anti-Black Bias Research Articles

A ‘Bad Rap’: R. v. Skeete and the Admissibility of Rap Lyric Evidence

This paper explores the evidentiary treatment of violent and prejudicial defendant-authored rap lyrics in Canadian criminal trials. It argues that the current evidentiary threshold jeopardizes trial fairness by allowing the Crown to adduce highly prejudicial rap lyric evidence at trial. It also problematizes the judicial reliance on corroborative evidence, which does not establish the truthfulness of the lyrics tendered, to admit these violent rap lyrics at trial. It argues that the reliance on such corroborative evidence results in a misapprehension of the lyrics’ evidentiary value and ultimately in the admission of defendant-authored rap lyric evidence of low probative value at trial. This result is particularly concerning in the case of young black male defendants, since the introduction of their lyrics at trial can prime a jury’s unconscious anti-black bias and therefore serve to increase the distortive effect of this type of evidence on the fairness and integrity of criminal proceedings. It concludes by advocating for a rap specific approach to the admissibility of this evidence.

Differential developmental courses of implicit and explicit biases for different other-race classes.

We investigated the developmental courses of both implicit and explicit racial biases in relation to the perceived social status of outgroups. We did so by assessing these biases among Chinese participants (N = 200, age range from 4- to 19-year-olds) toward 2 different other-race groups that differ in terms of perceived social status (i.e., Whites and Blacks). At the youngest age, children showed both implicit anti-White and anti-Black bias at similar levels. However, these biases had different patterns of age-related change: implicit anti-Black bias remained strong and stable over time, whereas implicit anti-White bias declined after age 10. For explicit bias, children showed a decline in anti-Black and anti-White bias. Implicit and explicit biases were uncorrelated at all ages. The observed age-related changes demonstrate that it is possible for patterns of biases toward different races to diverge with age, and that perceived social status may contribute to the differential developmental patterns. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Implicit Bias in the Era of Social Desirability: Understanding Antiblackness in Rehabilitative and Punitive School Discipline

Recent research provides evidence that teachers’ implicit bias may impact school discipline but has poorly defined discipline. This research examines if implicit bias impacts 7 discrete types of disciplinary decisions, ranging from punitive to rehabilitative. A survey featuring racial priming was administered to teachers (n = 287). Results suggest that implicit racial processing has more impact on punitive disciplinary decisions over rehabilitative ones. Interestingly, teachers were harsher against White students, which is counterintuitive to what we know about anti-Black implicit bias and racial disparities in discipline. Results suggests that social desirability is a powerful force that attempts to override anti-Black bias in certain contexts but could lead to a harmful lowering of expectations for Black students.

Implicit Bias Predicts Liking of Ingroup Members Who Are Comfortable With Intergroup Interaction.

We test a novel framework for how ingroup members are perceived during intergroup interaction. Across three experiments, we found that, above and beyond egalitarian attitudes and motivations, White observers' automatic responses to Blacks (i.e., their implicit anti-Black bias) shaped their affiliation toward ingroup targets who appeared comfortable engaging in interracial versus same-race interaction. White observers' implicit anti-Black bias negatively correlated with liking of White targets who were comfortable with Blacks (Experiments 1-3). The relationship between implicit bias and liking varied as a function of targets' nonverbal comfort in interracial interactions (Experiment 1). Specifically, implicit bias negatively correlated with liking of targets when targets' nonverbal behaviors revealed observers felt comfortable with interracial contact, irrespective of the nature of those behaviors (Experiment 2). Finally, the relationship between implicit bias and target liking was mediated by perceived similarity (Experiment 3). Theoretical implications for stigma-by-association, social network homogeneity, and extended contact are discussed.

Hate Speech Is in the Eye of the Beholder

The present research investigated how levels of anti-Black prejudice may influence differential perceived free-speech protections (FSPs) for hurtful acts targeting Black or White people. Because hate crime designation (HCD) requires evidence of a prejudice-motivated intention to harm individuals, we investigated how anti-Black prejudice and race of the target interact to influence HCD for the act and how greater perceived FSPs may predict less willingness to label the act a hate crime. Across two studies, anti-Black bias was associated with more perceived FSPs for Black-targeted acts, which predicted less HCD. Low anti-Black prejudice participants viewed Black- versus White-targeted acts as less protected by free-speech rights and more likely to be a hate crime. In Study 1 (but not Study 2), high anti-Black prejudice participants displayed the opposite pattern. This work holds implications for theories of motivated justification and psychological understanding of public discourse regarding free speech.

Conflicted conservatives, punitive views, and anti-Black racial bias 1974–2014

Research suggests that the views of “conflicted conservatives,” Americans who self-identify as conservative but express support for liberal governmental policies and spending, are particularly important in policymaking and politics because they are politically engaged and often act as swing voters. We examine punitive views among conflicted conservatives and other political subgroups in three distinct periods in the politics of punishment in America between 1974 and 2014. In particular, we consider the punitive views of conflicted conservatives relative to consistent conservatives, moderates, and liberals. Given the barrier that racialized typifications of violent crime may pose to current criminal justice reform efforts, we also explore the role of anti-Black bias in predicting punitive views among White Americans across political subgroups. Our overall findings indicate that conflicted conservatives are like moderates in their support for the death penalty and like consistent conservatives on beliefs about court harshness. These findings, and supplemental analyses on punitive views and voting behaviors across political subgroups, call into question whether conflicted conservatives have acted as critical scorekeepers on penal policy issues. We also find that anti-Black racism was significantly related to punitive views across political subgroups and among liberals in particular.

When Sexism Leads to Racism: Threat, Protecting Women, and Racial Bias

The stated goal of protecting White women from harm has been used, historically and contemporarily, as a pretext for racial violence. Two studies explored the relationship between protective paternalism (the belief that men should protect and care for women—part of benevolent sexism; Glick and Fiske 1996) and anti-minority racial attitudes. In Study 1 (n = 474, 61% women, 61% White), survey data found that protective paternalism was related to anti-Black bias, but only for White respondents. Study 2 (n = 242, 52% women, 74% White) experimentally manipulated feelings of threat to test for increases in protective paternalism and its corresponding effect on three anti-minority racial attitudes. For male participants only, threat (i.e., reading about recent increases in violent crime) increased endorsement of protective paternalism, which was in turn associated with a more negative view of immigration, and, for White men only, less support for policies that benefit racial minority groups and greater denial of racial bias in policing. Threat did not increase protective paternalism in female participants. For White men in particular, news of crime and danger increases racial bias by first increasing the desire to protect women. Policymakers should be aware that framing policies around safety concerns or appealing to the protection of women might unintentionally bolster anti-minority racial prejudices.

“Shopping while Black”: Black consumers’ management of racial stigma and racial profiling in retail settings

This article draws on qualitative interview data collected from 55 African Americans residing in the New York City area to examine African Americans’ experiences of consumer racial profiling or “Shopping While Black.” I find that racial discrimination alters African Americans’ experiences as consumers. Racial stigma in retail settings impacts the consumptive process for Blacks in two central ways. First, retail settings are often sites where anti-Black bias is made evident, requiring Black shoppers to navigate racial hierarchies while procuring goods. Second, discrimination alters the experience of shopping, arguably raising the costs and reducing the rewards derived from consumption. When a store’s sales staff is hesitant to serve Black shoppers or suspects that they are prospective shoplifters, shopping no longer becomes a form of leisure. A qualitative assessment of Blacks’ reports of racial stigma and discrimination in retail settings reveals that race can change the meaning and status attached to goods, when they are sought out or owned by racial minorities. By examining Blacks’ experiences of retail racism and the cultural strategies they adopt in responding to occasions when they are treated discriminatorily, this research brings to light Blacks’ experiences of discrimination on the ground, while also examining how racism impacts the quality of Black consumers’ experiences.

Pernicious Effects of Racism Discussed in Session Honoring Chester Pierce, M.D.

Pernicious Effects of Racism Discussed in Session Honoring Chester Pierce, M.D.

Consensus and consistency: Exposure to multiple discrimination claims shapes Whites' intergroup attitudes

Research suggests that intergroup disagreement about the prevalence of subtle racial bias in America occurs because Whites are not often exposed to minorities' experiences with this type of discrimination, due to housing, school, workplace, and friendship segregation. Although the objective of social movements (e.g., “I, too, am Harvard”) is to illuminate a consistent pattern of bias and to spur social action, it is possible that these movements may exacerbate the derogatory judgments (i.e., as complainers) found in previous research when a single claimant describes experiences with bias. Five studies are the first to draw on the consensus and consistency principles of Kelley's Covariation Model (1973) to investigate how exposure to multiple experiences of subtle bias brought by Black or White claimants affects Whites' perceptions of subsequent discrimination claimants and racial bias prevalence. The results supported the consensus and consistency hypothesis for Black claimants, as increased exposure to Blacks' discrimination experiences mitigated Whites' derogation of Black discrimination claimants as complainers and increased perceptions of the prevalence of anti-Black bias. Conversely, increased exposure to Whites' discrimination experiences supported the derogation hypothesis: exposure exacerbated complainer attributions for those claimants and had no effect on the perceived prevalence of anti-White bias. These results suggest increased exposure may be an effective tool for changing Whites' perceptions of and attitudes toward minorities' subtle bias experiences. We also discuss the contribution of these studies to our understanding of differences between intergroup and intragroup perceptions of discrimination.

The Role of Racial Identity and Implicit Racial Bias in Self-Reported Racial Discrimination: Implications for Depression Among African American Men.

Racial discrimination is conceptualized as a psychosocial stressor that has negative implications for mental health. However, factors related to racial identity may influence whether negative experiences are interpreted as instances of racial discrimination and subsequently reported as such in survey instruments, particularly given the ambiguous nature of contemporary racism. Along these lines, dimensions of racial identity may moderate associations between racial discrimination and mental health outcomes. This study examined relationships between racial discrimination, racial identity, implicit racial bias, and depressive symptoms among African American men between 30 and 50 years of age (n = 95). Higher racial centrality was associated with greater reports of racial discrimination, while greater implicit anti-Black bias was associated with lower reports of racial discrimination. In models predicting elevated depressive symptoms, holding greater implicit anti-Black bias in tandem with reporting lower racial discrimination was associated with the highest risk. Results suggest that unconscious as well as conscious processes related to racial identity are important to consider in measuring racial discrimination, and should be integrated in studies of racial discrimination and mental health.

The “Obama Effect”? Priming Contemporary Racial Milestones Increases Implicit Racial bias among Whites

This research was designed to test if priming the election of President Obama as a contemporary racial milestone would increase implicit racial bias among White Americans. Participants (N = 202) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: a power threat prime (Obama), a majority threat prime (shifting racial demographics of the U.S.), or no prime, before completing an implicit measure of positive and negative associations with Whites and Blacks. Consistent with group threat theory, both group threat primes increased implicit anti-Black bias. In the power threat prime (Obama) condition, only those with lower internal motivation to respond without prejudice showed elevated implicit bias. Findings indicate that framing Obama as a racial pioneer elicits group threat reactions among Whites with low internal motivation to respond without prejudice, increasing implicit anti-Black bias.

The Likelihood of Injury Among Bias Crimes: An Analysis of General and Specific Bias Types.

In 2009, President Barack Obama signed the Mathew Sheppard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Protection act and thereby extended the list of previously protected classes of victims from actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, disability and sex orientation to gender and gender identity. Over 45 states, the District of Columbia and the federal government now include hate crime statutes that increase penalties when offenders perpetrate hate crimes against protected classes of victims. Penalty enhancement statutes sanction unlawful bias conduct arguably because they result in more severe injuries relative to non-bias conduct. We contend that physical injuries vary by bias type and are not equally injurious. Data on bias crimes was analyzed from the National Incident Based Reporting System. Descriptive patterns of bias crimes were identified by offense type, bias motivation and major and minor injuries. Using Multivariate analyses, we found an escalating trend of violence against racial minorities. Moreover, relative to non-bias crimes, only anti-White and anti-lesbian bias crimes experienced our two prong "animus" criteria of disproportionate prevalence and severity of injury. However, when compared to anti-White bias, anti-Black bias crimes were more prevalent and likely to suffer serious injuries. Implications for hate crime jurisprudence are discussed.

When bias binds: Effect of implicit outgroup bias on ingroup affiliation.

We tested a novel process we term implicit homophily in which perceivers' implicit outgroup bias shapes their affiliative responses toward ingroup targets with outgroup friends as a function of perceived similarity. Across 4 studies, we tested implicit homophily in the context of racial groups. We found that White participants with higher implicit anti-Black bias reported less affiliative responses toward White targets with Black friends compared with White targets with White friends, and this effect persisted above and beyond the effects of implicit pro-White bias and explicit racial bias (Studies 1-3). We further found evidence that this relationship between implicit anti-Black bias and affiliation exists because participants infer how comfortable targets are around outgroup members (Preliminary Study) and use this information to infer similarity on this dimension (Studies 1-3). Our findings also suggested that stigma transference and expectancy violation were not viable alternative mediators (Preliminary Study and Study 1). Finally, women's implicit anti-Black bias predicted their likelihood of having Facebook friends with Black friends, providing ecological and behavioral evidence of implicit homophily (Study 4). Implications for research on stigma by association, extended contact, affiliation, and network formation are discussed.

Some evidence for the nonverbal contagion of racial bias

Four experiments provide evidence for the hypothesis that we can “catch” racial bias from others by merely observing subtle nonverbal cues. Video recordings were made of white participants (with varying levels of racial bias) interacting with a neutral black confederate. Videos contained subtle expressions of positivity or negativity, corresponding to white participants’ levels of bias. Participants randomly assigned to observe the subtle anti-black bias videos (vs. pro-black) formed more negative impressions of the black person (Experiment 1), adopted more negative racial stereotypes (Experiment 2), and demonstrated greater anti-black bias themselves (Experiment 3). Participants only demonstrated increased bias when they knew that a black person was the target (vs. white; Experiment 4). Results suggest that nonverbal expressions of racial bias affect more than simply the actor and target—they affect passive, naïve observers. The good news, however, is that the same is true of pro-black bias. Implications for organizations are discussed.

Implicit Closeness to Blacks, Support for Affirmative Action, Slavery Reparations, and Vote Intentions for Barack Obama in the 2008 Elections

Does pro-Black policy support require an individual to be unbiased? I distinguish two types of implicit attitudes based on whether the attitude-target is evaluated as an object (evaluative associations) or as an independent social agent (relational associations). In a series of studies (N = 3,073), a significant anti-Black evaluative association bias emerges. In contrast, relational associations are significantly pro-Black and are unrelated to evaluative associations. Relational associations predict opinions regarding affirmative action, government help for Blacks, slavery reparations, and intentions to vote for Barack Obama. Thus, minority representation based on relational associations may not require absence of anti-minority evaluative bias.

Discrimination, Racial Bias, and Telomere Length in African-American Men

Leukocyte telomere length (LTL) is an indicator of general systemic aging, with shorter LTL being associated with several chronic diseases of aging and earlier mortality. Identifying factors related to LTL among African Americans may yield insights into mechanisms underlying racial disparities in health. To test whether the combination of more frequent reports of racial discrimination and holding a greater implicit anti-black racial bias is associated with shorter LTL among African-American men. Cross-sectional study of a community sample of 92 African-American men aged between 30 and 50 years. Participants were recruited from February to May 2010. Ordinary least squares regressions were used to examine LTL in kilobase pairs in relation to racial discrimination and implicit racial bias. Data analysis was completed in July 2013. After controlling for chronologic age and socioeconomic and health-related characteristics, the interaction between racial discrimination and implicit racial bias was significantly associated with LTL (b=-0.10, SE=0.04, p=0.02). Those demonstrating a stronger implicit anti-black bias and reporting higher levels of racial discrimination had the shortest LTL. Household income-to-poverty threshold ratio was also associated with LTL (b=0.05, SE=0.02, p<0.01). Results suggest that multiple levels of racism, including interpersonal experiences of racial discrimination and the internalization of negative racial bias, operate jointly to accelerate biological aging among African-American men. Societal efforts to address racial discrimination in concert with efforts to promote positive in-group racial attitudes may protect against premature biological aging in this population.

The influence of multicultural counseling competence and anti-Black prejudice on therapists’ outcome expectancies.

The broad goal of this study was to examine multiple potential predictors of anti-Black bias among counselors. Specifically, in an online survey of 173 trainees and professionals in mental health, this study used 3 measures related to cultural sensitivity as predictors of therapists' expectancies for bond and prognosis with African American clients compared with White clients. The Multicultural Counseling Inventory (MCI; Sodowsky, Taffe, Gutkin, & Wise, 1994) was used to measure global multicultural competence. The Implicit Association Test (IAT; Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998) served as a measure of automatic prejudice toward Blacks. Additionally, a new self-report measure of anti-Black clinical prejudice was created specifically for this study. The Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (Paulhus, 1984) was included to control for socially desirable responding. Each predictor of cultural sensitivity uniquely explained variance in anti-Black bias in bond ratings, with the IAT accounting for more variance than the 2 self-reports. Our novel measure of clinical prejudice accounted for anti-Black bias in prognosis ratings, but the MCI and the IAT did not. Researchers studying cultural competence are encouraged to consider the roles of automatic and deliberate prejudice in determining disparities in clinical expectancies and cross-racial therapeutic alliances. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).

‘Race still matters, however… ’: implicit identification with blacks, pro-black policy support and the Obama candidacy

Obama's 2008 election offers an opportunity to study pro-black political support despite documented anti-black bias. We argue that black group-identification may lead to pro-black opinions, even among some whites. We investigate automatic identification using an implicit measure of mental self–other overlap (implicit closeness to blacks) administered before the 2008 election to an online panel (N=1,177). Implicit closeness to blacks predicts pro-black responses on the Racial Resentment Scale, and support for government aid to blacks and affirmative action, as well as pride in Obama, even among some white respondents. In our overall online sample it also predicts vote intentions for Obama two weeks prior to the 2008 elections. We discuss these results without resorting to a ‘post-racial’ logic: race still matters. However, among some respondents implicit identification with blacks may overwrite anti-black Racial Resentment bias.

Talking about a Black Man: The Influence of Defendant and Character Witness Race on Jurors' Use of Character Evidence

To determine whether anti-Black bias influences mock jurors' use of character evidence (i.e., information about a defendant's personality), this study manipulated the race (Black, White) of the defendant and character witness and the type of character evidence presented in a fictitious criminal trial. Two hundred six predominantly White participants read a trial transcript, then made verdicts and trial judgments. Results confirm previous findings that positive character evidence has a limited impact on jurors' judgments, but negative character evidence is misused to evaluate the defendant's guilt. However, participants were more influenced by character evidence that was inconsistent with racial stereotypes. Specifically, positive character evidence had a stronger effect for Black defendants, whereas negative rebuttal evidence had a stronger influence for White defendants. The race of the character witness did not affect judgments. Thus, defendant race may provide a framework that influences how mock jurors process character evidence.