Variability in the Inter‐group Attitudes of White Children: What We Can Learn from Their Ethnic Identity Labels

The current study examined the ethnic identity of White (N = 120), Latino (N = 87), and African‐American (N = 65) children and early adolescents (aged = 9–14 years), with an emphasis on whether the specific ethnic label White children used to describe themselves might reflect differences in their inter‐group attitudes and whether those differences mirror group differences between White children and children in ethnic minority groups. Results indicated that White children who identified with a minority label (i.e., White biracial, hyphenated American, ethnic/cultural/religious label) had more positive ethnic identities, were more aware of discrimination, and were less likely to show biases in their perceived similarity to in‐group and out‐group peers than youth who identified as White or American. In many instances, White children who identified with a minority label did not differ from ethnic minority youth. In addition, although all participants were more positive about their ethnic in‐group than out‐groups, children who identified their ethnicity as American were less positive about out‐groups relative to other children. Taken together, the findings indicate that children's self‐chosen ethnic identity is as important as their ascribed ethnic or racial identity in predicting their inter‐group attitudes.     

Race, Self-identity and Social Work

Correspondence to Dr J. Owusu-Bempah, School of Social Work, University of Leicester, 107 Princess Road East, Leicester LE1 71, A. Summary Many people seem to accept, as self-evident, the notion thatblack children harbour unfavourable cognitions about themselvesand their racial group, and that they would rather be white.The present study investigated the prevalence of this notionamongst social work students, and also the extent of the influenceof this view on professional practice. The study involved 102postgraduate social work students at two British Universitiesin separate regions of the country. The respondents respondedindividually to three randomly distributed vignettes, whichwere identical except for the racial/ethnic origin of the principalcharacters: a white child, a child of ‘mixed-race’parentage and a black child. The respondents were required toassess the causes of the children's behaviour, as well as theirsocial and psychological needs. The results were analysed accordingto the number of respondents who mentioned particular causesof the children's behaviour and particular courses of actionto meet their needs. The analyses revealed significant differencesbetween the respondents' perception and interpretations of thechildren's behaviour. The analyses also revealed that the childrenwere differentially treated according to their race or ethnicorigin. The results are discussed in the light of assumptionsabout black self-concept, mainly derived from the social scienceliterature. The implications of the findings for the socialwork profession, individual practitioners, and their black clientsare also highlighted.     

TRIOS: A Psychological Theory of the African Legacy in American Culture

TRIOS is comprised of attitudes, beliefs and values about time, rhythm, improvisation, orality and spirituality. It is proposed that TRIOS represents the cultural foundation of an African legacy for African Americans and provides a means of coping with slavery and various forms of racism over time. TRIOS is a model for the dual processes of self-protective and self-enhancing motivations for targets who must live in a universal context of racism. TRIOS is described as a context-dependent theory of being-in-the-world, as opposed to doing-in-the-world. Evidence for the origins of TRIOS elements in African and Caribbean culture is presented. A scale to measure TRIOS is described and evidence for racial/ethnic differences shows that African Americans score higher than other racial/ethnic groups. The implications of TRIOS for psychological well-being of African Americans and a wide array of future research questions are discussed.     

Backing Barack Because He's Black: Racially Motivated Voting in the 2008 Election*

Objective. If racial considerations influenced the outcome of the 2008 presidential election, then how did they shape the campaign, why did race matter, and for whom were such considerations important? I hypothesize that various racial attitudes exert unique influences on voters' support of Obama and that the effects of these attitudes differ by race. Methods. Using a Time Magazine poll, I distinguish between “attitudes regarding Obama's ‘Blackness’” and “opinions about race relations,” and I examine such sentiments among White and African‐American respondents. Results. Regardless of race, Obama support was highest among voters who were “comfortable” with Black candidates. However, increased optimism with racial progress had no effect on Blacks' voting intentions, and it actually lowered Obama support among Whites. Conclusion. The conventional wisdom is that African Americans “backed Barack because he is Black”; I demonstrate that Obama's race mattered more to White voters than it did to Blacks.     

Intermediate Treatment and Adolescents' Perceptions of Social Workers

Summary This paper reports an exploratory study of perceptions of socialworkers. Information was obtained from adolescents involvedin intermediate treatment activity groups, their parents, andtheir caseworkers. The respondents were asked to complete acard-sort of adjectives which might describe the social workers.The results suggest that adolescents may have much more positiveperceptions of their social workers than either the parentsor social workers anticipated. Parents were also found to havepositive perceptions of their social workers, especially iftheir social worker also attended the activity groups with theiradolescent. Some of the variables which were seen to have influencedthe perceptions of the social workers are discussed.     

Culture,Segregation, and Tolerance in Urban America*

Objective. The objective of this article is to examine whether racial tolerance attitudes are influenced by the character of the urban subculture in which individuals live. Specifically, is there a significant association between Florida's (2002) concept of creative class and racial tolerance among white survey respondents? Methods. The Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey that comprises respondents across some 27 cities provides the data for this analysis. Ordered logit regression was utilized. Results. Independent of key explanations of racial tolerance such as racial threat and contact theories, creative class or new political culture cities are associated with more progressive racial attitudes among white respondents. In addition, important evidence is uncovered that shows creative class operates as an interactive variable, conditioning the effects of traditional determinants of tolerance. Conclusions. Evidence suggests that creative class or new political culture cities should be viewed as constituting distinctive cultural milieus that have important direct and interactive effects on tolerance attitudes.     

SEX AND POWER IN SAME-SEX COUPLES

The purpose of this paper is to present a part of the findings of a study of 82 homosexual couples (40 gay and 42 lesbian couples) living in three states and in city and country areas. The respondents were chosen by means of snowball sampling and the methods of data collection were semi-standardised questionnaires and interviews. The paper explores the gender identity of homosexual partners, and the power structure of the homosexual units, and examines the types of sexual relationships maintained by homosexual partners. The paper concludes that homosexual couples are diverse in their sex identity, sexual relationships and power structure, and that although in terms of power they are similar to heterosexual couples they are definitely different from them in their sexual attitudes and behaviour and in the perception of their sexual identity. The paper, finally, underlines some implications for social theory and social policy.     

The Breakdown of the Hegemonic Representation of Madness in Africa

Social science has recently examined the dramatic increase of witchcraft and magic in everyday contemporary African. A study, which took place in the 1970's, on the representation of madness in postcolonial Congo, contributes to the elucidation of such an outgrowth. In line with the first version of La Psychoanalyse, it aimed at identifying variations in the images, beliefs, and attitudes associated with groups whose social positioning differed in relation to modernity. Sixty old men were interviewed. The respondents provided a representation in the making that neither reflected Western knowledge nor faithfully echoed local patterns. The Western elements were anchored in a strongly objectified local belief system. For “traditional” informants the meaning attributed to madness testifies to the transformation of a hegemonic representation into a polemical one since it addressed the question of their identity shaken by modernity. An emancipated representation emerged within the most educated group. A secondary analysis of the data contributes to current theoretical debates within social representations theory in focusing on tolerance/intolerance to alternative representations through semantic barriers. It brings more evidence to the fragmentation of the hegemonic system of belief and confirms how social—identity content and relations mediate knowledge construction.     

Youth in foster care: developmental assets and attitudes towards adoption and mentoring

The present study explores the relationship between the characteristics of youth in foster care and youth attitudes about mentoring and adoption. Using a positive youth development framework, the study examines the relationship between youth risk and resilience variables (youth risk scores, youth assets and youth perception of control) and youth attitudes about mentoring and adoption. Data were collected from 54 youth, ages 10 to 17 years, through intake interviews and surveys. Participants were 25 male and 29 female adolescents; 33 were Caucasian and 21 were African American. Overall, the youth had positive attitudes about both mentoring and adoption, with Caucasian youth having more positive attitudes than African American youth. A 2 × 2 (Gender × Race) analysis of variance revealed greater feelings of control for male and Caucasian youth. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that the youths' perceptions of their strengths and assets were related to how positively they viewed mentoring and adoption.     

The role of social desirability bias and racial/ethnic composition on the relation between education and attitude toward immigration restrictionism

Social scientists note individuals tend to respond favorably to sensitive topics in surveys, but few consider factors triggering these responses. This study uses unique data to examine respondents’ racial/ethnic attitude under direct and indirect modes of elicitation. In particular, the list experiment provides a cloak of anonymity to a random subsample of individuals that allows them to respond truthfully about their racial/ethnic attitudes. By comparing responses between administration modes, this study evaluates whether social desirability pressures mediate, and racial/ethnic composition moderate, the relation between education and racial/ethnic attitudes. Findings indicate an initial positive relation between education and racial/ethnic attitudes, but desirability bias mainly drives this relation. Furthermore, there is some support racial/ethnic composition moderates the influence of social desirability on education.     

Does anti-Semitism among African Americans simply reflect anti-White sentiment?

In his classic essay (1967) titled “Negroes Are Anti-Semitic Because They’re Anti-White,” writer James Baldwin argues that African American resentment of Jews reflects generalized anti-White sentiment. The current study examines levels of anti-Semitic attitudes in the United States among African Americans and other racial/ethnic groups. Using General Social Survey (2000) data for a nationally representative sample of adults (n = 1,118), this research investigates whether variation in anti-White attitudes explains variation in anti-Semitic attitudes. Multiple indicators are used to operationalize anti-Semitic and anti-White attitudes. One such indicator is the degree to which one opposed living in a Jewish (or White) neighborhood. Control variables include measures of perception of wealth for Jews and Whites. A series of logistic regression analyses offers mixed results. One analysis indicates that while some anti-Semitic attitudes are strongly associated with anti-White attitudes, African Americans are still significantly more likely than White, Latino, and Asian groups to express anti-Semitic views when the level of anti-White sentiment is held constant (p < .05). In a second analysis the respondent's race is not a significant effect on expressed anti-Semitism when controlling for anti-White attitudes.     

Political Participation Among Latinos in the United States: The Effect of Group Identity and Consciousness*

Objective. How do group identity and consciousness affect Latinos' political participation in the United States? Recent studies that examine this relationship generally focus on a single ethnic group, for example, Mexicans, or the panethnic group, Latino/Hispanic, which limits the scope of their results. This study investigates how group identity and consciousness affect the political participation of differently identified Latinos. Methods. Using the unique 2007 Latino National Survey (LNS), a telephone survey of 8,500 Latino respondents, I investigate how group identity and consciousness affect political participation, as measured by electoral and nonelectoral activities. Results. Findings suggest that Latinos who self‐identify as American are more likely to engage in political action; however, a sense of group consciousness among ethnic, panethnic, and racial‐identified Latinos alters this effect. Conclusion. The type of and extent to which Latinos engage in political action is contingent on primary self‐identity and specific aspects of group consciousness.     

Tourism and the Hispanicization of race in Jim Crow Miami, 1945-1965

This article examines how Miami's significant presence of Anglo Caribbean blacks and Spanish-speaking tourists critically influenced the evolution of race relations before and after the watershed 1959 Cuban Revolution. The convergence of people from the American South and North, the Caribbean, and Latin America created a border culture in a city where the influx of Bahamian blacks and Spanish-speakers, especially tourists, had begun to alter the racial landscape. To be sure, Miami had many parallels with other parts of the South in regard to how blackness was understood and enforced by whites during the first half of the twentieth century. However, I argue that the city's post-WWII meteoric tourist growth, along with its emergence as a burgeoning Pan-American metropolis, complicated the traditional southern black-white dichotomy. The purchasing power of Spanish-speaking visitors during the postwar era transformed a tourist economy that had traditionally catered to primarily wealthy white transplanted Northerners. This significant change to the city's tourist industry significantly influenced white civic leaders' decision to occasionally modify Jim Crow practices for Latin American vacationers. In effect, Miami's early Latinization had a profound impact on the established racial order as speaking Spanish became a form of currency that benefited Spanish-speaking tourists—even those of African descent. Paradoxically, this ostensibly peculiar racial climate aided the local struggle by highlighting the idiosyncrasies of Jim Crow while perpetuating the second-class status of native-born blacks.     

Identity development and transracial/ethnic adoption: some challenges for practice

Issues of identity and its development are of huge importance in transracial/ethnic adoptions. Theoretical approaches that relate to racial/ethnic identity development include Cross's racial, Phinney's ethnic identity development, Berry's acculturation model. This article examines these models and their relevance in understanding identity development of transracial/ethnic adolescent adoptees. Successful negotiation of one's racial/ethnic identity is crucial to the development of a functional self-concept and positive self-evaluations for transracial/ethnic adoptees. Practitioners need to be aware of the unique experiences of transracially adopted adolescents that shape racial/ethnic identity development and take an active approach in helping transracial adoptees build positive self-images of themselves.     

Racial Differences in Attitudes Toward Professional Mental Health Treatment: The Mediating Effect of Stigma

Stigma associated with mental illness continues to be a pervasive barrier to mental health treatment, leading to negative attitudes about treatment and deterring appropriate care seeking. Empirical research suggests that the stigma of mental illness may exert an adverse influence on attitudes toward mental health treatment and service utilization patterns by individuals with a mental illness, particularly African Americans. However, little research has examined the impact of stigma on racial differences in attitudes toward seeking mental health treatment. This study examined the hypothesis that stigma partially mediates the relationship between race and attitudes towards mental health treatment in a community-based sample of 101 African American and White older adults. Multiple regression analyses and classic path analysis was utilized to test the partial mediation model. Controlling for socio-demographic factors, African American older adults were more likely to have negative attitudes toward mental health treatment, and they also reported more public and internalized stigma than their White counterparts. As hypothesized, the relationship between race and attitudes toward mental health treatment was partially mediated by internalized stigma, suggesting that internalized stigma may cause older adults to develop negative attitudes about mental health treatment. The partial mediation model was not significant for public stigma, however. Implications for social work research and practice are discussed.     

An Examination of Accidental-Release Scenarios from Chemical-Processing Sites: The Relation of Race to Distance

Objective. This study is intended to enhance the discussion of environmental equity by offering a methodology that is based on chemical‐specific risk zones that reflect inventories of chemical facilities, risk dispersion modeling, local weather conditions, and the unique chemical processes of each site. The central question concerns whether the racial makeup of a community near a chemical‐processing site is characteristic of the city, county, or community as a whole. In essence, does the racial makeup of a community vary by distance from a chemical‐processing facility? Methods. A comparison of the racial makeup of the community was examined for 13 chemical‐processing sites submitting off‐site consequence data under the Environmental Protection Agency Risk Management Plan, by clusters of the sites, and for all sites in the community. Instead of relative ratios, we look at odds ratios. The odds ratio compares the odds of being African American to the odds of being non‐African American at two given distance classes. In this way we may make inferences about how much higher (or lower) are the odds of an African American (relative to a non‐African American) living in a closer distance class (as opposed to a further distance class). Results. The results show that as one moves further from a facility, the characteristics of the community reflect less and less the makeup near the site. The percentage of African Americans living near a chemical‐processing site tends to be much higher when compared to population characteristics further from the site. Conclusions. The study shows that distance does make a significant difference in the racial characteristics of the population from a chemical‐processing site. Using data reflecting accidental‐release scenarios, weather conditions, and the chemical process from the local community provides a more realistic basis for determining vulnerability zones.     

Impression management pressures on racial attitude surveys

For decades, researchers have expressed concern that self-report racial attitude measures are vulnerable to distortion from pressures respondents feel to present themselves as unprejudiced. A common response to this problem is to measure social desirability separately from racial attitudes and control for its variance in statistical analyses. The present study is designed to test whether such controls are sufficient. Participants rated items from both racial attitude and social desirability scales in terms of the amount of pressure they would feel to respond in a particular way regardless of their true attitudes. Participants report significantly greater response pressure on racial attitude items than on social desirability items, and ratings on the two types of items have only moderately shared variance. Implications for controlling social desirability in racial attitude research are discussed.     

Race,Religion, and Opposition to Same‐Sex Marriage*

Objective. We examine racial differences in support for same‐sex marriage, and test whether the emerging black‐white gap is a function of religiosity. We explore how religious factors play a crucial role in racial differences, and how secular factors have varying effects on attitudes for whites and African Americans. Methods. Using data from the General Social Surveys, we estimate ordinal logistic regression models and stacked structural equation models. Results. We show that the racial divide is a function of African Americans' ties to sectarian Protestant religious denominations and high rates of church attendance. We also show racial differences in the influence of education and political values on opposition to same sex marriage. Conclusions. Religious factors are a source of racial differences in support for same‐sex marriage, and secular influences play less of a role in structuring African Americans' beliefs about same‐sex marriage.     

Religious affiliation and beliefs about racial inequality: White college students’ attitudes about Black-White and Native American-White inequality

Is religious affiliation associated with attitudes about racial inequality? While prior research has explored the relationship between religion and attitudes about Black-White inequality, studies exploring attitudes towards Native Americans are rare. Our study is the first to explore the association between religion and attitudes about Native American-White inequality. We find that religious subcultural differences do exist as Catholics, Protestants, and those with no religious affiliation tend to use different explanations for racial inequality, although the relationship between religious affiliation and attitudes is similar regardless of whether African Americans or Native Americans are the target. We also find that across religious groups there is a greater tendency to use person-centered or individual explanations for Native American-White inequality and structural explanations for Black-White inequality. We argue that consistent findings for the association of religious affiliation and attitudes for different racial groups provide support for the presence of religion specific cultural toolkits.