Journal of Social Issues最新文献

A core tenet of Critical Race Theory (CRT) is an understanding of systemic racism as a defining and constitutive feature of the Eurocentric modern order. In contrast to this foundational insight, discussions in hegemonic social psychology tend to approach racism in a manner—specifically, as prejudice and individual bias—that abstracts the topic from social and historical context. We consider this proposition via an analysis of standard textbooks for undergraduate courses in social psychology. Our review reveals that standard textbooks do not include racism, per se, as a topic of investigation; instead, they tend to consider racism-relevant topics as specific cases of supposedly more basic (and therefore more general) processes of cognition or affect. We conclude the article by drawing on textbooks from South African settings and perspectives of decolonial theory (i.e., examples of social psychologies Other-wise) as resources to re-think hegemonic social psychology in directions that resonate more clearly with a CRT emphasis on the systematicity of racism.

Through a Critical Race Theory perspective, we investigated how racial ideology, in particular colorblind ideology, was present in Black forgiveness narratives for racial violence. We collected United States news articles from two high profile cases of Black forgiveness (N = 122), the shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church and the killing of Botham Jean. We used a thematic analysis to address an overarching research question of: In what ways are these Black forgiveness narratives reflective of racial ideologies that may pressure or misrepresent Black forgiveness? Our results suggested that colorblind ideologies were present in representations of Black forgiveness. Colorblind representations of Black forgiveness ignored and diminished the racial context of the cases, reinforced false equivalencies through Christian messaging, perpetuated Black forgiveness as a palatable path to peace, and maintained a perception of White virtue and morality despite racial violence.

This qualitative study integrates critical race theory to examine the practice of multicultural competence and the mechanism of discursive racism in the context of child welfare workers. We troubled the dominant paradigm of multicultural competence taken up by practitioners, and deployed discourse analysis on racial dialogue in a real-life setting to highlight how the multicultural competence approach risks becoming a form of colorblind racism that diminish the importance of structure racial power which we call race dismissiveness. In our findings we identified four distinct patterns of race dismissiveness that the practitioners adopted to deflect racial dialogue: race identity fetishism, racial peripheralization, racial erasure, and racial externalization. We argue that the separation between semantic expressions of multicultural beliefs and enacted racial practices needs to be conceptualized as a part of the discursive enactment of colorblind racism that functions to keep structural racism intact through everyday practice.

Advancing racial justice requires changes in White people's critical consciousness, including understanding the historical, material, and cultural conditions that have given rise to and maintain racism and White supremacy on individual, interpersonal, and systemic levels. To effect such changes, we need to better understand White people's current racial attitudes and their relation to anti-racist action. Consistent with the QuantCrit framework, this study explored White Americans’ (N = 531; mean age = 34.4; 60.8% female) racial attitudes using Latent Profile Analysis with indicators selected from measures categorized within four themes: empathic connection in cross-racial relationships, affective awareness of white privilege, blatant colorblind racial attitudes, and structural awareness. LPA resulted in four profiles based on patterns in participant responses to indicator items: Uncritical, Ambivalent, Incongruous, and Critical racial attitudes. Analyses of demographic differences between profile members indicated that participants with higher levels of critical racial consciousness were more likely to be women, trans, or non-heterosexual, and have more friendships with People of Color. Members of profiles with higher levels of critical reflection also had significantly higher scores on racial justice action outcomes.

When students of color transfer to Hispanic Serving Research Institutions (HSRI), they experience institutional barriers and stigmatization. Through 268 HSRI transfer students of color (TSOC) surveys and 12 interviews from four focus groups, we examined the role of stigmatization, campus relationships, and cultural strengths on TSOC's sense of belonging. Quantitative results showed greater stigmatization was associated with a lower sense of belonging, while stronger faculty and peer relationships and greater navigational and aspirational capital positively predicted a greater sense of belonging. Faculty and peer relationships mitigated the negative effects of stigmatization on sense of belonging. Qualitative results capture the intersectional marginalities experienced by our participants and how transfer receptivity was shaped by the prejudiced assumptions others have of TSOC, isolating white spaces, and a lack of transfer-specific resources. We highlight the importance of campus relationships and students’ cultural strengths in navigating the transfer landscape and make institutional recommendations to cultivate transfer receptivity.

The current study sought to understand the lived experiences of 10 formerly incarcerated Black and Latino men in an apprentice program for physical trainers using directed content analysis. Participants described a variety of microaggressions, including those representing known themes (e.g., assumption of criminality) and new (sub)themes (e.g., borrowed legitimacy). They also described new opportunities afforded to them by virtue of their involvement in the apprentice program and their newly found authority. Results indicate that formerly incarcerated men of color experience daily discrimination and re-entry challenges that may be destabilizing and contribute to recidivism, thus reinforcing the cycle of mass incarceration. The authors suggest further investment in tertiary interventions to buffer against the harmful effects of microaggressions, as well as further research with a critical race lens and primary interventions aimed at ameliorating the societal conditions that lead men of color to come into contact with the criminal legal system.

This critical discourse analysis compares the ways in which White and BIPOC college students discuss their experiences of an educational intervention meant to promote better understanding of systemic racism. We analyzed reflective writing produced by 11 White psychology students from a private liberal arts college in the eastern United States and 17 BIPOC students from a Human Services program at a public university in the western United States. White students engaged in whiteness discourse that distanced themselves from the realities of systemic racism and/or relieved the cognitive dissonance associated with the self- and group-image threat related to learning about systemic racism. In so doing, they unwittingly upheld white supremacy. BIPOC students, in contrast, engaged an antiracist discourse that employed critiques of the social systems that produce systemic racism and destabilized dominant colorblind narratives, often by drawing on lived experience. From the Critical Race Theory perspective that the centrality of lived experience is a legitimate lens through which to analyze racial subordination, we discuss the importance of attending to the action orientation and constructed nature of discourse in antiracist education.

Critical Race Theory (CRT) offers crucial insights into the persistence of racism. The theory also identifies the conditions under which White Americans will support policies aimed at redressing racial inequities. According to the tenet of interest convergence, White Americans will support policies aimed at redressing racial inequities when it serves their interests to do so; that is, when their interests converge with those of Black people. Here, we provide an experimental test of interest convergence in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Consistent with interest convergence, we find that White support for race-conscious policies aimed at redressing COVID-19 inequities increased when policies were framed as benefiting White people (i.e., a benefits frame). White support decreased when policies were framed as only benefiting Black people and was unmoved by a frame that accentuated systemic racism. Further, the impact of the benefit frame was not moderated by racial attitudes or political ideology. The results offer a sobering reminder that racial progress does not necessarily reflect shifts in White people's prejudice and consciousness, but rather shifts in their interests.

Moderated general linear modeling (MGLM) is a highly popular statistical approach in the social sciences, as it allows analysts to examine the separate and interactive effects of 2+ variables on a numerically-measured outcome. Despite correspondences between MGLM and intersectionality theory, interdisciplinary cross-communication is rare. Quantitative research can be strengthened when vetted through a critical race theory (CRT) framework. Also, qualitative intersectionality work can be complemented with statistics. To promote greater appreciation and usage of MGLM in CRT-informed psychological research, it is argued that readers, reviewers, and editors should familiarize themselves with the basics of QuantCrit. Have all variables been accurately measured? Has the dataset been properly structured? Have all statistical assumptions been met? What data tables and figures are reported? How are the results interpreted? This primer addresses these questions while minimizing MGLM technicalities. After covering the historical context of QuantCrit, data from a houselessness dataset are examined to demonstrate the QuantCrit protocols. Limitations of MGLM, as well as QuantCrit-based guidelines for reporting MGLM results, are discussed.