On the other hand, my wife felt Jen was a better writer and moderated my extremism. If one is a hammer, the world becomes a nail. If one believes Blackness is Oppression, Nothing Else Matters, then Libertarianism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarianism#:~:text=Libertarianism%20(from%20French%3A%20libertaire%2C,liberty%20as%20a%20core%20value, classical liberalism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_liberalism, and traditionalism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditionalism_(perennialism) become extremism in need of moderation.

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The expectation of a racial story arc serving up a punch line of horror, pain, trauma, suffering and murder at the hands of an evil cop is interesting to me. Right now, it is rainy and chilly in San Diego. I have Dark Chocolate and my book Letters in Black and White: A New Correspondence on Race in America to the left of me. And my steady companion Freedom’s Lawmakers: A Directory of Black Officeholders During Reconstruction by Eric Foner is to my right.

Allow me to grab a warm blanket before continuing…

If we would understand race in America, we should understand the Dartmouth Scar Experiment. There may be no better way to understand the gap between what panelists and audience listeners expected from me at UCSD in February 2014 and what listeners heard. For a proper introduction to the Dartmouth Scar Experiment, consider one of the most important scars in my life.

Greene Elementary School was a formerly all-white school (two) miles from my home. I could no longer walk up the hill to school, which meant I had to ride the school bus. All my classmates were white, and my teacher was white. Was I prejudiced against my teacher and classmates? No, my mind doesn’t work that way. Even at the age of eight, I took people as they were. However, some of my white classmates were decidedly prejudiced against blacks, including me. I was called the N-word and racial slurs every day. I have repressed many of those details. Perhaps one day I might undergo hypnosis or therapy in an attempt to recover from the full trauma. Then again, maybe not.

Every life has an inflection point, and Greene Elementary School is where I had my epiphany, which I will take the liberty of sharing again. One day, the harassment got to me. I sat down on the playground and thought about the situation. Why were these kids tormenting me? Skin color had nothing to do with intelligence. I had had strong teachers like Mrs. Walker and Mrs. Taylor in my past. I had strong uncles, always opinionated, and always enterprising, and all black. The most important people in my universe — Mom, Dad, Grandma, and Uncles William Womack, Robert Daniel Twyman, and James Scott Twyman — were all black. I had lived on Twyman Road, named after my family, and we were all black. There was no correlation between intelligence and skin color. And in that moment, it hit me: these kids were dumb. They didn’t know better, and they were not intelligent. From that point on, I resolved to think of prejudiced people as unintelligent and thus not worthy of my soul, my spirit. That eight-year-old insight armored me for the years ahead and served me well. I could have turned toward resentment and hate and bitterness and self-destruction, but the womb of Twyman Road and Hickory Hill had steeled me well for the larger world. I was blessed.— Letters in Black and White: A New Correspondence on Race in America, pages 234 - 235

Now let’s talk about the Dartmouth Scar Experiment.

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The algorithms do not like the Dartmouth Scar Experiment. https://medium.com/@ShortReadsToday/the-dartmouth-scar-experiment-revealing-the-power-of-victim-mindset-dadd9462c001 When I goggled “Dartmouth Scar Experiment,” I pulled up 9 search results. It is a big universe, ladies and gentlemen. 9 search results. In comparison, “oppression” pulled up 120,000,000 search results. “Racism” returned 407,000,000 search results. “White Privilege” weighed in at 8,110,000 search results.

What might be going on in Google land? https://nyupress.org/9781479837243/algorithms-of-oppression/

Well, unlike the Google algorithms, I like the Dartmouth Scar Experiment. I am curious and I like to think about creative associations between different ideas. Dartmouth psychology professor Robert Kleck was curious about the the mindset of self-perception. If one perceived oneself a certain way, would this self-perception influence how one engaged the larger world? The question is a power drill into perception and reality. Might misperception result in misapprehension of reality?

So, what did Professor Kleck do in his 1985 experiment?

Professor Kleck secured the participation of a group of women. The women were told they were going to participate in a study about discrimination. A fake scar would be applied to the face of each woman. The woman would then go into a job interview and assess whether the interviewer treated the woman differently due to the scar. Each woman looked at herself in the mirror. Each woman saw the wicked scar. Pretty straight forward stuff.

But like the plot twist in a great novel, Kleck inserted a twist into the experiment. Just before stepping into the interview room, each woman had their scar touched up for effect by a mark up artist. In fact, the artist removed the scar. But the woman never knew the scar had been removed at the last moment. Their faces were pristine and pleasant to the eye as they stepped into the interview room.

Their minds, however, were conditioned. Only the disfiguring scar was on their mind.

When questioned about the interview experience, every woman reported discrimination due to the scar on their face. The interviewer looked at the scar. The interviewer lingered on the scar. Etc., Etc.

The powerful conclusion from the scar experiment was suggestion matters. Self-perception of a scar on one’s face led one to perceive oneself as scarred. And thus one believed others treated one as scarred, even though the scar was gone! The women believed they were discriminated against for something that did not exist. What was the take away message? One’s perception of oneself shapes one’s experience in life. One’s experience in life shapes one’s outcome. https://memoryholeshow.com/2024/02/28/ep-106-the-mind-prison/

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The Dartmouth Scar Experiment can be applied to race. If one teaches little black children Blackness is Oppression, Nothing else matters, hasn’t one scarred that child? Wouldn’t that child now see himself or herself as scarred? Wouldn’t self-perception influence how that child believes the world treats the child? And the scar need not be dogma and slogan words like Blackness is Oppression. Nothing else matters. The psychological scar inflicted could be other dogma like White Privilege, Microaggressions and Unconscious Racism.

And it is not just dogma and slogan words in the public square. What message does the Google algorithm communicate to me when I receive 407,000,000 search results for the slogan word “Racism” and 9 search results for a powerful insight into the psychology of self-perception? Do the algorithms want me to pledge fidelity to ideas of racism and oppression? Are scar studies about the creation of a victimhood mindset unwelcomed in Google land?

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I have a distant cousin in Virginia. We are of the same generation. He too knew the scar of public school desegregation in the fall of 1969. However, he seems incapable of moving on. Like the women in the scar experiment, he reports being discriminated against when, in fact, the world has moved on from 1969. I suggest he lacked the conditioning I had back in the day.

My prejudiced classmates in the fall of 1969 were unable to scar me. My family had done a great story job of modeling humanity for me. I was treated as a Golden Child since children were seen as the blessed future. Remember how Big Momma in A Raisin in the Sun lived for her daughter to become a doctor and her son to live his American Dream? That duty to achieve equaled life for me in my all-black known world from 1961 to the fall of 1969. Scars of inferiority due to race were a lost cause for me. My prejudiced classmates discovered the scars never took hold for me.

I want to be fair here and on this point of racial scars. Yes, the scars of race did not take hold due to family influences. And the scars of race did not implant themselves due to my discovering Blackness as Black Enterprise Magazine at Grandma’s house on Terminal Avenue. My distant cousin lacked those strong, family influences, so his mental psychology was more vulnerable to racial scars.

I also think genetics played a role as well. Everyone has a unique genetic make up. There are about 20,000 or so single-nucleotide polymorphisms or SNPS that make a material difference between individuals. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-nucleotide_polymorphism

I love genetics and how we are all unique individuals down to the level of our DNA. Could it be that my genetic composition played a role in repelling racial scars? Well, my curiosity lead me to request my gene report from Promethease Report. The service is fantastic for those who geek out on these matters. After reviewing my 20,000 or so unique snps, here are my observations:

Skin color is crazy overrated. At best, maybe six to nine snps account for one’s skin color. That’s it out of about 20,000 snps. It is not logical that we have overdosed on skin color as a way of understanding a person. If one wants to understand a person genetically, one is far better off studying the other 20,000 snps. Social construction of race has no place in the world of 20,000 snps.

Every individual is a unique genetic creation. Other than identical twins, we all are genetic strangers to one another.

My big deal risk factor is not racism (laughter and more laughter). When the chips are down, dear readers, I had better watch my prostate. (Maybe one day, I will pen an essay titled My Prostate and Me). I have a 6x increased risk for prostate cancer. See rs6983267. https://worldwidescience.org/topicpages/c/cancer-associated+snp+rs6983267.html Let’s just say I care more about my upcoming urologist consultation than unconscious bias training/smile.

As a young podcaster loves to say, I am keeping it real y’all!

After dislocating my shoulder last year, my doctor reminded me arthritis stalks me like the grim reaper. My Uncle Robert Daniel had arthritis to the point where he just sat in his chair rather than move. My Grandma had arthritis. My Dad has arthritis. I don’t want to have arthritis but my genes are my reality. My genes are not a social construction. https://www.snpedia.com/index.php/Rs6457617 My risk is 5x for rheumatoid arthritis.

On the plus side, I came into the world with genetic assets. I have an abnormally large hippocampus which means I could devour books and brought the memory of an elephant to the classroom. This asset was not race-based or a social construction. My snps combined in my mother’s womb and created the right combination of alleles. If a less intelligent prejudiced third-grader was calling me racial slurs and I knew I could read circles around my tormentor, I was prone to use intelligence as my narrative framework and filter for understanding the world.

Another genetic plus is optimism and positivity. I have the snps and alleles that hardwire me for seeing the bright side of things. Once again, this asset is not race-based. Nor is it social construction. It is simply how my genetic recipe for life came together in October 1960. And this is an important point. Neither the fact that the world was racially segregated nor that I lived on a road where everyone knew my family mattered. How genes, snps and alleles combine at conception is pure chance.

So, racial disparities don’t advance our understanding of the world so much. We should invest more time and resources into how, and why, certain genetic assets come about and how certain genetic liabilities come about in individuals. Don’t fixate on the group so much. Focus on the individual genome. Why do some bear racial scars who are born in the most privileged generation and others conceived in the Jim Crow South treat prejudice like the rain? One puts up one’s umbrella and keeps on walking, to quote pioneer black law firm partner Vincent Cohen.

It continues to rain this morning in San Diego.

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Surely, I must have some racial scar that has never healed? Some wound inflicting trauma which haunts me to this day? We as your readers want the punch line, the racial horror, the high tech lynching!

For those who must receive my trauma to believe I am authentic and not fringe, here is my best offering to the Gods of the race story. Here is my story of crawling through the muck to paraphrase Ada Akpala. Behold, my greatest tale of pain, suffering and trauma that haunts me to this day:

And remember Julie, the signer of my yearbook? I eventually mustered up the courage to ask her out on a date. Julie said she had to ask her dad. Her dad said no; Julie could not go out with me because I was black. This rejection was not so much a watershed racial event for me but an inflection point. Julie’s dad’s “no” told me that, no matter how much promise I had in life, it would not matter to Julie’s dad. Only race mattered to Julie’s dad. I still remember that racial rejection to this day. — Letters in Black and White. p. 158

I feel an impulse to use Julie’s last name but what would be the point fifty years later? Time has moved on. We have moved on. The New South has moved on. I have lived a good life. I have loved and been loved. The greatest of children are mine.

So, why is rejection by Julie’s Dad the intractable memory? The young me in high school was a good kid with lots of promise. Shy and introverted and highly sensitive, I was vulnerable to emotional wounding. Julie was tall, red-haired with freckles and dimples. And she played basketball which I did not. She was white and I was black and we were living the New South in junior and senior high school. Did not matter to Julie’s Dad. I did go out to a play on a date with another white girl, Angela. But Angela was just a stand in for my real crush, the red-haired Julie.

Anyway, I have moved on. I have no stories of evil cops, drug dealers, prostitutes, or drive by shootings to provide a racial arch to my life story. I have a memory of Julie. If you read this essay, Julie, time has moved on. If we had grown up in a different place and time, who knows? But life has been good for me and I wish you the same.

I hope you got your dreams.

Conclusion: As I woke up this morning, I questioned my wife about her Book Club and the movie American Fiction. How did they perceive the movie? Did they see brilliance in the different endings? Did it rise to the level of A Raisin in the Sun? I expected interesting observations about whether the movie met its potential. What I did not expect was a take on my book and memories from a long ago Black History presentation in February 2014 at UCSD. The more things seem to change, the more they stay the same.

Like the novelist character Monk Ellison in American Fiction, people expected an arc to my life story rooted in race pain. It was the gap between expectations and reality that caused the black professors at UCSD to lose their collective minds. Systems and structural disparities have not ruled my life. My close family and closest of friends have channeled my life. The roll of the genetic dice has mattered to me in ways I may not fully comprehend.

I saw myself in Monk because I have encountered caricatures and stereotypes in the larger world. The biggest heartbreak for me in the world of race has not been abstractions. Nor has it been being too Black for some, too White for others. It has been accepting that Hollywood does not get the small-town kid from Chester, Virginia in the 1970s. For once, producers and directors, creatives and screenplay writers and novelists, how about an American story of young, fragile teenaged kids in the New South, the red-haired, freckled girl who plays basketball and the black politico nerd who could not play basketball to save his soul? I’m not talking Dr. Zhivago set in the Russian Revolution by Boris Pasternak.

I’m talking attraction born out of difference in a school that never knew segregation in a larger world suffused with memories of the way the racial world is, must be. Two rebels drawn to each other as the outside world draws the innocents apart. I would watch that movie with profound feeling.

https://medium.com/illumination/decoding-the-song-thats-the-way-of-the-world-by-earth-wind-fire-84468c67ddbd

Julie