Race Matters Research Articles

Synergistic benefits of inclusive leadership to foster child welfare workers’ job self-efficacy: race matters

ABSTRACT With growing diversity in child welfare, inclusive leadership could improve child welfare workers’ performance with children and families. By analyzing survey data collected from 2469 public child welfare workers, we found that inclusive leadership was positively associated with job efficacy by increasing workers’ perceptions of an inclusive climate and empowerment. Furthermore, its positive effects were greater among workers of color than White workers. Findings suggest that inclusive leadership can function as an organizational mechanism to promote performance-related outcomes, especially among child welfare workers of color. This paper concludes with practical implications to encourage inclusive leadership and strengthen its synergistic benefits.

Studying the Implementation of Equity Projects in Science Education in Divisive Political Contexts

ABSTRACTThe implementation of equity‐oriented reforms is never simply a technical matter: it involves directly engaging with the norms and politics responsible for reproducing inequitable opportunities and outcomes, and with efforts to promote educational justice. To date, there has been little research on how leaders in science education navigate the political environments of schooling to engage in equity work in their local contexts. The current political divisions within and among states regarding teaching about racial equity provide an important and timely context for such study. This study examines equity projects that science education leaders engage in and how these relate to recently passed legislation in several states regarding teaching about race and its ongoing role in shaping American society and institutions. It relies on survey data from science education leaders in 33 states, focusing on their familiarity with and involvement in different kinds of equity projects in science education, along with their perceptions of what supports and what hinders their equity‐focused work. Employing a mixed methods approach, including descriptive analysis, hierarchical linear modeling, and thematic analysis, we found that engagement in equity projects varied widely across and within states. However, in states with laws promoting equity, leaders were engaged in more racial equity‐related projects than in states with legislation that restrict discussion of matters of race, so‐called “gag orders”. These findings underscore the significance of the broader political environments in shaping science education leadership and present opportunities for researchers in the field to support leaders in navigating them.

Ain’t I a Migrant?: Global Blackness and the Future of Migration Studies

In the wake of recent interventions to better connect the subfields of international migration and race and ethnicity through a sociology of racialized immigration, we push this further by arguing for the necessity of a global Blackness perspective on global migration. Such a focus does not just reflect the role of race in the dynamics of migration, and vice versa, but more importantly shifts assumptions about this relationship. So, it is not enough to say that race matters in migration but rather that blackness and Black lives matter in how migration unfolds. Using global blackness as a starting point in our analyses of migration reveals a clearer and closer entanglement of race, racism, colonialism, and migration. We argue that global Blackness structures notions of who migrates and under what conditions, as well as our ideas regarding migrants and their descendants and use the examples of New York City, Paris, and France as paradigmatic sites for understanding this relationship.

Ways forward: More inclusive teacher education in England

AbstractThis paper underscores the need to address the matters of inclusion and social justice within the teacher education curriculum in England. Current curricula for teacher education emphasises subject and pedagogical knowledge for teaching, including supporting pupils with special educational needs. Although these knowledge are critical, we argue that matters of sexual orientation, disability, race and gender are not addressed in the statutory curriculum content. This has serious implications for pre‐service teachers who may be inadequately prepared for teaching in classrooms with diverse learners and for pre‐service teachers with minority and global majority identities who may feel excluded from the curriculum. We offer some ways forward for embedding inclusion into teacher education programmes.

Separate from Class? Toward a Theory of Race as Resource Signal

Abstract In the study of U.S. inequality, social scientists have long sought to tease apart the “effect of race” from the “effect of class” in our analyses. In studies of how individuals make evaluations of the social world, for instance, researchers have asked whether race or class demography shape individual perceptions, how each matters independent of the other, and ultimately which matters more. While this scientific practice is widespread, what I term the race-versus-class paradigm is only one way to analyze the relationship between race and class. The materialist tradition offers a competing approach, asking not how race matters independent of class, but how racism operates through structural, material conditions. To better explain the relationship between “race” and “class” in how individuals evaluate the social world, this paper proposes a theory of race as resource signal. In this alternative approach, race and class are interwoven, mutually constitutive, and dialectically constructed concepts unable to be meaningfully teased apart. I trace the differences in the two approaches through an empirical application, asking how individuals evaluate school quality based on neighborhood race and class demography in a video experiment.

Black representation and the popular legitimacy of the Federal Reserve

The Federal Reserve has started paying closer attention to matters of race over the last decade. The central bank has increasingly emphasized the distinct economic challenges facing racial minorities, and its leadership has become more racially diverse. This paper applies theories of descriptive and substantive representation to understand how these shifts are likely to impact the popular legitimacy of the Federal Reserve. We hypothesize that greater Black descriptive and substantive representation improves Black Americans' confidence in the Federal Reserve. We also anticipate that political ideology moderates how white Americans respond to the increases in Black representation within the Federal Reserve, with white conservatives responding less favorably to these changes than more left-leaning whites. Analysis of data from two original survey experiments with separate samples of 3000 Americans, split evenly between Black and white respondents, supports our expectations. Information about substantive and descriptive representation at the Fed has a strong impact on Black Americans' perceptions of the institution. We also find that these changes at the Fed boost white liberals' views of the Fed but have little impact on white conservatives’ attitudes about the central bank.

What does racial ascription have to do with perception of Swedishness?

AbstractHow do Swedes, who are not exposed to administrative routines of reporting race and ethnicity, perceive, and categorize faces with different phenotypical features? This study examines identity contestation that can occur and address how race affects the way you are perceived as Swedish. A sample of Swedish participants were asked to assign racial categories to images of faces with different phenotypes, identify the skin color of the faces and rate how ‘Swedish’ the faces are perceived. We also use eye‐tracking to explore whether participants look differently at the faces of different racial groups. The results show greater identity contestation among Latino and Black faces. Moreover, while Swedish respondents identify the skin color of faces self‐identified as Black as darker compared to other racial backgrounds, the differences in skin color reported between Asian, White and Latinos were very small. Despite these small differences in the perception of skin color among Asian, White, and Latino faces, faces self‐reported as White were rated as significantly more Swedish by the respondents compared Asian and Latino faces. All these results contribute to the understanding of not only how race matters in Sweden but also to the understanding of constructivist nature of race.

Race matters more than racial identity disclosure when evaluating applicant diversity statements

AbstractThe present research investigated whether a target applicant's race and disclosure of their race in a personal diversity statement influenced White evaluators' perceptions of the applicant's egalitarian motivations and their likelihood of contributing to organizational diversity and inclusion outcomes. In Study 1 (N = 206), participants evaluated a diversity statement that was ostensibly written by a White or Black applicant who either referenced or did not reference his race within the statement. Participants judged Black applicants as more internally motivated to be egalitarian and White applicants as more externally motivated, regardless of whether they disclosed their race in the statement. Participants also judged Black applicants as more likely to contribute to diversity and inclusion outcomes than White applicants. Study 2 (N = 257) aimed to replicate Study 1 and tested a strengthened race disclosure condition. We again saw little evidence of race disclosure impacting evaluations of applicants: Black applicants were judged as more internally motivated, less externally motivated, and more likely to contribute to diversity and inclusion compared to White applicants. Study 3 (N = 297) aimed to further replicate and expand on these results by testing a disclosure manipulation wherein the applicant discussed the personal importance/centrality of his race. Once again, applicant race (and not disclosure) demonstrated consistent effects on applicant evaluations. Our results highlight flaws in the personal diversity statement evaluation process, such that factors beyond statement content (i.e., applicant race) influenced perceptions and outcomes of the applicants. Practical implications and solutions for applicant evaluation processes are discussed.

Race-conscious professional teaching standards: Where do the states stand?

Education policymakers have long sought to reduce persistent achievement disparities between students of color and White students with varying levels of success. Understanding the different needs and obstacles faced by students and families of color is important given educating all individuals for our future U.S. society is a priority. Educational policy should reflect the assumption that race matters and continues to impact educational opportunity. This paper argues that race-conscious professional teaching standards could extend the structural boundaries of teacher practice when working with racially, culturally, and linguistically diverse students. Using discourse analysis to analyze the deeper meanings of selected states’ teaching standards in different sociopolitical contexts, this paper describes the challenges and opportunities for infusing race-conscious perspectives in teaching standards. Implications for how states’ teaching policy language actively creates and builds teaching and learning environments are discussed.

“Calling a Black person betún [black shoe polish] is out of love”: questioning the school’s Racial Grammar

ABSTRACT This is a qualitative case study about the Racial Grammar (RG) in a School in Cali, Colombia. We critically interrogate the naturalized elements of the school racial system and show how they are organized, combined, and normalized as the daily standards of school functioning. Data about the school was collected in different spaces: aisles, classrooms, gym, library, offices, and playground. Drawing on black critical theories, we examine how the school’s racial grammar establishes the rules for correctness and for who can(not) speak on racial matters, and how students and staff respond to those shallow and profound racial structures. Findings suggest that the RG’s logic and profound structure are materialized through language, re-produced in social interactions, but also questioned for re-signifying identities. This RG shapes curriculum, instruction, and therefore Black students’ experiences in the school system.

Even with ChatGPT, race matters

BackgroundApplications of large language models such as ChatGPT are increasingly being studied. Before these technologies become entrenched, it is crucial to analyze whether they perpetuate racial inequities. MethodsWe asked Open AI's ChatGPT-3.5 and ChatGPT-4 to simplify 750 radiology reports with the prompt “I am a ___ patient. Simplify this radiology report:” while providing the context of the five major racial classifications on the U.S. census: White, Black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, and Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander. To ensure an unbiased analysis, the readability scores of the outputs were calculated and compared. ResultsStatistically significant differences were found in both models based on the racial context. For ChatGPT-3.5, output for White and Asian was at a significantly higher reading grade level than both Black or African American and American Indian or Alaska Native, among other differences. For ChatGPT-4, output for Asian was at a significantly higher reading grade level than American Indian or Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, among other differences. ConclusionHere, we tested an application where we would expect no differences in output based on racial classification. Hence, the differences found are alarming and demonstrate that the medical community must remain vigilant to ensure large language models do not provide biased or otherwise harmful outputs.

Just How Remarkable was the ‘Jealous Moor’? Othello, Jealousy and Early Modern Racial Stereotypes

ABSTRACT It is a critical commonplace that Othello is informed by the early modern stereotype that understood Moors to be particularly inclined to jealousy. This article contextualises this stereotype, by placing it within the larger early modern racial anthropology of jealousy. I argue that the association of Moors and jealousy was not particularly notable or exceptional, because contemporary English writers similarly diagnosed many different peoples from across the global as temperamentally disposed to excessive jealousy. When historicised, the early modern stereotype of the ‘jealous Moor’ conveys somewhat less meaning than is usually thought by modern critics of Othello – but by placing it in its proper historical context, we freshly see how the intersection of race and emotion remains vital to the play, and how a fully historicised account of Shakespearean drama must be attentive to the matters of race.

Richardson’s Multilateral Military Expenditure Model Augmentation via Sentiment Analysis of News Data in the Framework of Complexity Eco-nomics

Complexity economics incorporates factors that are not accounted for in classical economic thought. With this paper, we intend to demonstrate the potential of using the complexity economics frame of reference by revisiting an existing model of the past, especially one that has been proven to be effective and, most importantly, could utilize the recent developments in advanced analytics as a tool to address a more realistic social milieu. We propose the introduction of more complex dynamics into an already existing model by using Deep-Learning-based NLP analysis of large news article data to fill in the action-reaction matrix for Richardson’s multilateral arms race model. By introducing said complex dynamics we also opened a discussion about the effect that media has on democratic societies’ military spending and concluded at the first level of analysis that media has a significant influence on the electorates’ decision-making of democratic nations in the matter of arms race and defense budgets. Also, we were able to demonstrate the final form of the augmented multilateral arms race model and its predictive capacity. We hope that our findings will encourage the use of advanced analytics in the framework of complexity analysis and improve the existing models’ performance via big data insights.

How Racial Matter Comes to Matter: Memory Work, Animacy and Childhood Dolls

Dolls have a long history in psychological and literary scholarship, and in popular culture. Many of these cultural products point to how dolls bring forth imaginaries of race and gender. Dolls, however, are not only figures of representation or identification. Dolls are agential in the ways they bring life to racialised, affective and embodied experiences. In this article, we develop an affective hauntology, applying memory work to explore how memories of childhood dolls can inform us about formations of race, racialisation and Whiteness. Applying Mel Y. Chen’s conceptualisation of animacy as an affective-material construction, we explore how dolls become ‘real and true’, bringing forth how racial matters come to matter as part of gendered subjectivities. Our memories of childhood dolls cut across different geopolitical and historical contexts – Eastern Europe, Western Europe and South-East Asia – revealing interesting differences and similarities in terms of processes of racialisation from the 1970s to 1990s.

What Do School Administrators Think About Race? A Critical Race Mixed-Method Study

Purpose: This study intends to be a catalyst in preparing school leaders to go beyond the call of social justice, to step into the role of anti-racist school leaders who advocate and actualize systemic changes in the educational landscape. Research Methods: Data were gathered using a mixed method approach, starting with an online survey (ARDSA) of 223 school administrators across Texas followed by in-depth interviews with a representative sample of 19 school administrators. Data analysis techniques included quantitative analysis of surveys to determine school and district administrators’ perceptions of racism in schools and need for professional development followed by qualitative analysis to look for patterns and themes. Findings: Women agreed significantly more than men on Perceptions of Racial Inequities, Perceptions of Equitable Expectations, Addressing Racism, Critical Self-Awareness about Race, and Professional Development on Antiracism. Black and Latinx participants placed higher value on Engaging in Dialogues about Race with close connections more than Whites. Latinx and White participants agreed more with the items on remaining silent when witnessing or hearing about racism. Themes that emerged from the qualitative phase of this study included: Fear of Talking about Race, and Lack of Preparation from Educational Leadership Programs to Address Matters of Race. Implications: School districts and educational leadership preparation programs should be intentional about professional development, curriculum, and experiences that support leaders in developing critical awareness about race, understanding positionality and its role in school leadership, critical policy analysis, and engaging in courageous conversations that center race.

Country context, race and wages: A comparative analysis of Ethiopian immigrant labour market integration in the United States and Israel

AbstractAmerican immigration policy debates focus on immigrants' (lack of) labour market success. While research shows that Black African immigrants experience the largest wage disadvantage, studies rarely discuss whether country‐context—formed by immigration policy and migration history—matters for their wages and whether race matters differently across place. We use Israeli and US data to determine whether Ethiopian immigrants are most disadvantaged across country contexts. Our results indicate that Ethiopian immigrants' credentials are higher in the United States, but that does not lead to higher relative wages than in Israel. Because we find that Ethiopian immigrants who are most similar to the native‐born earn nearly identical wages to the most marginalized groups in both countries, it is clear that country context plays only a small role in wage disparities. Instead, discrimination and unobserved differences between groups are most important.

Race, Religion, and Black Lives Matter: Assessing the Association between Sermon Content and Racial Justice Attitudes and Behaviors

AbstractWe use the 2020/2021 National Politics Study to examine two central questions: 1. How do religious beliefs and clergy sermons about race associate with support for Black Lives Matter (BLM) and racial justice work? And 2. Is the relationship between religion and BLM‐related attitudes and activism similar or different across race groups? We found the following: In the months following the summer of 2020 protests in response to George Floyd's murder, African, Hispanic, and White American worship goers who heard sermons about race and policing were more likely than were their co‐ethnics to approve of BLM and to engage in racial justice work. Identifying with the religious left and believing that social justice is a core part of one's religaious beliefs is also associated with these groups approving of BLM and engaging in racial justice work. That said, race matters. These forms of religion tend to maintain stronger relationships with White BLM‐related attitudes and activism than they do for African Americans and Hispanics.

C.L.R. James’ Beyond A Boundary

C.L.R. James’ <i>Beyond A Boundary</i>

Fat Shaming: A Neoliberal Performance Review - Unveiling the Hidden Script Behind Body Policing

The paper examines the widespread occurrence of fat shaming from the perspective of neoliberal ideology. The argument posits that fat shaming is not solely a societal stigma, but rather a deliberate strategy based on neoliberal principles that prioritise personal accountability, self-control, and economic efficiency. The study examines how overweight bodies are subjected to scrutiny and marginalisation through the analysis of cultural narratives and media portrayals. This reinforces socioeconomic hierarchies and perpetuates a cycle of discrimination and exclusion. The analysis emphasises the interconnectedness of fat shaming with matters of gender, race, and class, emphasising the necessity for a more comprehensive and analytical discussion on body politics. This critique seeks to question the underlying neoliberal ideology that supports the enforcement of societal standards on bodies, and instead promotes a more empathetic and fair approach to embracing and promoting variety and well-being.

Race matters in coaching: An empirical study of coaches’ willingness to have difficult conversations with leaders of color.

Race matters in coaching: An empirical study of coaches’ willingness to have difficult conversations with leaders of color.