PERSPECTIVES OF INTERRACIAL DATING AT A PREDOMINANTLY WHITE UNIVERSITY

This study examined the viewpoints and experiences of college students with regard to interracial dating. Thirty-five black students and 35 white students in attendance at a predominantly white university participated in face-to-face interviews. Black men and white women expressed more favorable attitudes toward interracial dating compared with black women and white men. Some white females downplayed the significance of interracial relationships, going so far as to suggest it is a nonissue, apparently unaware that it is an issue of concern to many students, especially black females. The concept of white privilege is discussed as an explanation for white students' perspectives. Students who dated interracially faced social consequences, including negative reactions from peers and family members. Findings reveal that the dating landscape differs for students based on their race and gender. In particular, the dating pool appears to be limited for black females at the institution under study.     

Racial Attitudes in the Deep South: Persistence and Change at the University of Alabama, 1963–2013*

Using data from a unique series of surveys collected between 1963 and 2013, this study examines racial attitudes among young white adults in the Deep South over a 50-year period. Repeated surveys of University of Alabama students in 1963, 1966, 1969, 1972, 1983, 1988, and 2013 measured racial stereotypes, support for racial segregation, and in the 2013 study, racial resentment and support for ameliorative racial policies. Analyses show that in the 1960s endorsement of racial stereotypes was a powerful predictor of support for racial segregation. By the early 1970s, racial integration became a reality in the Deep South and, paralleling broad trends in U.S. society, endorsement of racial stereotypes and support for racial segregation declined. Simultaneously, threats to whites' position in the form of ameliorative racial policies (including affirmative action) emerged along with racial resentment. By 2013, racial resentment, rather than racial stereotyping, was the primary determinant of white students' opposition to racial change. Our findings support Herbert Blumer's (1958) argument that racial prejudice exists in a sense of group position, and that it functions to preserve the advantaged position of the dominant group regardless of changes in the form that prejudice takes.     

Race and Politics: Predicting Support for 2016 Presidential Primary Candidates among White Americans

Using a sample of up to 859 white Americans in the United States, we examine how racial resentment, perceptions of discrimination toward majority and minority populations, white identity salience, and American identity salience influence support for five candidates running for President in 2016. Using data from the American National Election Studies 2016 Pilot Study, we find that racial resentment influences support for both Republican and Democratic presidential candidates, and white identity salience increases support for Trump and Clinton. Although policy issues, including the economy, health care, immigration, and terrorism, also shape attitudes toward political candidates, the effects of racial resentment and white identity salience persist. We conclude by arguing that America continues to be shaped by a white racial frame which views minorities as inferior and that this view is perpetuated through support for candidates who support white supremacy.     

Attitudes toward dating violence among college students in mainland China: an exploratory study

This study investigates attitudes toward psychological and physical dating violence among college students in mainland China (n = 245). The results of this study indicate that among our sample of college students in mainland China, men and women were relatively similar in their attitudes toward male perpetrated and female perpetrated physical dating violence and female perpetrated psychological dating violence. As has been found in previous research, men and women in our sample were more accepting of female perpetrated physical and psychological dating violence than male perpetrated physical and psychological dating violence. Finally, among several variables that predicted dating violence attitudes, shame emerged as a potentially important variable to include in future studies on dating violence in Chinese populations.     

Race differences in abortion attitudes: some additional evidence

Although Combs and Welch reported a trend of decreasing racialdifference in abortion attitudes, Hall and Ferree used datafrom the 1982 General Social Survey to argue that racial differencewere not declining. This paper updates this debate through the1988 General Social Survey and concludes that racial differenceshave indeed declined over time. Morever, when new religiousitems introduced in the 1984 survey are included in the multivariateanalysis, blacks are not significantly different from whitesin their support of legal abortion. This finding obscures amore intersting pattern, however, of offsetting, statisticallysignificant racial differences among respondents of the samegender—black men are significantly less supportive ofa abortion than white men, and black women are significantlymore supportive than white women.     

Applying critical race theory in social work education in Britain: pedagogical reflections

ABSTRACT

This paper draws on personal experiences of teaching white British and Black African students on a social work Master’s course in England. In this paper, I critically discuss the fire at Grenfell Tower in London (14 June 2017) and how it served as a pedagogical tool to open up critical discussions among students about racial in/justice, intersectionality and neoliberal racism. I also explore how Black students were enabled to share their experiences of immigration, racism, and racial inequality in Britain as part of these discussions. Inviting personal experiences of race in the classroom can be highly emotive; but, as this paper shows, these voices can also highlight institutionalized racism and provide a way for Black and ethnic minorities’ histories to be told and learned. These histories matter and can develop student consciousness about racial inequality for pursuing a social agenda. They also challenge claims that Britain is now a ‘post-racial’ society. Using Critical Race Theory (CRT) provided a way to counter such claims and critique my ‘whiteness’ and socio-economic class in my teaching, as well as challenge the neoliberal ideologies and structures that reproduce and mask ‘white privilege’ and racial injustice in Britain today.     

“Gay Equals White”? Racial,Ethnic, and Sexual Identities and Attitudes Toward LGBT Individuals Among College Students at a Bible Belt University

While past research has certainly explored a variety of correlates of attitudes toward lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals, the current study is among the first in an emerging line of inquiry that examines attitudes toward each of these groups separately utilizing an intersectional framework with special attention to racial, ethnic, and sexual identities. Using a college sample of students from the Bible Belt of the United States (N = 1,940), I investigated the roles of racial and ethnic identities (Caucasian/White, African American/Black, Asian/Pacific Islander, Native American/Alaskan Native, other race, and Hispanic/Latinx), religiosity, patriarchal gender norms, parental perspectives, and the intersections among these identities and experiences as they relate to attitudes toward LGBT individuals among heterosexual (n = 1,551) and LGB respondents (n = 389). This moves beyond explorations of White heterosexual people’s attitudes about “homosexuals” (i.e., away from a focus only on gayness and Whiteness) and expands to include non-White LGB people’s LGBT attitudes. Overall, results indicate that racial, ethnic, and sexual identities play a significant role in southern college students’ LGBT attitudes, and these patterns are further complicated by interacting cultural experiences with religiosity, patriarchy, and family dynamics. Campus policy and program implications are provided.     

Acculturation and sexuality: investigating gender differences in erotic plasticity

The contention that women are more erotically plastic than men is supported by a significant body of data, from which it has been inferred (Baumeister, 2000) that female sexuality may be more flexible and more heavily influenced by contextual factors than that of men. As a direct test of erotic plasticity, the present study investigated the extent to which acculturation was associated differentially (as would be predicted by the theory of greater female erotic plasticity) with the sexual attitudes and experiences of 111 college men and 167 college women. For sexual attitudes, main effects were found for gender, acculturation level, and ethnicity. Women endorsed more conservative attitudes than men, less acculturated individuals endorsed more conservative sexual attitudes than the more acculturated group, and Asian Americans had the most conservative sexual attitudes. For sexual experience, a main effect was found for acculturation, with the more highly acculturated group reporting a greater variety of sexual experiences than the less acculturated group. There were no gender-by-acculturation interactions. This study thus did not find support for the theory of female erotic plasticity, insofar as the impact of acculturation on a sample of ethno-culturally diverse college students.     

Gender roles and scholastic performance among adolescent Vietnamese women: the paradox of ethnic patriarchy

The author argues that Vietnamese patriarchal views regarding gender roles have led to greater educational advancement among Vietnamese women as compared to men in the US. Data for this study were obtained from the 1990 census and from interviews in 1994 at two high schools located near a Vietnamese community and at a public high school for honor students. The survey sample included 402 Vietnamese students from the three schools. The sample was 90% of all Vietnamese students enrolled at these schools and 75% of high school students living in the neighborhood near the schools. Census data showed that Vietnamese women over age 25 were more likely than similarly aged men to have less than a high school education or a college education. The education gap between men and women declined among the population aged under 25 years. Among married men and women aged 16-24 years, there were few gender differences in the proportion of school drop outs. However, among the unmarried aged 16-24 years, young women were significantly more likely to be enrolled in college and were less likely to drop out of school. Among the sample student population, findings indicate that female students had significantly higher grades and spent more time on home work. Census reports reveal that women were more likely both to report the lack of plans for college and to report that college was very important to them. Fathers stressed the importance of obedience until marriage and achievement among daughters. Fathers expected daughters to advance educationally for a number of reasons. Mothers agreed with fathers that the education and employment of women was not a rejection of traditional Vietnamese values. Mothers believed that daughters would be increasing their potential resources by improving their educational status. Adolescent males held more traditional attitudes towards wives as mothers. Young women reported stricter social controls of behavior from parents.     

The Role of Contact and Information in Racial Attitude Change among White College Students*

While much research has been done on the determinants of change in prejudice among whites, relatively little is known about the process of change in contemporary racial attitudes, variously described as symbolic racism, laissez‐faire racism, or color‐blind racism. This article uses data from a sample of white college students to examine the impact of intergroup contact and exposure to information about racial issues on changes in contemporary racial attitudes and feelings toward blacks (a key component of prejudice), using Pettigrew's (1998) model of the process by which contact produces change in racial attitudes. Results provide support for Pettigrew's model, showing while contact is important in changing whites’ feelings about blacks, both contact and exposure to information about race are important predictors of changes in contemporary racial attitudes. A comparison of longitudinal and cross‐sectional models of contemporary racial attitudes suggests that contact, especially in setting with “friendship potential,” has an impact on attitudes both directly and indirectly, through providing avenues through which racial information can be obtained as well as by providing motivation to pay attention to it.     

People Like Us: Dominance-oriented Racial Affiliation Preferences and the White Greek System on a Southern U.S. Campus

Studying in-group affiliation preferences can be a valuable tool for understanding race relations in the contemporary United States. We draw on theories of social dominance and social identity to analyze racial attitudes, as measured by the Social Distance Scale, for a subset of black and white students at the University of Mississippi. While both black and white students expressed strong in-group preference, this preference was stronger for whites than for blacks, especially for white women presently affiliated or planning to affiliate with campus Greek organizations. Social dominance orientation, a measure describing whether social inequalities are accepted and justified, mediated the greater in-group preference of many whites, especially for intimate or high-power relationships. We discuss possible individual and institutional causes for the differences we observe, and we draw implications for understanding continued self-segregation both on- and off-campus in a society that implicitly, and sometimes explicitly, espouses “color-blind” ideals.     

Race/Ethnicity,Attitudes, and Living With Parents During Young Adulthood

Non‐White young adults are more likely to live with their parents throughout their 20s, more likely to return home after going away to college, and less likely to leave again after returning. Scholars have speculated that subcultural differences in attitudes toward marriage and family play a key role in generating racial/ethnic differences in rates of coresidence with parents among young adults. Data from the National Education Longitudinal Survey of 1988 (N = 11,228) were analyzed in order to test this hypothesis. Attitudes toward marriage and family were significantly associated with coresidence, especially among young men, but did not substantially account for racial/ethnic differences in living arrangements. Among young non‐White women and young Black men, higher rates of coresidence were related to differences from Whites in socioeconomic or marital status (and sometimes both) that were largely independent of differences in attitudes toward marriage and family.     

Sexual Orientation Differences in Whites’ Racial Attitudes

Historical and anecdotal accounts present a contradictory image of predominantly white lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer (LGBTQ ) communities in the United States: a unique celebration of racial and other forms of diversity, yet pervasive racial discrimination and exclusion that mirrors racism of the broader society. However, no study to date has compared the racial attitudes of white heterosexual and white LGB Americans. Using nationally representative data from the American National Election Survey 2012 Times Series Study, I investigate the effect of sexual orientation on whites’ racial attitudes in the domains of symbolic, color‐blind, and old‐fashioned racism. Compared to white heterosexuals, white LGB people hold more favorable attitudes toward black people, most notably in the domain of symbolic racism. On average, over 40% of sexual orientation gaps in whites’ racial attitudes is explained by white LGB respondents’ more liberal political ideology; their greater awareness of homophobic discrimination explains, on average, one‐fifth of these sexual orientation gaps. These findings suggest that white LGB racial attitudes must be examined at the intersection of their privileged racial and disadvantaged sexual identities.     

Correlates of Same-Sex Sexuality in Heterosexually Identified Young Adults

Currently, little is known about heterosexually identified individuals who nonetheless acknowledge same-sex interests. To address this shortcoming, the prevalence of same-sex attractions, fantasies, and experiences among heterosexually identified college students was examined, as well as differences between those who are exclusively heterosexual in their interests and those who are nonexclusive because they report some same-sex attractions or fantasies. Students (N = 243) at a large, Northeastern university completed an online survey providing information about their sexual orientation identity; same- and other-sex attractions, fantasies, and behaviors; and demographic, sexual history, and sexual attitudes variables. Compared to exclusive heterosexual women, nonexclusive women were more liberal in their political and sexual attitudes and had greater sexual experience. Nonexclusive men were virtually indistinguishable from exclusive heterosexual peers on assessed variables. Results are discussed in terms of implications for the nature and meaning of non-heterosexuality in contemporary Western society.     

Ethnic minorities' reactions to newcomers in East London: Symbolic boundaries and convivial labor

In much public discourse on immigrants in Western Europe, perceptions towards newcomers are discussed in relation to what white national majorities think. However, today, new migrants often move into places which are already settled by previous migrants. This article investigates the local experiences, perceptions, and attitudes towards newcomers among long-established ethnic minorities in an area which they have made their home, and where they predominate not just in numbers but also by way of shops, religious sites, school population, and so on. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in East London (UK), it looks at long-established ethnic minority residents’ attitudes towards newcomers from Eastern Europe, and how these are shaped by their own histories of exclusion. By bringing together theories on symbolic boundary making with the concept of “convivial labor,” it shows how experiences of stigmatization impact on perceptions of white newcomers, and how these perceptions are characterized by a combination of empathy and resentment.     

COMMUNITY INFLUENCES ON WHITE RACIAL ATTITUDES: What Matters and Why?

Tracing the roots of racial attitudes in historical events and individual biographies has been a long-standing goal of race relations scholars. Recent years have seen a new development in racial attitude research: Local community context has entered the spotlight as a potential influence on racial views. The race composition of the locality has been the most common focus; evidence from earlier decades suggests that white Americans are more likely to hold anti-black attitudes if they live in areas where the African-American population is relatively large. However, an influential 2000 article argued that the socioeconomic composition of the white community is a more powerful influence on white attitudes: In low-socioeconomic status (SES) locales, “stress-inducing” deprivations and hardships in whites' own lives purportedly lead them to disparage blacks. The study reported here reassesses this “scapegoating” claim, using data from the 1998 to 2002 General Social Surveys linked to 2000 census information about communities. Across many dimensions of racial attitudes, there is pronounced influence of both local racial proportions and college completion rates among white residents. However, the economic dimension of SES exerts negligible influence on white racial attitudes, suggesting that local processes other than scapegoating must be at work.     

The Effects of Traditional Family and Gender Ideology on Earnings: Race and Gender Differences

Despite increasing gains in labor market opportunities, women and racial minorities earn less than their white male counterparts. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, this study explores racial and gender variation in how family and gender ideology shape this wage gap. The findings reveal that traditional role attitudes reduce earnings for African American men, African American women, and white women. However, white women experience the largest threat to wages as a result of conventional gender ideology. Further, the number of children and the timing of childbearing are detrimental to black and white women’s earnings, while neither of these factors hampers men’s earnings.C. André Christie-Mizell, Department of Sociology, University of Akron, 258 Olin Hall, Akron, OH 44325-1905, USA; e-mail: mizell@uakron.edu.     

Willingness to participate in organ donation among black Seventh-Day Adventist college students

OBJECTIVE AND PARTICIPANTS: The authors studied a group of black and white Seventh-Day Adventist (SDA) college students (N = 334) to compare the power of religious socialization with racial socialization. METHODS: The authors compared the levels of willingness to donate organs between black and nonblack students in an availability sample. RESULTS: Black SDA college students were significantly more likely than white SDA students or SDA students of other races to perceive racism in the healthcare system and to believe that doctors would not make heroic efforts to save their lives if they knew they were organ donors; they were 66.9% less likely to donate organs than were white SDA students or SDA students of other races. CONCLUSIONS: Despite a common religion with a purposive indoctrination, the racial socialization of black SDA students exerted a stronger influence on willingness to participate in organ donation than did that of white students and students of other races within this religion.     

Racial/ethnic differences in body weight perception among U.S. college students

Objective: To examine racial/ethnic differences in weight perception by sex among U.S. college students. Participants: a national sample (N = 70,267) of college students selected from 2- and 4-year postsecondary institutions (N = 62) during the Fall semester from 2011 to 2014. Methods: This is a secondary data analysis using 4 years of American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment IIb data. Sex-stratified multinomial logistic regression was performed to investigate racial/ethnic differences in body weight perception. Results: Compared with non-Hispanic whites, non-Hispanic black men and women were more likely to underestimate their body weight (p < .01). Asian men and women were more likely to overestimate their body weight than non-Hispanic whites (p < .001). Conclusions: Weight-related interventions should take into account racial/ethnic differences in body weight perception.     

Body,dress and cultural exclusion: Experiences of Pakistani women in ‘global’ Hong Kong

Underneath a veneer of racial harmony and acceptance, racial discrimination is widespread at many different levels of life in Hong Kong, the so-called ‘global city’. For decades, some minority communities have lived with subtle but institutionalized and cultural discrimination permeating their existence. In recent years, social exclusion has been one of the important themes in policy debates in Hong Kong. It is increasingly recognized that there is a close relation between ‘ethnicity’ and ‘social exclusion’. According to our research on the life situation of the South Asian minority in Hong Kong, experiences of exclusion are common. This paper focuses on investigating dress as a form of cultural exclusion among Pakistani women in Hong Kong and how mainstream society constrains the bodies of its members through dress.