Racial Perceptions Research Articles

Us versus them: Understanding the process of race perception with event-related brain potentials

Race is powerful social signal, imbued with a great deal of meaning and capable of affecting a wide range of behaviours and judgements. This review focuses on the use of event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to better understand the process and implications of race perception. Research to date repeatedly demonstrates the speed and automaticity with which racial category membership is encoded. The quick and relatively obligatory encoding of racial ingroup and outgroup distinctions in turn affects a variety of subsequent racially biased behaviours. Such findings not only speak to the close link between social categorization and behaviour, but also have been used to understand how the effects of race perception can be moderated.

Early Experience Shapes Amygdala Sensitivity to Race: An International Adoption Design

In the current study, we investigated how complete infant deprivation to out-group race impacts behavioral and neural sensitivity to race. Although monkey models have successfully achieved complete face deprivation in early life, this is typically impossible in human studies. We overcame this barrier by examining youths with exclusively homogenous racial experience in early postnatal development. These were youths raised in orphanage care in either East Asia or Eastern Europe as infants and later adopted by American families. The use of international adoption bolsters confidence of infant exposure to race (e.g., to solely Asian faces or European faces). Participants completed an emotional matching task during functional MRI. Our findings show that deprivation to other-race faces in infancy disrupts recognition of emotion and results in heightened amygdala response to out-group faces. Greater early deprivation (i.e., later age of adoption) is associated with greater biases to race. These data demonstrate how early social deprivation to race shapes amygdala function later in life and provides support that early postnatal development may represent a sensitive period for race perception.

Student Perceptions of Safety in Perceived Similar and Nonsimilar Race High Schools

Despite the large body of research on neighborhood racial composition and perceptions of safety, only one geographically limited study has investigated the relation between school racial composition and student perceptions of safety. Using data from a 2010 national sample of high school seniors, this study found that being in a mostly-same-race high school predicted student feelings of safety; however, this relation was dependent on the race of the student. Contrary to the power in numbers theory, Black and Hispanic students reported feeling less safe in same-race schools whereas the opposite was true for White students. The racial stereotypes applied to places theory better explained the relation between school racial composition and student perceptions of safety at school.

Fostering counter-narratives of race, language, and identity in an urban English classroom

This study examines the counter-narratives that were co-constructed during a curricular unit on language, race, and identity in an urban high school English classroom. We examine both the pedagogical and conversational moves that a White teacher, Mrs. Allen, used to foster such counter-narratives and the content of her African American students’ counter-narratives. We draw on critical and interactional perspectives on classroom discourse to understand the type of lessons and knowledge that the students and Mrs. Allen co-constructed and the ways in which students’ counter-narratives complicated essentialized perceptions of race, language, and identity and referenced locally-constructed social categories and geographic spaces. We argue that the students disputed dominant “master narratives” (Stanley, 2007, p. 14) of race and language through referencing multiple social identities and instances of racism that shaped, and were shaped by, their experiences with language. This article demonstrates how English Language Arts instruction can foster counter-narratives that challenge racist assumptions about language and essentialized perceptions of students’ racial identities.

Shifting Perceptions of Race and Incarceration as Adolescents Age: Addressing Disproportionate Minority Contact by Understanding How Social Environment Informs Racial Attitudes

African American youth disproportionately experience incarceration in the United States and a number of programs have been created to address disproportionate minority contact (DMC) with the juvenile justice system. Thus, we aim to understand the ways in which race and incarceration are conceptualized differently by younger and older youth. Within these age categories we explore how perceptions of incarceration and crime inform racial attitudes among African American adolescents. We also investigate how a program grounded in an operating framework that extols an achievement ideology and designed to decrease DMC among African American adolescent males shapes participants’ attitudes about race and incarceration and their perceived future trajectories Our findings suggest the older participants were less likely to embrace achievement ideology and more likely to be aware of the structural barriers related to race. Thus, a more culturally responsive, critically engaged intervention may be more appropriate for African American youth.

A Moderated Mediation Model: Racial Discrimination, Coping Strategies, and Racial Identity Among Black Adolescents

This study examined a moderated mediation model among 314 Black adolescents aged 13-18. The model included general coping strategies (e.g., active, distracting, avoidant, and support-seeking strategies) as mediators and racial identity dimensions (racial centrality, private regard, public regard, minority, assimilationist, and humanist ideologies) as moderators of the relation between perceived racial discrimination and depressive symptoms. Moderated mediation examined if the relation between perceived racial discrimination and depressive symptoms varied by the mediators and moderators. Results revealed that avoidant coping strategies mediated the relation between perceptions of racial discrimination and depressive symptoms. The results indicated that avoidant coping strategies mediated the relation between perceived racial discrimination and depressive symptoms among youth with high levels of the minority/oppressive ideology.

The Color of Threat: Race, Threat Perception, and the Demise of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance (1902–1923)

Race is understudied in International Relations generally and International Security specifically. To mitigate this omission, this article provides a racial theory of threat perception. It argues that, under certain conditions, racial prejudices embedded in racial identities shape threat perceptions and generate behavioral dispositions. In the first step, racial similarity deflates threat perceptions, while racial difference inflates them. In the second step, deflated threat perceptions facilitate cooperation among racially similar agents, while inflated threat perceptions facilitate discord among racially different agents. Using extensive archival and secondary sources, the article illustrates the explanatory value of the theory in the case of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance (1902-23).

Selective impairment of race perception after bilateral damage in the fusiform and parahippocampal gyri

AbstractAimAlthough a previous functional magnetic resonance imaging study showed that the fusiform and parahippocampal gyri respond differentially to faces of the same versus different races, it is not clear whether the cortical regions are involved in perception of race. We examined whether two brain‐damaged patients with bilateral fusiform and parahippocampal lesions were able to perceive race. We also examined whether perception of race depended on perception of facial morphology, such as convex and concave surfaces.MethodsOne patient (patient S) had a focal lesion in the fusiform and parahippocampal gyri, and showed no signs of prosopagnosia. The other patient (patient O) had more extensive lesions and did show prosopagnosia. The patients and nine normal controls participated in a psychophysical race classification task using grayscale pictures and luminance‐reversed pictures.ResultsIn patient S, whose lesion was limited to the fusiform and parahippocampal gyri, the perception of race was selectively impaired. In patient O, who had more extensive lesions, race perception was also impaired. Furthermore, their race perception was especially impaired when the facial images were presented in reversed luminance.ConclusionThe present study suggests that the fusiform and parahippocampal gyri are involved in perception of race and that perception of facial surface is involved in distinguishing between races.

Psychoanalyzing Iran: Kennedy's Iran Task Force and the Modernization of Orientalism, 1961–3

Between 1961 and 1963, a political crisis in Iran prompted U.S. foreign-policy makers to briefly consider supporting political reform that would have pushed the Shah toward a more constitutional role and moved Iran toward democracy. Yet Washington instead decided to bolster the Shah's regime to carry out social and economic reforms that coalesced as the Shah's White Revolution in 1963. Policy-makers relied in part on a psychological profile of Iran to shape their decisions, believing that the Iranian people were psychologically unprepared to rule, and that the Shah was psychologically unprepared to give up power. This article encourages diplomatic historians to explore how the language and ideas of psychology influenced the modernization theories and policies that U.S. policy-makers applied to Iran, the Middle East, and the wider ‘Third World.’ After briefly exploring the history of U.S. racial, religious, and cultural perceptions of Iran - many of which fit traditional stereotypes of Orientalism - the article examines the influence of political and developmental psychology at a time when racial and religious bias were increasingly taboo. Psychology offered more acceptable, scientific ways to understand Iran and the Middle East, though it led to familiar conclusions. While attempting to modernize Iran, policy-makers modernized Orientalism.

Effects of Patient-Provider Race Concordance and Smoking Status on Lung Cancer Risk Perception Accuracy Among African-Americans

Communication of lung cancer risk information between providers and African-American patients occurs in a context marked by race-based health disparities. A controlled experiment assessed whether perceived physician race influenced African-American patients' (n = 127) risk perception accuracy following the provision of objective lung cancer risk information. Participants interacted with a virtual reality-based, simulated physician who provided personalized cancer risk information. Participants who interacted with a racially discordant virtual doctor were less accurate in their risk perceptions at post-test than those who interacted with a concordant virtual doctor, F(1,94) = 4.02, p = .048. This effect was amplified among current smokers. Effects were not mediated by trust in the provider, engagement with the health care system, or attention during the encounter. The current study demonstrates that African-American patients' perceptions of a doctor's race are sufficient to independently impact their processing of lung cancer risk information.

Amygdala Sensitivity to Race Is Not Present in Childhood but Emerges over Adolescence

Neuroimaging research in adults has consistently found that differential perception of race is associated with increased amygdala activity. We hypothesized that such neural biases unlikely reflect innate processes but instead emerge over development. In the current study, we used fMRI to examine the neurodevelopmental trajectory of the amygdala in response to race across childhood and adolescence ranging from 4 to 16 years. Thirty-two youths viewed African American and European American faces during a functional brain scan. Results suggest that differential amygdala response to African American faces does not emerge until adolescence, reflecting the increasing salience of race across development. In addition, greater peer diversity was associated with attenuated amygdala response to African American faces, suggesting that intergroup racial contact may reduce the salience of race.

EXPLORING THE ALIGNMENT OF BLACK SCIENTISTS WITH THE AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY: DOES RACE STILL MATTER?

This study examined Black scientists' characterizations of the relationship between their race and their alignment with the science community. Using exploratory factor analysis, we examined 110 scientists' experiences in accessing science. Over half of the participants (54%) indicated high alignment with the scientific community. By contrast, 46% of Black scientists perceived themselves as having low alignment with the scientific community. Using these grouping for subsequent quantitative and qualitative analyses, we were able to identify how race emerged as a consistent factor for these participants. The results indicate that their perceptions of race were a salient factor in determining their experiences as scientists. We contend that although progress has been made, a post-racial scientific community remains elusive.

Racism, Indigenous People, and the Australian Armed Forces in the Post-Second World War era

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ex-service personnel’s perceptions of racism in the armed forces have varied historically. Some Indigenous ex-servicemen and women perceived high levels of racial discrimination in the Australian Defence Force and its predecessors, while others suggest that they experienced little if any racial prejudice. Using oral testimonies, this article analyses some of the factors influencing Indigenous perceptions of racism in the military, including: the era of service, nature of employment, branch of service and Indigenous service personnel’s physical appearance. Contrary to popular assumptions about the military being an institution relatively free of racism, the post-Second World War armed forces have reflected civilian Australia’s racial, and sometimes racist, attitudes towards Indigenous people.This article has been peer-reviewed.

The Marley Hypothesis

This study used a signal detection paradigm to explore the Marley hypothesis—that group differences in perception of racism reflect dominant-group denial of and ignorance about the extent of past racism. White American students from a midwestern university and Black American students from two historically Black universities completed surveys about their historical knowledge and perception of racism. Relative to Black participants, White participants perceived less racism in both isolated incidents and systemic manifestations of racism. They also performed worse on a measure of historical knowledge (i.e., they did not discriminate historical fact from fiction), and this group difference in historical knowledge mediated the differences in perception of racism. Racial identity relevance moderated group differences in perception of systemic manifestations of racism (but not isolated incidents), such that group differences were stronger among participants who scored higher on a measure of racial identity relevance. The results help illuminate the importance of epistemologies of ignorance: cultural-psychological tools that afford denial of and inaction about injustice.

The End of Cordiality and the Invention of Racism?: Evidence from Recent Cultural Production

THE END OF CORDIALITY AND THE INVENTION OF RACISM?: EVIDENCE FROM RECENT CULTURAL PRODUCTION Robert N. Anderson III Winston-Salem State University Introduction: Brazilian Culture at the Crossroads Brazilian race relations are at crossroads. This junction is one at which the ontological status of Brazil’s “racial democracy” is being revisited: is it falsehood, partial truth, or unfulfilled ideal? In other words, there is an intellectual and scholarly debate. These crossroads, however, are also where domains of society are making tactical choices, among the most salient of which is the enactment of anti-racist and affirmative action public policies. A study of these crossroads thus includes research on the status and perceptions of race in Brazil, the social and artistic contexts themselves, and how artists and intellectuals are shaping race-conscious public policies. As the image of crossroads reveals, there are tensions, diverging paths, and both tactical and philosophical choices embedded in the historical moment, a moment at which some may wonder if Brazil is leaving behind the cordiality of its supposed racial democracy and entering a more combative, confrontational phase of race relations. Though the historical moment is unique, the debate is not new. Whereas scholarship may indeed be entering a new phase, as just noted, it has already successfully established the reality of racial inequality regardless of the modalities of social relations. For much of the twentieth century, Brazilians have tended to imagine their country as a “racial democracy,” free of the kinds of racism and discrimination prevalent in the United States. Many have preferred to interpret any inequality as class- rather than racebased . Parallel with and embedded in society’s journey is the reflective path of scholarship, militancy, and the arts. Intellectuals, activists, and artists encountered crossroads four decades ago when they questioned radically the “myth of racial democracy.”1 This interrogation of the common sense around Brazilian race relations also witnessed moments when the various agents of inquiry and change converged, and this convergence sometimes gave rise to new questions for the stakeholders to address. For instance, when energized by the public debates surrounding the Centennial of Abolition (1988) and the Constituent Assembly that gave rise to the Constitution of 1988, anthropologists and historians, not always working in concert, further engaged what it meant to be Black in Brazil.2 In the question of constitutional rights of surviving maroon communities, scholars successfully mapped and vetted thousands of communities in Brazil, a first step in securing constitutionally guaranteed land rights. But they found it was easier to define a comunidade negra C 2012 Southeastern Council on Latin American Studies and Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 57 The Latin Americanist, December 2012 rural (rural Black community) than a remanescente de quilombo (surviving maroon community). Moreover, those activists who joined the ranks of the academics soon confronted empirically their own deeply held beliefs about Black identity. Defining Blackness as a problematic arose ironically at the same time that color-based racism had been shown to be real. Today intellectuals, activists, and artists stand at new crossroads, which offer new paths for science, for public policy and politics of race, and for creative expression. To understand the current “post-heroic phase” of scholarship, it is useful to revisit one of its pioneers. The publication of Carl N. Degler’s Neither Black nor White in 1971 was a turning point in US scholarship on race in Brazil. Not only was the book well received by the scholarly community, but it was an explicitly comparative approach to the question, something rarely attempted before or since in any discipline. Within this comparative perspective, Degler attempted to address the underlying paradox of how Brazil and the United States were similar yet different in their experience of enslavement of Africans and the outcomes of this socio-economic process. Degler’s essay is a fulcrum because, in the preceding decades, scholars in both countries and beyond were trying to get past a facile apprehension of supposedly radical differences between the United States and Brazilian institutions of slavery (e.g. Tannenbaum, Freyre) within a larger context of assertion of extreme difference in patterns and outcomes of Northern European and Iberian colonization (e.g. Moog). So what about the United...

Perceived Discrimination and Peer Victimization Among African American and Latino Youth

Perceptions of racial discrimination constitute significant risks to the psychological adjustment of minority youth. The present study examined the relationship between perceived racial discrimination and peer nominations of victimization among 173 (55 % female) African American, European American and Latino youth. All respondents completed peer nominations of victimization status whereas the African American and Latino youth completed subjective measures of racial discrimination. The results indicated that African American and Latino's subjective perceptions of racial discrimination were linked to nominations of overt and relational victimization when rated by their European American peers. The results suggest that there is consistency between African American and Latino youth's perceptions of racial discrimination and nominations of peer victimization by their European American peers.

How Race and Class Stereotyping Shapes Attitudes Toward Affordable Housing

The development of affordable housing often involves a contentious siting process. Proposed housing developments frequently trigger concern among neighbors and community groups about potential negative impacts on neighborhood quality of life and property values. Advocates, developers, and researchers have long suspected that these concerns stem in part from racial or class prejudice. Yet, to date, empirical evidence supporting these assumptions is lacking. This study seeks to examine roles that perceptions of race and class play in shaping opinions that underlie public opposition to affordable housing. This study applies a public opinion survey to determine the extent to which stereotypes and perceptions of the poor and minorities relate to attitudes toward affordable housing. The results demonstrate that such perceptions are particularly strong determinants of negative attitudes about affordable housing. These findings provide advocates, planners, developers, and researchers with a more accurate portrayal of affordable housing opposition, thereby allowing the response to be shaped in a more appropriate manner.

How Race and Class Stereotyping Shapes Attitudes Toward Affordable Housing

The development of affordable housing often involves a contentious siting process. Proposed housing developments frequently trigger concern among neighbors and community groups about potential negative impacts on neighborhood quality of life and property values. Advocates, developers, and researchers have long suspected that these concerns stem in part from racial or class prejudice. Yet, to date, empirical evidence supporting these assumptions is lacking. This study seeks to examine roles that perceptions of race and class play in shaping opinions that underlie public opposition to affordable housing. This study applies a public opinion survey to determine the extent to which stereotypes and perceptions of the poor and minorities relate to attitudes toward affordable housing. The results demonstrate that such perceptions are particularly strong determinants of negative attitudes about affordable housing. These findings provide advocates, planners, developers, and researchers with a more accurate portrayal of affordable housing opposition, thereby allowing the response to be shaped in a more appropriate manner.

Race matters: Perceptions of race and racism in a sickle cell center

Health care disparities based on race have been reported in the management of many diseases. Our goal was to identify perceptions of race and racism among both staff and patients/families with particular attention to provider attitudes as a potential contributor to racial healthcare disparities. A confidential survey addressing issues of race and health care was given to all patients with sickle cell disease and their families upon arrival to clinic. The survey was made available online to all staff in the hematology/oncology program. Free text comments were obtained. We received completed surveys from 112 patients/families. Surveys were completed by 135 of 158 staff members (85% return rate). The majority (92.6%) of patients/families identified as black, while 94.1% of staff identified as white (P < 0.001). More patients/families felt that race affects the quality of health care for sickle cell patients (50% vs. 31.6%, P = 0.003). More staff perceived unequal treatment of patients, especially in the inpatient setting (20.9% vs. 10.9%, P = 0.03). Provider attitudes contribute to continued racial health care disparities. We propose training health care providers on issues of race and racism. Training should provide critical thinking tools for improving medical providers' comfort and skills in caring for patients who are of a different race than their own.

Racial Perceptions of Baseball at Historically Black Colleges and Universities

The purpose of this study is to identify demographic backgrounds, participation patterns, and racial perceptions of baseball student-athletes at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in the Southeastern United States. HBCUs were selected for this study because of the dearth of research on student-athletes at these institutions. An 11-item questionnaire and a focus group interview were used for data collection. Data were retrieved from student-athletes who participate in baseball at two selected HBCUs in the Southeastern United States. A grounded theoretical approach was used to examine demographic backgrounds, participation patterns, and racial perceptions of baseball student-athletes at HBCUs. The findings from this study revealed that increasing opportunities at all levels for Blacks to succeed in baseball is the most important way to increase Black participation in baseball.