Without the existence of some form of ________, an individual's potential for racism remains largely dormant.

• A. Internal Motivation
• B. External Motivation
• C. Microaggressions
• D. Implicit Bias

Answer: (A)

Prejudice becomes racism in action when there is a personal drive to express or justify biased beliefs. This inner push, an internal motivation to express prejudice, is what moves latent attitudes from simply existing to being acted out. Without that personal impulse, biases—even if present at an unconscious level—tend to remain inactive or confined to thought; the individual may not translate them into behavior.

External motivation involves wanting to look good to others or avoid social sanction, which can influence actions but relies on external pressures rather than a personal endorsement of the bias. Microaggressions are specific subtle actions that can signal bias, and implicit bias refers to automatic associations that can influence judgments; neither precisely captures the internal drive to act on prejudice. The core idea here is that an inner, personal motivation to express prejudice is what largely determines whether the potential for racist behavior is realized.