College Students' Racial Attitudes

Factor analyses of responses from white ( N = 260) and black ( N = 81) college students in two neighboring universities were utilized to develop contemporary measures of racial attitudes and of the degree of interracial contact experienced by blacks and by whites. Two sets of 112 attitudinal statements were utilized for the initial factor analyses, one set for black respondents and one for whites. About 60% of the items in the two sets were identical or the same except that the racial designations were reversed. Two 20-item racial attitude scales were derived from the factor analyses, one for blacks and one for whites. For students of each race, scores on the attitude measure showed a weak but significant relationship with a 16-item self-report scale of amount of interracial contact experienced, past and present. The relationship of these scales to earlier racial attitude measures (symbolic racism, modern racism, the MRAI, value rankings) were assessed. Second-order factor analyses suggested that the black students' racial attitudes were more heterogeneous than were the white students' racial attitudes. In general, black respondents tended to show more support than whites for programs designed to increase opportunities for, and recognition of, blacks. Black students also tended to endorse a greater degree of social distance between the races than white students did. The pattern of relationships between racial attitudes and sociopolitical issues differed for whites and blacks.     

Nursing career choice and Holland's theory: Are men and blacks different?

Professional nurses are overwhelmingly white and female despite lowered race and sex barriers to entry. In a study to examine race and sex differences in personality profile among nursing students, the Self Directed Search was administered to students entering baccalaureate nursing programs. The results generally supported Holland's typology. Race and sex differences in SDS codes were not significant; some differences were found in socioeconomic characteristics. The results provided some clues for effective vocational counseling and recruitment of men and blacks.     

WISC-R and K-ABC comparison for matched samples of black and white children

The present study examined the performance of matched pairs of black and white fourth and fifth grade males and females on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R) and the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC). A total of 86 whites (40 males and 46 females) and 86 blacks (40 males and 46 females) were individually matched on age, gender, school, and socioeconomic status. The scores are as follows: the mean WISC-R Full Scale IQ (FSIQ) for blacks was 92.3 (SD=11.6) and for whites was 101.3 (SD=11.6) and the mean K-ABC Mental Processing Composite score (MPC) for blacks was 91.5 (SD=10.1) and for whites was 97.5 (SD=10.6). These findings suggest that black children will likely earn very similar WISC-R FSIQ and K-ABC MPC mean scores. Additionally, Kaufman and Kaufman's conclusion that use of the K-ABC reduces the difference between black and white levels of intelligence by one half in comparison with values found using the WISC-R was not supported.     

black concern with behavior modification

In this article two black psychologists and a white educator explain why the black community should be concerned with and actively involved in behavior modification practices. It is pointed out by use of the Tuskegee study how blacks were used as subjects in a behavior modification study long before these practices became popularized. The concerns specified were that (a) blacks have been and are being used as subjects in behavior modification studies with and without their consent and (b) social value judgments are being made concerning behaviors of blacks without their input. Alternatives are offered for increasing the number of black professionals in the field of behavior modification to help preserve the integrity of the black community.     

Sterba on Affirmative Action,or, it Never was the bus,it was Us!

Professor Sterba argues for two interesting and provocative positions regarding affirmative action. First, affirmative action programs are still needed to ensure diversity in educational institutions of higher learning. Secondly, the proponents and opponents of affirmative action are not as far apart as they seem to think. To this end, he proposes a position that would give weight to race as a category for affirmative action that can withstand the challenges of affirmative action opponents while giving the needed support for affirmative action proponents. It is his contention that both sides can support arguments for diversity affirmative action. This paper raises concerns about the ability of arguments for racial diversity to resolve or bring together opponents and proponents of affirmative action. It is argued that the negative social climate, regarding the social and intellectual merits of black Americans, works against the acceptance of affirmative action programs. In sum, it is argued that Professor Sterba’s position continues to put the social onus of changing racial attitudes on blacks with little or no effort on the part of whites other than allowing blacks admittance to formerly segregated educational institutions to interact with white students.     

Applicant Race, Job Status, and Racial Attitude as Predictors of Employment Discrimination

It is important to understand why biased employee selection occurs in the workplace. We examined applicant race, job status, and the evaluator's attitudes toward blacks as possible predictors of unfair selection decisions. After completing an attitude toward blacks scale, one hundred and eighty-one people evaluated the qualifications of either a black or white applicant for either a high or low status job. Results showed no differences in the hiring decision. However, evaluators with more negative attitudes toward blacks reported greater confidence in their decision to hire the black applicant than the white applicant for the low status job compared to the confidence of evaluators with more positive attitudes. They also reported greater confidence in their decision to hire the white applicant than the black applicant for the high status job as compared to evaluators with more positive attitudes towards blacks. We observed the opposite results for less biased individuals. Evaluator ratings do not explain these findings. These data suggest that unfair discrimination may operate in subtle ways.     

RACE AND SEX DIFFERENCES IN SEX ROLE ATTITUDES OF SOUTHERN COLLEGE STUDENTS

A sample of southern college students is used to investigate race and sex differences among nine Likert-type sex role attitudes. Results show that black and white men share a similar sex role orientation while black and white women also share a similar world view. There were only two instances where blacks were notably different from whites. First, blacks were more likely to feel that a woman's real fulfillment in life comes from motherhood, and second, blacks were more likely to feel that it was appropriate for a mother with school-age children to work.     

Black suicide in the seventies: current trends.

In the most recent decade, the suicide rate among young blacks has risen to the point where it is nearly as high as that of their white peers. The data in this analysis reflect the striking contrast in age distribution in the suicide patterns of whites and blacks. Whereas white suicide increases in direct relation with advancing chronological age, suicide among blacks reaches its peak in the youthful years. Current statistics fail to reflect a "dramatic" or significant increase in the suicide rate of black women. Contrary to popular belief, black men in their twenties represent the most suicide-prone group. Young black males have been committing suicide at a steadily increasing rate during the past six years. Regionally, black suicide rates are highest in the North and West and lowest in the South. White suicide rates reflect a slightly different regional distribution. The highest rates occur in the West and the lowest in the North.     

Southern Culture and Homicide: Examining the Cracker Culture/Black Rednecks Thesis

Recent scholarship traces the roots of southern violence to the Scots-Irish, who brought a relatively violent “cracker culture” with them to the United States in the eighteenth century. The tolerance for violence inherent in cracker culture was believed to be transmitted throughout the south to other whites and was maintained, in part, through evangelical Christian doctrine. Moreover, Thomas Sowell (2005) recently argued that some southern blacks were also influenced by “cracker culture,” leading to the emergence of a “black redneck” phenomenon influencing homicide among blacks. Using county-level data circa 2000, this study empirically evaluates the merit of the cracker culture/black redneck thesis. Negative binomial regression analyses for a full sample of counties suggest that a measure of southern cracker/black redneck culture is an important factor affecting contemporary rates of argument homicide among both whites and blacks. When counties are divided into south and non-south sub-samples, the results are also consistent: a cracker/black redneck culture effect is evident for both racial groups in the south, and is also apparent outside of the southern region. We interpret these latter findings as possible support for the thesis that southern cracker/black redneck culture has been transported through migration to non-southern localities.     

Black-White Semantic Differences and interracial Communication1

In Phase I, black and white adolescent males made semantic differential ratings of 14 concepts representing a wide range of values. MOTHER, FATHER, GIRLS TV, GOD. POLICE. and NEXT YEAR yielded profiles significantly different for the 2 racial groups. In Phase II, 28 blacks and 28 whites each attempted to decode the profiles of 1 black and 1 white other. For combined racial groups, accuracy was greater when the other was semantically similar. Disregarding semantic similarity, accuracy was greater when the other was of the same race. Semantic similarity made little difference, however, when both encoder and decoder were black. Whites excelled in decoding the profiles of other whites where concepts were commonly encoded by both racial groups, while blacks were more accurate intraracially where concepts were differentially encoded by the 2 racial groups. Results were related to the assumption of a standard set of meanings for whites and a standard-nonstandard dual system for blacks.     

An exploratory study of the draw-a-person as a measure of racial identity.

The race of the figure drawn on the Draw-A-Person Test is proposed as a measure of acceptance of racial identity. Reliability and validity of this measure were explored in a two-part study. Part 1 confirmed the hypothesis that the race of the figure drawn is related to the race of the child producing the drawing. Comparison of the figures drawn by black (n = 157) and white (n = 167) children confirmed three other hypotheses based on the voluminous literature suggesting that black children are less accepting of their racial group membership than whites. These hypotheses were: (a) whites should be more likely to draw figures that are clearly white than blacks are to draw figures that are clearly black, (b) whites should be less likely to draw blacks than blacks are to draw whites, and (c) blacks should be more likely to avoid giving clear indication of the race of the figures they draw than are whites. Inter-rater reliability for the race of the figure drawn was .79. Five weeks after the initial drawing, a subsample of 28 black children drew a second figure and performed a picture choice task designed to assess acceptance of racial identity. The race of the figure drawn showed a test-retest reliability of .53 and correlated significantly with the other measure of racial identity (r27 = .39).     

Opportunities for blacks in engineering—a third report

Engineering colleges and recent black graduates were queried on the current status of blacks in engineering and engineering technology. Blacks are decidedly underrepresented in engineering and in engineering technology, while their employment opportunities in these fields are apparently better than those for whites. Some college and technician school deans and administrators are critical of guidance for blacks regarding engineering.     

Academic Achievement and Self-Esteem Among Black and White College Students

Abstract

Most studies on self-esteem among black and white Americans include samples of elementary school and high school students. In the present study, data on 298 black and white college students and an examination of the relationship between student's grade point average and self-esteem were presented. Several findings corroborate earlier research on school-age children. Self-esteem scores of blacks and whites were not significantly different, despite blacks having significantly lower grade point averages than whites. The relationship between grade point average and self-esteem, however, was negligible among blacks and among white males, suggesting that academic achievement is not critical to the self-concept of college students.     

Socialization and career orientation among black and white college women

In a study of career orientation among black and white college women, support was found for hypotheses derived from postulates of Rotter's Social Learning Theory. Compared to whites, (1) blacks were less likely to expect the level of work involvement preferred; (2) blacks expected more employment; and (3) blacks were more likely to prefer less employment than they realistically expected. Antecedents of career expectation were categorized as internal, external, or neutral. As hypothesized, variables expressive of external control predicted level of career expectation among blacks, whereas variables expressive of internal control predicted high career expectations among whites.     

JOB ORIENTATION OF BLACK AND WHITE COLLEGE GRADUATES IN BUSINESS

Differences in job orientation between black and white male and female business college graduates were examined. Significant race differences were found on 10 of 25 job characteristics, with blacks rating 9 of these more important than whites. Significant race by sex interactions exist on four characteristics, while sex differences were found on nine. Factor analysis indicates that blacks value long-range career objectives and structure considerably more than do whites, while their preference for intrinsic and extrinsic factors was less pronounced. Methods by which organizations can satisfy the greater importance placed on many job characteristics by blacks are explored.     

Interracial contact and changes in the racial attitudes of white college students

College campuses are among the most racially diverse settings in our segregated society. For many students, especially non-Hispanic whites, college represents the first time they have come into significant contact with members of other groups. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Freshmen, this paper explores the effects of campus diversity and various types of interracial contact on the racial and ethnic attitudes of white students over the course of four years in college. The findings are largely consistent with the contact hypothesis, particularly with respect to changes in attitudes towards blacks. White students who report having a close friend who is black and those who have dated or had a romantic partner who is black express less social distance towards blacks in their senior year, as do white students who were involved in extracurricular activities in which blacks are the majority. Participating in extracurricular activities dominated by blacks is also associated with more positive views of the impact of affirmative action on academic standards expressed as students were leaving college. Although there is evidence that both stereotypes and social distance towards groups are mitigated by intergroup contact, stereotypes appeared to be somewhat more resistant to change. The findings suggest that institutions should continue efforts to diversify their student populations, and also promote involvement in extracurricular activities for students from all groups.     

On the Origin of Concept of “Intersectionality” in Criminology: The Civil Rights Movement and the Rise of “Scholarship of Confrontation”

ABSTRACT

“Intersectionality” has been a key theory in feminist criminology. However, its origin remains disputed. Some have argued it was produced by black feminists in the 1980s. Others have said it was produced by black women in nineteenth-century. The argument of this paper is that it emerged in the 1960s and became popular in the 1970s. It will demonstrate that the key causes of its emergence were the increasing popular concern with the socioeconomic plight of blacks in those decades, and blacks’ discontent with the American academia and their rejection of mainstream theories that were used to explain their socioeconomic plight     

Screening for Psychopathology in Groups of Black and White Prison Inmates by Means of the MMPI

Of 225 male offenders who were administered both the MMPI and a structured diagnostic interview, the Psychiatric Diagnostic Interview (PDI), 51 (25 blacks, 26 whites) earned highly elevated MMPI profiles (at least one clinical scale<T score of 90) and 46 (26 blacks, 20 whites) achieved profiles that were essentially within normal limits (all clinical scales < T score of 70). It was noted that the concordance between the MMPI and the total number of PDI syndromes reported by inmates was significantly greater in the white group (classification accuracy = 96%) relative to the black group (classification accuracy = 71%). However, both the black and white hit rates were found to significantly improved upon chance.     

The Role of Socioeconomic Status in SAT-Grade Relationships and in College Admissions Decisions

This article examines the role of socioeconomic status (SES) in the relationships among college admissions-test scores, secondary school grades, and subsequent academic performance. Scores on the SAT (a test widely used in the admissions process in the United States), secondary school grades, college grades, and SES measures from 143,606 students at 110 colleges and universities were examined, and results of these analyses were compared with results obtained using a 41-school data set including scores from the prior version of the SAT and using University of California data from prior research on the role of SES. In all the data sets, the SAT showed incremental validity over secondary school grades in predicting subsequent academic performance, and this incremental relationship was not substantially affected by controlling for SES. The SES of enrolled students was very similar to that of specific schools' applicant pools, which suggests that the barrier to college for low-SES students in the United States is a lower rate of entering the college admissions process, rather than exclusion on the part of colleges.     

Screening for psychopathology in groups of black and white prison inmates by means of the MMPI

Of 225 male offenders who were administered both the MMPI and a structured diagnostic interview, the Psychiatric Diagnostic Interview (PDI), 51 (25 blacks, 26 whites) earned highly elevated MMPI profiles (at least one clinical scale greater than or equal to T score of 90) and 46 (26 blacks, 20 whites) achieved profiles that were essentially within normal limits (all clinical scales less than T score of 70). It was noted that the concordance between the MMPI and the total number of PDI syndromes reported by inmates was significantly greater in the white group (classification accuracy = 96%) relative to the black group (classification accuracy = 71%). However, both the black and white hit rates were found to significantly improved upon chance.