Race and Nation: How Racial Hierarchy Shapes National Attachments

We contend that the boundaries and nature of national attachments are shaped by the position of one's group within America's racial order, with higher status yielding more racially exclusive forms of identity. We test our claims in the realm of xenophobia. Using an original survey of African Americans (n = 1,000) and Whites (n = 1,000), we assess national pride, nationalism, nativism, and racial identity, plus affect toward various immigrant groups. We establish that national attachments have racially varied meanings, thereby producing sharp differences in each racial group's response to foreigners. Although national pride is unrelated to White antipathy toward outsiders, nationalism and nativism increase White hostility to immigrants—except when they are White. In contrast, national pride diminishes African American hostility to Black and non‐Black immigrants, while nativism is generally unrelated to Black antipathy to outsiders. Finally, while nationalism heightens xenophobia among Blacks, this sentiment envelops all foreigners—including African immigrants. We discuss our results' implications for theories of national attachment in intergroup settings.     

Reactions of African American Students to the George Zimmerman Trial: Co-Rumination and Thought Intrusions as Mediators

We document how prior experiences with racism, sequentially mediated by co-rumination about racial problems with a friend and thought intrusions, are associated with negative reactions to a racially charged event—the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman and the subsequent trial and acquittal of Mr. Zimmerman. African Americans’ prior experiences with racial discrimination predicted more co-rumination about racial problems with a friend. In turn, co-rumination was associated with more thought intrusions about the trial, leading to more negative affect and less forgiveness for Zimmerman. Co-rumination about racism and worrisome thinking about high-profile race-related events may amplify concern about racism for a frequent target of racial discrimination, lowering the threshold for negative psychological reactions to racist acts (including acts of violence) that may happen to other African Americans or to oneself.     

Racial Differences in Attributions,Perceived Criticism,and Upset: A Study With Black and White Community Participants

The primary aims of the current investigation were (a) to examine the relationships among attributions, perceived constructive and destructive criticism, and upset due to criticism and (b) to explore racial differences in mean levels of attributions, perceived criticism, upset due to criticism, and warmth in a community sample of Blacks and Whites (N = 272). The Attributions of Criticism Scale (ACS) was used to measure participants’ attributions regarding criticism from their relatives. No racial differences were found in mean levels of attributions or type of perceived criticism. However, Blacks were significantly less upset by perceived criticism from their relatives than Whites. When the relationships between attributions, perceived criticism, and upset were explored, results showed that positive attributions were associated with greater perceived constructive criticism and less upset due to criticism, whereas negative attributions were associated with greater perceived destructive criticism and more upset. Perceptions of relatives’ warmth were also associated with greater perceived constructive criticism and less perceived destructive criticism, but warmth was only related to less upset for Blacks and not Whites. Findings suggest that attributions and warmth play an important role in the perception of criticism and the extent to which individuals become upset in response to criticism from loved ones. Results also point to potential racial differences in mean levels of these variables and the associations among them.     

Visible minority applicant concerns and assessment of occupational role in the era of community‐based policing

Attempts to recruit minority officers are an integral component of community‐based policing initiatives in Western democracies. To better understand how to optimize these initiatives, 80 African‐Canadian police applicants were surveyed for perceptions of occupational role, career aspirations and obstacles to minority recruitment. Although service to the Black community was a high priority, applicants reported this goal as secondary to providing service regardless of ethnicity. Further, applicants reported they would be as effective policing the White community and more effective policing the Black community than their White counterparts. Racial prejudice on the part of police officers and society were viewed as the most significant obstacles to minority recruitment. Two tests of potential perceptual distortions indicated that applicants perceived African‐Canadian acquaintances to be more frequent targets of police discrimination than they were as individuals, and perceived themselves as relatively less alienated from the police than were the police from their group. Discussion focuses on obstacles to minority recruitment, the fit between applicants' attitudes and the demands of modern policing, and the potential impact of a more ethnically diverse force for police–minority relations. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Attitudes Toward Affirmative Action as a Function of Racial Identity Among African American College Students

Variations in support for affirmative action were assessed in a sample of 181 African American college students in Massachusetts. These students generally endorsed affirmative action, and endorsement varied positively as a function of the belief that one had personally benefited from affirmative action. Aspects of racial identity, indexed by the Multidimensional Inventory of Black Identity, also predicted variations in attitudes toward affirmative action, over and above background factors and personal benefit. Consistent with realistic group conflict theory, the most influential aspects of identity were centrality (i.e., the degree to which group identity is central to personal identity), private regard (i.e., pride in the group), and an oppressed minority ideology (i.e., a viewpoint that emphasizes the similarities between African Americans and other oppressed groups).     

Race-Based Stress in White Adults: Exploring the Role of White Racial Identity Status Attitudes and Type of Racial Events

The impact of racial experiences on Whites has been underresearched and has rarely been considered traumatic. To understand these experiences, it is important to consider variation in one's orientation to their racial group (i.e., racial identity) and the type of racial encounter. Using a White adult sample and hierarchical cluster analysis, the authors found that reactions to race-based encounters were associated with varying levels of psychological distress and well-being and racial identity statuses. Clinical implications are discussed. El impacto de las experiencias raciales en personas blancas no ha sido suficientemente investigado y en raras ocasiones ha sido considerado traumático. Para comprender estas experiencias, es importante considerar la variación en la orientación de cada individuo hacia su grupo racial (es decir, la identidad racial) y el tipo de encuentro racial. Usando una muestra de personas adultas blancas y un análisis jerárquico de clústeres, los autores hallaron que las reacciones a los encuentros raciales estaban asociadas a niveles variables de malestar psicológico, así como de estados de bienestar e identidad racial.     

Do Actions Speak Louder Than Words? A Comparison of Three Organizational Practices for Reducing Racial/Ethnic Harassment and Discrimination

We assessed the effectiveness of three commonly suggested organizational practices for reducing racial/ethnic harassment and discrimination (REHD): training; resources for reporting REHD; and implementation actions taken by leadership to reduce REHD. In a sample of 39,475 U.S. military personnel, we conducted dominance analyses to examine the relative contributions of these practices to REHD. Implementation contributed more to the prediction of REHD than did training or resources. Moreover, implementation moderated the effect of resources and training. This suggests that active leadership effort to address REHD can be 1 of the most effective means of reducing such behavior.     

WHITE PROTESTANTS AND BLACK CHRISTIANS: The Absence and Presence of Whiteness in the Face of the Black Manifesto

This essay brings Critical Whiteness Studies into liberationist Christian ethics in order to analyze white Protestant responses to the 1969 Black Manifesto, which demanded reparations from white churches. The essay's primary argument is that the absence of a sense of white moral agency among white Protestants manifested itself in behaviors and rhetoric that ensured whiteness went unacknowledged, which caused Protestant responses to the Manifesto to fail. A related argument is that white behavior and rhetoric were particularly dramatic because of the call for reparations. Reparations assume that race is a material relationship in which there has been a perpetrator and a victim, rendering the acknowledgment of white agency unavoidable. This essay thus analyzes several ways in which whites can be seen turning away from white selves, turning a scrutinizing gaze instead to Black selves and, in the process, absenting white agency from the work of racial justice.     

Effect of racial bias on composite construction

We investigated how prior bias about a face's racial characteristics can affect its encoding and resultant facial composite construction. In total, 61 participants (24 Europeans, 18 Indians living in India and 19 Indians living in Europe) saw a racially ambiguous unfamiliar face and were led to believe it was either European or Indian. They created a composite of this face, using EFIT6. Two groups of independent raters (one Indian, the other European) then assessed the apparent race of each composite. A different two groups (one Indian, one European) assessed each composite's degree of resemblance to the target face, to determine whether this was influenced by the constructors' initial categorisation of the target face as “own-race” or “other-race.” Composites appeared significantly more “Asian” or “European” according to the bias induced in their creators, but there was no evidence of any own-race bias in the resemblance ratings for the composites.     

The Disproportionality Dilemma: Patterns of Teacher Referrals to School Counselors for Disruptive Behavior

Disproportionality plagues schools nationwide in special education placement, dropout, discipline referral, suspension, and expulsion rates. This study examined predictors of teacher referrals to school counselors for disruptive behavior in a sample of students selected from the Educational Longitudinal Study 2002 (National Center for Education Statistics, n.d.). Findings demonstrated that students’ race predicted English teacher referrals; students’ gender, previous disciplinary infractions, and teachers’ postsecondary expectations for students predicted English and math teacher referrals. Implications for practice, policy, and research are discussed.