Racial and Ethnic Differentials in Idleness,Highest-Risk Idleness,and Dropping Out of High School

This research investigates three different indicators of at-risk socio-demographic conditions including dropping out of high school, being idle, and being in highest-risk idleness among non-immigrant persons aged 19–24. Using data from the 2000 US Census, our results detail the differentials in these characteristics for 30 different racial/ethnic groups that are further broken down by gender. The findings indicate a wide range in the prevalence of these at-risk socio-demographic conditions. Groups that tend to be the most at-risk in terms of these indicators include African Americans, Cambodians, Laotians, Native Americans, other Hispanic whites, and white Mexicans. With the exception of the other Pacific Islander and Thai, young women have lower high school dropout rates than do young men. However, young women are substantially more likely than young men to be idle which we define as not being in school, the labor force, or the military. After defining highest-risk idleness as never-married persons without children who are idle, however, the rates are slightly lower for young women than for young men.     

Racial Stratification and the Confederate Flag: Comparing Four Perspectives to Explain Flag Support

Recent events have brought attention to Confederate monuments positioned across the USA and polarized debates about their proper placement; however, prior research examining support for Confederate symbols is largely limited to white Americans. This study examines public support for the South Carolina Confederate flag using four perspectives of racial stratification—black/nonblack, combined race-ethnicity, ethnoracial pentagon, and nonwhite/white. Using data from two nationally representative surveys of noninstitutionalized US adults collected in 2000 and 2015 (n?=?7638), we identify associations between theories of racial stratification and Confederate flag stances. Multiple model fit indices indicate that the combined race-ethnicity theory of racial stratification best mapped onto public support followed by the ethnoracial pentagon and black/nonblack perspectives. The nonwhite/white model exhibited the poorest fit. Findings from logistic regressions showed that whites had significantly higher odds of supporting the Confederate flag compared to blacks and Latinos. Additionally, blacks had lower odds of flag support than Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, Pacific Islanders, and multiracial respondents. We argue that an overlooked aspect of Confederate monuments is their signified antiblackness demonstrated in this study by greater support for the flag among all nonblack racial-ethnic groups. Findings imply that prioritizing whites’ views in discussions of Confederate monuments offers an inadequate depiction of public opinion by race-ethnicity. Disaggregating views via the combined race-ethnicity measure highlights racial-ethnic variation in support of the South Carolina Confederate flag.

     

Understanding the role of schools in the Asian-white gap: a seasonal comparison approach

Asian Americans are the most highly educated racial group in the United States and are commonly heralded as the model minority for their high academic success. Nevertheless, previous research suggests that Asian Americans may face certain disadvantages in school settings. For example, Asian Americans’ academic advantage over non-Hispanic white students diminishes between kindergarten entry and the next several years of schooling. This study provides a closer examination of the educational progress of Asian American students compared to white students through a seasonal comparison approach. Using the Northwest Evaluation Association, we analyze reading and math scores for over 130,000 Asian American and white students in grades K-7 in approximately 675 public schools across the US. We find that Asian Americans have higher academic achievement than white students in general, but that these advantages are maintained primarily through faster rates of learning during the summer months. When school is in session, the Asian advantage either remains unchanged or shrinks, consistent with the view that some school processes undermine the educational progress of Asian American students relative to white students.     

Conflict, Consensus, and Coalition: Economic and Workforce Development Strategies for African Americans and Latinos

Any work toward racial equity in America will need to include strengthening the black–Latino coalition. While there are political and social tensions between these groups, much of the underlying issue involves real and perceived perceptions of economic competition, particularly the notion that immigrant Latinos undercut African American wages. We note that there is some evidence that immigrants pull down incomes of US-born unskilled workers—both black and Latino. We argue, however, that highly restrictive immigration policy will have minimal effects and erode collective political power; a superior alternative is working together to reduce high school dropout rates, raise the minimum wage, reintegrate ex-offenders, rigorously enforce antidiscrimination law, promote comprehensive immigration reform, and pursue community development. Such an analysis is gaining ground in grassroots efforts to build trust and forge policy coalitions between Latinos and African Americans.     

Remapping American-ness: Heritage Production and the Staging of the Native American and the African American as Other in 'Historyland'

The American tourism industry in the 1950s helped to produce certain notions of America, or what it meant to be American, at a time when these identities were in flux. Visitors to 'Historyland', an attraction that reconstructed a nineteenth-century Wisconsin logging town, could experience a living lumberjack community, as well as an 'authentic' Indian Village and a dining car restaurant with black waiters. The Native Americans and African Americans, by performing their 'historic' roles, were staged as examples of 'the other' which European American tourists could encounter, and against which they could define their own sense of American-ness.     

The Role of Historical Knowledge in Perception of Race-Based Conspiracies

We test the hypothesis that knowledge of historically documented, anti-black conspiracies affects perceived plausibility of new, anti-black conspiracies. In Experiment 1 (N = 78), African Americans and European Americans read about a current conspiracy aimed at undermining either African American or European American–elected officials. African Americans perceived the anti-black conspiracy as more plausible and the conspiracy informant as more credible than did European Americans. The difference in perception of informant credibility was mediated by recognition of historically documented, anti-black conspiracies. In Experiment 2, we manipulated European Americans’ (N = 105) exposure to information about historically documented, anti-black conspiracies. European Americans who learned about actual, past anti-black conspiracies perceived new anti-black conspiracies as more plausible than did European Americans who learned about race-silent conspiracies or who did not learn about conspiracies. To the extent that European Americans lack awareness of incidents of racism in US history, they are likely to underestimate the possibility that racism impacts contemporary events.     

The Relationship Between Skin Tone and School Suspension for African Americans

This study contributes to the research literature on colorism–discrimination based on skin tone—by examining whether skin darkness affects the likelihood that African Americans will experience school suspension. Using data from The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, logistic regression analyses indicated that darker skin tone significantly increased the odds of suspension for African American adolescents. Closer inspection of the data revealed that this overall result was disproportionately driven by the experiences of African American females. The odds of suspension were about 3 times greater for young African American women with the darkest skin tone compared to those with the lightest skin. This finding was robust to the inclusion of controls for parental SES, delinquent behavior, academic performance, and several other variables. Furthermore, this finding was replicated using similar measures in a different sample of African Americans from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. The results suggest that discrimination in school discipline goes beyond broad categories of race to include additional distinctions in skin tone.     

Food Stamp Program Participation Among Impoverished African Americans

This study identifies the characteristics of eligible African Americans who are not receiving food stamps. Secondary analysis of the American Community Survey focused on 14,443 African American citizens aged 18 and over who were living below the poverty line. Bivariate and logistic regression analyses were used to compare the 6,558 recipients of food stamps with the 7,885 non-recipients. Less than half of impoverished African American adults used food stamps in the previous year. Food stamp use was higher among females, younger respondents, and those who had not completed high school. FSP participation was associated with co-residing with children, receiving welfare benefits and reports of functional limitations. This study can inform food security activism and improved outreach to impoverished African Americans.     

Differences Between African Americans and Non-Hispanic Whites Utilization of Clergy for Counseling with Serious Personal Problems

There is a paradox in research on African Americans and non-Hispanic whites in the utilization of clergy. Research finds that African Americans have higher levels of religious service attendance and higher levels of contact with clergy. Research also finds that despite this, African Americans are less likely than non-Hispanic whites to seek out assistance from clergy for psychiatric disorders including depression and anxiety. The goal of this paper was to investigate race differences in the use of clergy for counseling for serious personal problems. It uses the National Survey of American Life. We find that non-Hispanic whites were more likely than African Americans to use clergy for a serious personal problem. The significant difference between African Americans and non-Hispanic whites appeared to be mediated by the fact that African Americans were more likely to have seen clergy in a religious setting and non-Hispanic whites were more likely to have seen clergy in other settings including hospitals.     

The Stigma of Privilege: Racial Identity and Stigma Consciousness Among Biracial Individuals

Racial identification is a complex and dynamic process for multiracial individuals, who as members of multiple racial groups have been shown to self-identify or be identified by others differently, depending on the social context. For biracial individuals who have white and minority ancestry, such identity shifting (e.g., from minority to white, or vice versa) may be a way to cope with the threats to their racial identity that can be signaled by the presence or absence of whites and/or minorities in their social environment. We examine whether stigma consciousness (Pinel in J Pers Soc Psychol 76(1):114–128, 1999; i.e., the chronic awareness of the stereotyping and prejudice that minorities face) interacts with the sociocultural context to predict social identity threat, belonging, and racial identification. Using experience sampling methodology, minority/white biracial individuals (27 Asian/white, 22 black/white, and 26 Latino/white) reported the racial composition of their environment, social identity threat for their component racial identities, overall feelings of belonging, and racial identification over a 1-week period. Results suggest that stigma consciousness predicts the extent to which biracial people identify with their white background and experience belonging in different racial contexts. We discuss racial identity shifting in response to context-based threats as a protective strategy for biracial people, and identity where participants’ sociocultural contexts and experiences with racial identity and threat differ as a result of their minority racial group or ascribed race.     

The psychosocial effects of Native American mascots: a comprehensive review of empirical research findings

ABSTRACT

Approximately 2,000 teams in the U.S. utilize Native American mascots, the majority of which are associated with schools. Across the nation there continue to be many intense conflicts over these mascots. Most conflicts focus on differences in opinion, rather than on the effects of these mascots. The purpose of this article is to provide educational decision-makers with a comprehensive review of research on the psychosocial effects of Native American mascots. This body of research suggests that these mascots generate undesirable effects. First, they are psychologically detrimental to Native American students. Second, for non-Native persons, they are associated with negative stereotypes of Native Americans. Third, these mascots undermine intergroup relations by increasing negative stereotyping of Native Americans. Lastly, supporters of these mascots are more apt to believe prejudicial ideas. We discuss these findings relative to broader societal contexts.     

Racial Differences Between African and White Americans in the Presentation of Borderline Personality Disorder

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is commonly thought of as a disorder of White females. Despite evidence indicating similar prevalence rates across races and genders, no study has examined the experience of BPD among ethnic minorities and how this differs from Whites. The affective and behavioral symptoms of BPD were studied in 17 African Americans and 27 White Americans with the disorder. Results indicated that African Americans experience greater affective intensity and emotional dysregulation, fewer self-harming behaviors, and more thoughts of interpersonal aggression than Whites. Differences in affective symptoms were accounted for by group differences in substance use and receipt of inpatient services, whereas differences in behavioral symptomatology persisted after adjusting for potential confounders. These findings suggest that not only is BPD not a disorder exclusive to White females, but that the experience of the disorder may differ substantially across races. Implications for future research and directions for developing culturally relevant treatments are discussed.     

Race and Ethnic Self-Identification Influences on Physical and Mental Health Statuses Among Blacks

We examine if commonly used distress measures, rates of psychiatric disorders, and chronic health conditions are affected by alternate measures of race-ethnicity for African Americans and Caribbean blacks. We examined two alternative self-identification measures to investigate if their influence might differ. A study on national household probability sample of non-institutionalized African Americans (n = 3,570) and blacks from Caribbean countries, who now live in the United States (n = 1,621), was conducted between February 2001 and June 2003, using a slightly modified version of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview. The method used to measure black race and ethnicity has influence on physical and mental health outcomes. The distributions of depressive symptoms are not affected, while the distributions of DSM IV disorders and chronic health conditions vary by race and ethnic self-identifications among the African American and Caribbean black populations. There are serious implications of using alternate measures of race-ethnicity on the distribution of physical and mental health morbidity among African Americans and Caribbean blacks. The conceptualization and assessment of race-ethnicity should be carefully considered when studying mental and physical health statuses and service needs in the American black population.     

The Socioeconomic Attainments of Non-immigrant Cambodian, Filipino, Hmong, Laotian, Thai, and Vietnamese Americans

Using recent American Community Survey data, this study investigates socioeconomic attainments of six ethnic groups of Southeast Asian Americans. Findings show that the educational attainment of Filipinos, Vietnamese, and Thai is higher than that of whites, while the educational attainment of Cambodians, Hmong, and Laotians is lower than that of whites. Regarding earnings, Southeast Asian American women are generally not disadvantaged relative to white women, but Southeast Asian American men tend to have lower earnings than white men after controlling for education and other demographic factors such as age, metropolitan residence, and region. We conclude that Cambodians, Hmong, and Laotians are the most disadvantaged groups among Southeast Asian Americans and that most Southeast Asian American male groups tend to be at least slightly disadvantaged in the labor market at least after controlling for metropolitan residence and region.     

Discrimination and Help-Seeking: Use of Professional Services and Informal Support Among African Americans,Black Caribbeans,and Non-Hispanic Whites with a Mental Disorder

This study used data from the National Survey of American Life to investigate the use of professional services and informal support among African Americans, black Caribbeans, and non-Hispanic whites. Multinomial logistic regression was used to examine the association of race and perceived discrimination with the use of professional services only, informal support only, both professional services and informal support, or no help at all. Fifty-one percent of the sample used both professional services and informal support, 16% relied on professional services only, 20% used informal support only, and 13% did not seek help. Before controlling for other factors, African Americans and black Caribbeans were significantly less likely to receive either professional or informal help compared with whites. When everyday racial discrimination was included, racial differences in not seeking help were no longer significant. Household income also influenced the relationship between race and help-seeking. Other factors significantly associated with help-seeking include age, gender, education, employment status, insurance coverage, type and severity of disorder, and subjective closeness to family and friends. The association of these factors and implication of the findings for future research and mental health service delivery will be discussed.     

Socio-demographic Factors and Cancer Screening Among Foreign-Born Chinese,Cambodian and Vietnamese Women

Asian Americans are now the most rapidly growing minority group in the USA. Over 60 % Asian Americans in the USA are immigrants. Cancer has been the leading cause of death among Asian American women since 1980. Understanding the barriers to screening is essential to reduce the unnecessary burden of cancer. Little is known about cancer screening behaviors among foreign-born Asian women and how socio-demographic factors may influence these behaviors. Even less is known about disaggregated Asian subgroups. Using data from the Chicago Asian Community Survey, a local health assessment survey of three Asian subgroups in Chicago, Chinese, Vietnamese and Cambodian, this study found that breast and cervical cancer screening rates were much lower among foreign-born Asian women, 48 and 49 %, respectively, than the national rates for the general population, 72 and 83 %, respectively. Furthermore, we studied disaggregated data to determine cancer screening differences between communities. Findings from this study provide a critical evidence base to inform future research, policy and targeted interventions for Asian ethnic-specific populations.     

Teacher-Based Racial Discrimination: The Role of Racial Pride and Religiosity Among African American and Caribbean Black Adolescents

This study explored the extent to which private regard and religiosity beliefs serve as protective factors for school bonding among African American and Caribbean black adolescents who experience racial discrimination in school. Findings are drawn from a nationally representative sample of (n = 810) African American and (n = 360) Caribbean black adolescents (52% girls) aged 13–17 (M_age = 15, SD = 1.42) years. Results suggest that perceiving racial discrimination from teachers was associated with lower levels of school bonding for African American and Caribbean black adolescents. For African American adolescents, perceiving more racial discrimination from teachers and reporting lower private regard beliefs was associated with less school bonding. The findings for Caribbean black adolescents revealed that endorsing moderate levels of religiosity and perceiving higher rates of teacher discrimination was associated with less school bonding. The developmental significance and implications for future research are discussed.     

A test of racial conceptualization between African Americans and indigenous Africans

Studies were conducted to assess the significance of the concept of race in interpersonal attraction and self-identification comparing African Americans and native Ghanaians. An adaptation of the Bogardus Scale (1926) was used to measure interpersonal attraction. A self-identification questionnaire developed by the principal author was used to measure self-identification. The samples consisted of 366 native Ghanaians residing in Ghana and 113 African Americans residing in Northern New Jersey. The results show that when making judgments about interpersonal attraction to different ethnic and racial groups as well as in self-identification, African American respondents attributed more psychological significance to the concept of race than Ghanaian respondents did. Racial group membership and cultural kinships were strongly related to interpersonal attraction and self-identification for African American respondents. They attributed more significance to racial group membership in judging self-identification and interpersonal attraction toward other African Americans compared with other groups. On the other hand, in judging interpersonal attraction toward other groups, African American respondents attributed more significance to cultural reference factors than racial group membership. Ghanaians perceived nationality and cultural kinships as more significant than racial group membership in their reported interpersonal attraction to groups represented in this work Ghanaian respondents did not perceive racial group membership as a significant factor in making judgments about interpersonal attraction and self-identification.     

Seeking Help from Clergy Among Black Caribbeans in the United States

This study examined use of clergy for serious personal problems within a representative sample of US black Caribbean adults from the National Survey of American Life. Logistic regression analysis was used and confirmed the importance of problem type, church involvement, and nativity as correlates of clergy use. Findings for black Caribbeans indicate similarities, as well as important departures from prior research on the correlates of clergy assistance among African Americans. These and other findings confirm the position of black Caribbeans as a distinctive ethnic subgroup within the general black population in the United States.