Framework Of Racism Research Articles

The white racial frame: centuries of racial framing and counter-framing

In this book sociologist Joe Feagin extends the systemic racism framework in previous Routledge books by developing an innovative concept, the white racial frame. Now more than four centuries old, this white racial frame encompasses not only the stereotyping, bigotry, and racist ideology emphasized in other theories of “race,” but also the visual images, array of emotions, sounds of accented language, interlinking interpretations and narratives, and inclinations to discriminate that are central to the frame’s everyday operations. Deeply imbedded in American minds and institutions, this white racial frame has for centuries functioned as a broad worldview, one essential to the routine legitimation, scripting, and maintenance of systemic racism in the United States. Here Feagin examines how and why this white racial frame emerged in North America, how and why it has evolved socially over time, which racial groups are framed within it, how it has operated in the past and present for both white Americans and Americans of color, and how the latter have long responded with strategies of resistance that include enduring counter-frames. In this third edition, Feagin has included much new data from many recent research studies on framing issues related to white, black, Native, Latino/a, and Asian Americans, and on society generally. The book also includes a more extensive discussion of the impact of the white frame on popular culture, including on video games, movies, and television programs, as well as a discussion of the white racial frame’s significant impacts on public policymaking on immigration, the environment, health care, and crime and imprisonment issues.

Our Borats, Our Selves: Yokels and Cosmopolitans on the Global Stage

The comic figure of the yokel has undergone a resurgence in the past decade, culminating in Sacha Baron-Cohen's Borat. The yokel, whose predictable humor is based on his aggressive backwardness and persistent malapropisms, draws attention to the “foreignness” with which multiculturalism is uncomfortable, while also highlighting the economic and cultural dislocation of globalization. Cohen builds on the longstanding stereotypes about Jews and Gypsies (Roma), creating a persona who resembles the “vermin” of Nazi propaganda and manages to elicit racist responses from his unwitting audience. Borat functions within a fictional framework of racism and ethnic hostility, bringing to light barely concealed discomforts about border-crossings, cosmopolitanism, and global cultures.

Aversive racism in Britain: the use of inadmissible evidence in legal decisions

The aversive racism framework (S. L. Gaertner & J. F. Dovidio, 1986) suggests that bias against Blacks is most likely to be expressed by Whites when it can be explained or justified along non-racial grounds. The present experiment adopted a 2 (Evidence: admissible vs. inadmissible) × 2 (Defendant Race: White vs. Black) between subjects design, asking White participants, whose self-reported prejudice was assessed, to judge a legal case. As predicted, increased guilt ratings and longer sentencing recommendations were forwarded for the Black (vs. White) defendant only when DNA evidence linking the defendant to the crime had previously been ruled inadmissible. This result was not qualified by self-report racial attitudes. The implications for evidence inadmissibility in interracial contexts are considered, along with the repercussions of finding experimental evidence of aversive racism outside of North America. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Race and Ideology: African-American Images in Television Advertising

Although the numerical representation of African-Americans in contemporary television advertising has improved in recent years, the authors’ analysis illustrates how the potentially positive effects of including more African-Americans in advertisements are often mitigated by subtle racist elements that suggest African-American inferiority. Using an interpretive approach, the authors cast the problem within a framework of racism as ideology, that is, the dominant white ideology pervading the advertising industry. Their discussion of six themes identified in their analysis of prime-time television commercials serves to highlight problematic images of African-Americans that continue to persist in contemporary advertising. In the spirit of self-regulation, the authors suggest actions that the advertising industry can take to present more positive and varied portrayals of minority populations.