Subtle Racism Research Articles

The Development and Validation of a Subtle Racism Scale in South Africa

Research on the concept of symbolic or modern racism has shown that transparent and obvious measures of traditional racism no longer adequately reflect racial prejudice in many American sub-populations. There are indications that this may also be the case for certain segments of the white South African population, particularly in the case of university students who have been the typical subjects of research on prejudice. Traditional measures of prejudice may also be viewed as offensive by subjects and elicit antagonistic reactions. The present study therefore set out to develop and validate a new, more indirect, and subtle measure of anti-black racial prejudice designed to overcome these problems. The results ( N = 217) indicated that the Subtle Racism scale was unidimensional, highly reliable, and showed powerful associations with a number of validity criteria. It clearly outperformed a more traditional measure of racism in all respects.

The effects of affirmative action on male-female relationships among African Americans

This article focuses on the little-discussed issue of the impact of affirmative action on black male-female dynamics and interpersonal relationships. Three decades of civil rights campaigns, including often-controversial affirmative action policies, have produced several unanticipated consequences, one of the most crucial being the great disparity between African American males and females in social and economic advancement. While black women have achieved, black men have fallen behind, in part due to the subtle racism of affirmative action implementation. Using fantasy to search for new truths and better directions, the article presents a fictionalized account of the devastating effect of this disparity on African American women. Black women's reactions to the allegorical symbolism of the “Twenty-Seventh Year Syndrome” are dealt with in the article, and become the basis for reconsidering the message of the “Chronicle” and enlarging upon its meaning for black male-female relationships, and for the future of affirmative action and other programs of “racial uplift.”

Race, Bias and Social Enquiry Reports

In the quest for equal justice for black people in the criminal process, the author identifies how black defendants suffer cumulative racial disadvantage, significantly because of the white values, subtle racism and unintended consequences of court reports, and provides illuminating and mortifying examples.

A Comparative Study of the Assimilation of the Chinese in New York City and Lima, Peru

A comparative study of assimilation like the present one has shown that the structural or environmental factors in the larger society are principally responsible for the differential rates of assimilation. Historically, the United States has been racist in its treatment of nearly all immigrants. Eastern and Southern Europeans were judged inferior along ethnic/racist lines (Gordon 1964), let alone those with more pronounced physical characteristics such as blacks, Latins or Asians. The legal structure erected in the United States, which includes the historical anti-ethnic legisla- tion, discriminatory immigration policies and racist miscegenation laws, reflects the attitudes and perceptions of the host society. The long years of unfair policies and discriminatory practices implemented against the Chinese produced feelings of rejection among them. In Lima, by contrast, the Hispanic cultural tradition does not emphasize racial differences. Although therere is a subtle racism in Lima, there is no miscegenation law, and children born of marriages between Chinese and Peruvians become important factors in the assimilation of the Chinese.

Presidential Voting Change in the South: 1956-1972

P OLITICAL CHANGES IN THE SOUTH seem to suggest an electoral realignment that reflects the growing identification of the national Democratic party as the party which favors the extention of civil rights. Taken together, the sharp decline in Southern support for Democratic presidential candidates (at least until 1976), the anguish and even violence in the South over school desegregation, and the seemingly opportune appeals of George Wallace for support (with only a slightly subtle racist issue appeal) buttress the simple proposition that Southern whites have been forced from their traditional support for Democrats by an issue concern. If true, this may be an important instance of issues forcing a break with the static, low salience politics of party loyalty said to describe the American voter in the 1950's.1 Assessing Southern political change, James Sundquist writes,

Compensatory Education: A Subtle Form of Racism?

Is compensatory education based on the cultural deficit/early intervention model an effective means of alleviating minority group failure in schools, or is it a form of racism disguised under the cloak of social welfare? It is argued that attributing failure to environmental factors located in the home is not necessarily less racist than attributing failure to genetic deficit, when the assumptions underlying these two models of failure are considered. Furthermore, whether an environmental or genetic model is assumed, the cause of failure is located within the family and seldom is the contribution of the school seriously considered. It is argued that the school contributes to failure through destruction of identity with, and respect for, minority group cultures and by early socialization into a European value system. Insofar as this subtle racism exists in the present school system it is argued that it should not be extended to the pre-school level but rather should be abandoned at all levels. Some ways in which this might be achieved are discussed.

Challenging Pre-Service and In-Service Teachers' Perceptions of Minority Group Children: A Review of Research

In the Winter, 1972 edition of The Journal of Negro Education, Earle H. West commented (in relation to uprooting racism) we need in all our public schools to find counselors, textbooks, teachers, and programs of study directed at uprooting racial prejudices and animosities within the majority group and developing positive behavior patterns.1 He went further to call for those in positions of power to get at the roots of racism which lie in the attitudes and behaviors of the majority.2 Kenneth Clark recognized the same problem as existent in urban classrooms. He found that many teachers perceived black children in negative ways and behaved negatively toward them.3 Anthropological studies of urban classrooms also point to the attitude of white teachers toward black children to be rooted in racist perceptions. Moore, in his observations of urban classrooms, found subtle racist behaviors on the part of the classroom teacher to be a predominant factor in teacher-child conflicts.4 More recently, challenges to teacher education institutions to begin to deal with the racial attitudinal sets of prospective teachers has been put forth.5

Racism in everyday speech and social work jargon

Subtle racism is discovered in some frequently used terms and concepts.