Black Attitudes Research Articles

Nature, Nurture, Neither, Nor: Black-White Differences in Beliefs about the Causes and Appropriate Treatment of Mental Illness

We use the 1996 General Social Survey (GSS) to explore racial differences in perceptions of the etiology and treatment of mental illness. We find that African Americans are more likely than whites to reject the idea that mental illnesses are caused by either genetics or an unhealthy family upbringing, but this effect does not extend to other biological or environmental explanations of psychological disorders. We propose that blacks may be more skeptical than whites of genetic- and family-based explanations because of their resemblance to arguments that have been used to criticize blacks and justify their disadvantaged structural position. Additionally, we find that racial differences in etiological beliefs play a substantial part in explaining African Americans' tendency to have more negative attitudes than whites toward professional mental health treatment. These findings suggest not only that etiological beliefs may reflect broader political debates about race but also that these beliefs may beat the core of some of the differences in the attitudes of blacks and whites toward professional help-seeking

Attitudes of whites and blacks towards ethnic humor: A comparison

Attitudes of whites and blacks towards ethnic humor: A comparison

Black South African students' beliefs and attitudes about condoms.

To investigate the beliefs and attitudes of black South African students regarding condoms structured questionnaires were completed anonymously by 1986 students. Most highly endorsed problems were the large number needed for many rounds of sex, partner's feelings of distrust, unpleasantness of purchasing condoms, and that condoms injure the vagina. Encouragement of use should be responsive to local practices.

Understanding Changes in Sexual Activity Among Young Metropolitan Men: 1979-1995

Changes in the sexual behavior of teenagers can have a significant impact on levels of adolescent pregnancy and transmission of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Understanding the role played by attitudes and educational efforts will provide critical prevention information. Data on the sexual behavior, sexual attitudes, educational experiences and demographics of 2,087 never-married metropolitan males aged 17-19 from the 1979 National Survey of Young Men and the 1988 and 1995 waves of the National Survey of Adolescent Males were analyzed through multivariate methods to examine factors that predict sexual behavior as well as those that predict sexual attitudes. The percentage of males aged 17-19 who had ever had sex increased from 66% in 1979 to 76% in 1988 and then decreased to 68% in 1995. The frequency of sexual intercourse in the year prior to the survey increased significantly over time, although the lifetime number of sexual partners did not. Acceptance of premarital sex increased significantly from 1979 to 1988, then decreased significantly from 1988 to 1995. Over time, young men were increasingly likely to prefer having and supporting a baby to marriage, abortion or adoption as the resolution to a nonmarital pregnancy. Trends in attitudes were strongly associated with sexual behaviors, with more conservative attitudes predicting less sexual activity. AIDS education, which was nearly universal in 1995, was associated with decreased sexual activity, although not among black youths. More conservative sexual attitudes and increased exposure to AIDS education are key predictors of decreased sexual activity among adolescent males. However, broader societal factors, such as fear of AIDS and increased awareness of problems associated with teenage pregnancy and STDs, may underlie both attitudinal and behavioral changes.

The Politics and Problematics of Survey Research

The Althusserian notion of a problematic refers to the underlying connections among the elements of a body of thought that shape its orientation. It is employed to examine the relationship between the practical decisions governing the actual conduct of attitude surveys and their sociopolitical context. Two sets of surveys, on preferences for political leaders and constitutional arrangements and on Black attitudes to sanctions against apartheid, are analyzed that featured in the transition to democracy in South Africa. Decisions regarding the phases of questionnaire design, fieldwork, analysis, interpretation, and dissemination are more or less explicit. It is found that in conjunction, they may predispose the survey to confirming specific presuppositions. Such a problematic is considered to be ideological. Based on further concrete examples of alternative survey practice, regulative commitments are proposed for each phase to ensure that the problematic of attitude surveys, even in such polarized contexts, may instead be scientific.

Race-Specific Predictors of Trust in the Federal Government

While previous studies have used trust in the government as an exogenous variable to measure political protest and other forms of social unrest, we treat it as a dependent variable. Thus, we attempt to identify variables that affect trust in government, and we also distinguish between those variables that transcend race and those that differentially affect black and white respondents. Using data from the 1987 General Social Survey, we regress trust in the government on a variety of demographic and ideological measures. Results show that political apathy and belief that the government is unresponsive to the needs of the people lead to low levels of trust, regardless of the respondent's race. However, ideological variables such as political and religious views display different patterns for black and white respondents. While these variables do not affect black respondents' attitudes toward the government, they have a strong effect for white respondents. Implications of this study are discussed.

Black south African adolescents' attitudes about studying.

Black South African high school students (N = 523) were questioned about their attitudes and motivation towards studying. Analysis indicated that the students expressed negative attitudes toward studying and were concerned about failing. 34% indicated a lack of interest in most school subject matter.

"Can These Bones Live?": The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in Alabama, 1918-1930

A state located in the Heart of Dixie is an unlikely leader in the establishment of NAACP branches. Nevertheless, a chapter of the militant civil rights organization was formed in the state in 1913 - which was just four years after the formation of the national organization and four years before a branch was organized in any other southern state. World War I interrupted the formation of other chapters in Alabama. In the postwar era and the 1920's Alabama blacks formed thirteen branches, ranking the state in the number of branches established above all but four southern states (Georgia, North Carolina, Texas, and Virginia) and placing it above every other state except California, Illinois, Ohio, and Oklahoma.(1) Unfortunately, a hostile racial environment and problems within the chapters cut short the existence of these nascent NAACP units. Most declined long before they became effective weapons against the racial oppression which dominated their communities. The era after World War I was a period of growth for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The appointment of the editor, poet, and diplomat, James Weldon Johnson, first in 1916, as national field director and four years later as Executive Secretary, both coincided with and ushered in a fervent era of branch organizing. At the beginning of 1918, the Association counted only 9,869 members in eighty-five branches. As result of the organizational activities of Johnson, the Association was able to take advantage of the surge of racial consciousness which took place among blacks after World War I. By the end of 1918, its members had increased to nearly 44,000 in 165 chapters. In 1919, its tenth anniversary year, with 91,203 members, the NAACP was truly a national and an international organization, including members in Canada and Panama.(2) Alabama blacks were a part of this new NAACP growth. They formed the first postwar branch in Montgomery during the summer and fall of 1918. By December, the second branch had been formed in Selma. During 1919, seven additional branches were organized in Birmingham, Mobile, Ensley, Blocton, Anniston, and Tuscaloosa. The decade of the twenties saw branches organized in Gadsden (1921), Florence (1923), Decatur (1926), and Greensboro (1927). A total of thirteen branches were organized after World War I to 1930.(3) A variety of factors brought about the formation of NAACP branches in this era. Appreciation for the Association's role as agitator for the rights of blacks was the primary factor in the formation of the Florence branch. Mrs. Mary Hough, an initial organizer of the unit, was inspired to form an NAACP chapter because of her gratitude to the agency for its efforts in petitioning for the freedom of the condemned soldiers of the all-black Twenty-fourth Infantry, one of whom was her brother. The soldiers had been charged with the murder of seventeen whites in the 1917 Houston Riot and the NAACP had fought for their freedom.(4) Apart from personal motives, branch founders seemed driven by a realization that general conditions affecting all black Americans - and specific conditions affecting blacks in their communities - called for a radical change which could be achieved through the establishment of an NAACP chapter. Alabama NAACP organizers were a part of the phenomenon of the post-World War I period and the decade of the twenties known as the New Negro movement. Essentially an artistic, literary, scholarly movement, it was also a psychological and spiritual awakening. Its origins lay in the changes taking place in the attitudes of blacks during the World War I and postwar era. The New Negro was a product of experiences which heightened his awareness of his plight in America but which also strengthened his awareness of blacks' contributions to American society, elevated his self-esteem and activated his long suppressed hostility against racism. The result was more assertive, self-reliant blacks who were less inclined to accept positions of subjugation. …

The relationships among selected demographics and conventional and unconventional sexual behaviors among black and white heterosexual men

The relationships among selected demographics, conventional and unconventional sexual behaviors were studied using a sample of 125 Black and 125 White heterosexual men. Self‐administered questionnaires were distributed to members of New York City unions. Among Black men Socioeconomic Status (SES) was positively related to participation in conventional and unconventional sex and sexual attitudes but was not related to age at first intercourse. SES was not differentially related to the sexual attitudes of Blacks and Whites. Religiosity and SES correlated more with sexual attitudes than race, and SES was a more important factor in the sexual behaviors of Blacks than Whites. Black men began sexual activity at an earlier age than did White men and participated in unconventional sexual behavior more frequently. When we examine the differences between sexual behavior of Black and White men, it is important to differentiate among age at first intercourse, frequency of conventional and frequency of unconventional sex. Multidimensional instruments that measure sexual behavior should be employed.

Relative Deprivation in Contemporary South Africa

The relationship between relative deprivation, ethnic identification, and racial attitudes was investigated in random samples of 460 Whites and 466 Blacks on the eve of a new political dispensation in South Africa. Measurements of relative deprivation were obtained with regard to the social, financial, political, and work situation. Regression analyses indicated that the strongest predictors of White attitudes toward Blacks were work-related deprivation and ethnic identification. Other predictors were gender and educational qualifications. Political and social relative deprivation, attitudes toward the in-group, income, and gender influenced Black attitudes toward Whites. The results of the study are explained against the background of sociopolitical and economic changes in South Africa.

Creating a New Geography of Memory in the South: (Re)naming of Streets in Honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.

The (re)naming of streets in honor of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. is quickly becoming a common yet controversial feature on the southern urban landscape. This new trend in place-naming reflects efforts by African Americans to create a new geography of memory in a region where much of its landscape has long been used and reserved for remembering (and memorializing) primarily white-controlled and dominated conceptions of the past. This paper articulates a theoretical framework for understanding the struggles that local African-American communities face in the street-(re)naming process. The controversy surrounding MLK street (re)naming can be analyzed in relation to three interrelated struggles: (1) the politics of place-naming, the struggle of African Americans to inscribe their ideological values and aspirations about race relations into the symbolism of place-names; (2) the politics of memory, the struggle of African Americans to reconstruct the region's collective memory of the past through commemoration; and (3) the politics of space and scale, the struggle of African Americans to engage in commemoration of King as it is affected by the long-standing authority of whites to control the scale of black expression and mobilization, black attitudes toward space, and the politics of designing the city. This paper attempts to build a greater understanding of how geography constitutes and structures the production of memory within society.

From Blackface to ‘Genuine Negroes’: Nineteenth-Century Minstrelsy and the Icon of the ‘Negro’

In 1855, the first ‘coloured’ minstrel troupe, the Mocking Bird Minstrels, appeared on a Philadelphia stage. While this company did not stay together long, it heralded a change in the ‘face’ of minstrelsy in the United States. Many other black minstrel troupes would quickly follow, drawing attention away from the white minstrels who had until then dominated the scene. However, the white minstrel show had already iconized a particular representation of the ‘Negro’, which ultimately paved the way for black anti-minstrel attitudes at the end of the nineteenth century. The minstrel show existed in two guises: the white-in-blackface, and the black-in-blackface. The form and content of the minstrel shows changed over time, as well as audience perception of the two different types of performance. The black minstrel show has come to be regarded as a ‘reclaiming’ of slave dance and performance. It differs from white minstrelsy in that it gave theatrical form to ‘signifyin” on white minstrelsy in the manner in which slaves practised ‘signifyin” on whites in real life.

South Africa and the Common Purpose Rule in Crowd Murders

The elections in South Africa are only a start in that nation's task of purging itself of the inheritance of white minority rule. However successfully the democratic process endows organs of state with legitimacy in international forums, by and of itself the fact of black enfranchisement will not change black attitudes to a legal system which for decades willingly implicated itself in the systematic oppression of the non-white majority.

Deterrents to access and service for blacks and Hispanics: the Medicare Hospice Benefit, healthcare utilization, and cultural barriers.

The Medicare Hospice Benefit may limit access for Blacks and Hispanics because of its requirement of continuity of care, entailing the availability of a primary caregiver. The literature on utilization of healthcare services by Blacks and Hispanics shows these groups were likely to receive too little care, too late. Kalish and Reynolds' (1976) research on attitudes of Blacks, Mexican-Americans, and Whites toward dying shows cultural differences that could affect acceptance of hospice philosophy. In other research reviewed in this paper distrust of White service providers was a significant cultural barrier for Blacks in using health services. Lack of familiarity with the health care system and language barriers were barriers most often for Hispanics. Black caregivers are more likely than Whites to have dying persons living with them, to be extended family members or nonrelated, and to be more limited in their ability to provide caregiving support because of a lack of economic resources. Hispanics appear to have a circumscribed support system, narrowly defined by blood kinship, with females as the expected caregivers.

Religiosity and Black Adult Feelings toward Africans, American Indians, West Indians, Hispanics and Asian Americans

Abstract While religion plays a crucial role in black American life, its influence on intergroup attitudes remains little understood. Deprivation models suggest that religion acts to hinder positive race relations, while the ethnic community approach intimates that it may work to neutralize normally antagonistic feelings. Social, demographic and religious correlates of black adult racial attitudes were examined using National Study of Black American data. Multivariate analyses revealed significant gender differences. Among men the racial composition of the church was the most important determinant of positive attitudes. In contrast, among women subjective religiosity was crucial in explaining positive feelings toward Asian and Hispanic Americans, American Indians, West Indians and black Africans. The results lend support to the ethnic community model.

Black Men Make Sense of Marital Distress and Divorce: An Exploratory Study

In the past 30 years, there have been significant changes in the Black family structure (Cherlin, 1992; Farley & Allen, 1987). One dramatic change has been the gradual disintegration of marital bonds. For example, the proportion of Blacks who divorce has increased, whereas the proportion who marry has declined (Cherlin, 1992). In 1990, the divorce ratio was 28.2 divorces per 100 marriages among Blacks, compared to 13 per 100 for Whites U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1991). In part, the increase in the divorce rate has led to a decrease in Black two-parent families. For example, in 1970, 68% of Black families had both husband and wife present, compared to 50% by 1990. This represents a decrease of 18% in 20 years, compared to a 6% decrease for White families (Pinkney, 1993). Black children of divorce comprise 19% of children who reside in single-parent households; 56.3% of Black children who live in single-parent households do so as a consequence of the mother never marrying the father (Eshleman, 1993). Consequently, the enduring Black married couple is an endangered species, and couples in which one or both partners have been married previously are becoming the norm (Cherlin, 1992). The increased prevalence of divorce among Blacks has been attributed to the attitudes of Blacks toward marriage (Anderson, 1989; Heiss, 1988), the quality of life among Black men and women (Bennett, Bloom, & Craig, 1989; Pinkney, 1993), the economic marginality of Blacks (Farley & Allen, 1987; Hampton, 1979; Wilkinson, 1977; Willie, 1991), the liberalization of divorce laws (Rheinstein, 1972; Weitzman, 1985), and the unequal sex ratio in the Black community (Guttentag & Secord, 1983; South & Lloyd, 1992; Staples, 1985). Although various factors have been considered to explain the high incidence of marital disruption among Blacks, research on the perspective of Black males on the causes of marital distress and divorce is relatively sparse. According to Fine, McKenry, and Chung (1992), most divorce research has explored marital distress and divorce from the perspectives of Black and White women. The reasons men and women offer for their divorces differ significantly (Kitson, 1992; Reissman, 1990). In fact, discrepancies between men's and women's reports have been documented in the areas of child support payments (Wright & Price, 1986), father's involvement postdivorce (Seltzer & Bianchi, 1988), and the postdivorce relationships between former spouses (Goldsmith, 1981). Thus, to understand the high rate of divorce among Blacks, the examination of causes that lead to marital distress and divorce from the perspective of Black men is essential. Studies have reported that structural conditions contribute to the increased prevalence of marital disruption in the Black population (Billingsley, 1992; Hampton, 1979; South, 1993). For example, economic changes in the past 30 years have produced major shifts in employment opportunities for Black males and females. The reduction of manufacturing employment and the decrease in white-collar jobs has produced a decline in the Black working class, an expansion of the Black underclass, and an unstable Black middle class (Billingsley, 1988). For Black men, the change in the economy has resulted in a decline in their labor force participation rate. Studies have documented the relationship between unemployment or sporadic employment and high divorce rates (Fergusson, Horwood, & Shannon, 1984; Martin & Bumpass, 1989; Smith & Meitz, 1985). This article identifies structural as well as personal factors that Black men believe contributed to the instability of their marriages and, in turn, led to divorce. The purpose of this article is to present the findings from in-depth interviews with Black divorced men. Specifically, this study explores the reasons Black men offer for their divorces, and begins to fill a void in understanding the strategies Black men use to cope with structural changes and their effect on marital stability. …

The Continuing Significance of Desegregation: School Racial Composition and African American Inclusion in American Society

The observance of the 40th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954) decision provides an occasion for examining the impact of school desegregation on individuals and the broader society during the four decades that have passed since the Supreme Court's ruling declared segregated schools unconstitutional. Much of the attention in the early post-Brown period, following the initial massive-resistance response, was centered around the question of whether school desegregation would have positive or negative effects on academic achievement, self-esteem, and interracial attitudes of Blacks and Whites. More recent attention has turned to an examination of desegregated schooling's impact on long-term outcomes, including its effects on career attainment and adult social roles. This focus has been especially important for African Americans and other excluded minorities in gauging the extent to which school desegregation has promoted the broader principle of minority inclusion.Research on the long-term benefits of desegregated schooling such as success in college and the job market has recently entered legal and public policy debates over current desegregation issues (Coughlin, 1991). However, much of what is known has not been widely disseminated to the public or in scholarly circles (Braddock, 1985; Braddock & Dawkins, 1984; Braddock & McPartland, 1988). Consequently, this article summarizes research evidence on the long-term effects of school desegregation on educational and career advancement and adult social roles of African Americans.ASSIMILATION OR INCLUSION?: AN ALTERNATIVE CONCEPTUALIZATIONGordon (1964) delineates seven dimensions of assimilation to identify the mechanisms by which ethnic and racial minority groups are incorporated into society's mainstream. Additionally, he makes an important distinction between cultural and structural assimilation. According to Gordon, cultural assimilation is the process whereby ethnic and racial minority groups absorb the cultural and behavioral patterns of the dominant group. Structural assimilation is the process involving the entry of minority groups into the institutional activities of the larger society at both primary (e.g., religious worship, intermarriage, and recreational activity) and secondary (e.g., employment, politics, and education) levels. Gordon notes that cultural and structural assimilation are separate stages and may occur at different rates. Therefore, while the rate of cultural assimilation has been substantial for many minority groups, the pace of structural assimilation--especially entry into the critical institutions of education, politics, and employment--has been much slower for some groups (e.g., African Americans).Despite its utility, Gordon's assimilation conceptualization is limited in its ability to describe the continued exclusion of African Americans from the mainstream of American society. First of all, it assumes that conformity to the cultural norms of White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs) has been the major goal in African Americans' desire for inclusion. Secondly, it assumes that structural assimilation will occur in due course for all minority groups as an outcome of the completion of this stage in the assimilation process. This ignores the possibility that exclusionary barriers such as institutional racism can exist within a society perceived to have achieved full assimilation, despite continued efforts to permanently exclude certain groups from full participation in the institutional activities of that society. Thus, from the assimilation perspective, American society can be characterized as one in which African Americans have adapted to the core WASP culture and made substantial progress toward entry into major areas of institutional life in the broader society.An alternative conceptualization is to view minority groups' desire for inclusion as not necessarily an expression of a desire to embrace the dominant culture's norms and values and thereby reject their own, but rather as a means of realizing the principles of equal opportunity and access. …

The Emerging Self: Young-Adult and Classic Novels of the Black Experience

During the last two decades, fiction written for young adults-formerly a taboo-constrained, white, upper-middle-class enclave-has come of age. Young-adult fiction now probes societal problems with frankness and often with grace. No authors have done more to bring about this change than three African American writers who are leaders in the field: Alice Childress, Rosa Guy, and Walter Dean Myers. Their reflections on growing up black in America offer thematic connections to the work of African American novelists writing earlier in this century: Nella Larsen and Zora Neale Hurston, who were part of the Harlem Renaissance, and Ann Petry, who wrote just after World War II. Cultural roots of the differences between white and black attitudes toward both legitimate and spurious middle-class values are easy to trace. Propelled by the availability of frontier land and high wages, most white immigrants came to America hoping to achieve upward mobility and material success. Espousing the belief that hard work was justly rewarded, they embraced a lifestyle in which competitive relationships, built upon a cash nexus were the norm. Obviously, African Americans were brought to America as slaves. Until Eman ipation, their survival depended upon their ability to n urish a sense of community, partly throug a rich folk culture and fervent religious observance. After Emancipation they faced formidable barriers to economic opportunity. As Langs on Hughes writes in Puzzled,

The Contact Hypothesis Revisited: Black-White Interaction and Positive Racial Attitudes

The Contact Hypothesis Revisited: Black-White Interaction and Positive Racial Attitudes

Race, work, and welfare: Attitudes toward the required employment of young mothers who use welfare

This study examines the views of blacks and whites toward the required employment of mothers who have young children and who use welfare. Using national survey data collected in 1988, attitudes toward these women are analyzed as a function of sociodemographic characteristics and various measures of inequality-related beliefs. Findings indicate that blacks are more likely than whites to agree that mothers using welfare should work in exchange for their benefits, although neither racial group overwhelmingly approves of such an exchange. Further, black attitudes are influenced more by economic self interest and other sociodemographic attributes than by stratification beliefs and the perceived consequences of welfare, the reverse is true for whites. The policy implications of these and other results for research on policy attitudes are discussed.