Racial Identity, Racial Context, and Ingroup Status: Implications for Attributions to Discrimination Among Black Canadians

Abstract

Using Self-Categorization Theory as a conceptual framework for understanding attributions to discrimination, the primary aim of this study was to move beyond focusing on the degree to which racial minorities define themselves in terms of their race (i.e., racial centrality). Specifically, the authors examined how multiple dimensions of Black racial identity affected attributions to racial discrimination in two attributionally ambiguous situations. For Black Canadians exposed to intergroup contexts, racial identity beliefs that emphasize the distinctiveness of the Black experience (low public regard and nationalist ideology) were associated with greater perceived discrimination across the two situations, whereas racial identity beliefs that stress the similarities between the Black experience and that of other groups (assimilationist and humanist ideologies) were associated with perceiving less discrimination. Racial identity beliefs did not predict attributions when the target and potential perpetrator were members of the same racial group. Implications for studying the relationship between Black racial identity and perceived discrimination are discussed.