Racial Preferences
Testing the generalizability of the white leadership standard in the post-Obama era
Adaora Ubaka, Xinxin Lu & Lyangela Gutierrez
Leadership Quarterly, August 2023
Abstract:
Over a decade ago, Rosette, Leonardelli, and Phillips (2008) conducted a study on race and business leader prototypes and discovered that participants held an implicit “white leadership standard”. As revealed in that study, such a standard introduces racial bias into the leadership categorization process, and places employees from racial minority groups at a disadvantage as they seek to attain leadership roles. However, in the last decade, broader trends and events in American society (e.g., the Obama presidency; the Harris Vice Presidency; an increase in minority business leader representation; changing demographics) have altered the socio-cultural context in which implicit leadership theories (ILTs) develop, hence offering the possibility that leadership models may have become amenable to change. The present study set out to retest the theoretical hypotheses of Rosette et al. (2008) in a direct/close replication study to examine the extent to which the findings generalize to a new sample within this new era. Across four experimental studies, results reveal more racially inclusive leadership perceptions than previously observed, as well as a weakened and context-dependent white leadership standard.
Is white always the standard? Using replication to revisit and extend what we know about the leadership prototype
William Obenauer & Michael Kalsher
Leadership Quarterly, August 2023
Abstract:
This research is a pre-registered replication of Rosette, Leonardelli, and Phillips' (2008) seminal work in leadership categorization theory. Their work established race as a component to the business leader prototype and found evidence that when a leader was given credit for successful organizational performance, White leaders were evaluated more favorably than non-White leaders. As leadership exemplars are evolving, however, a need to reexamine these relationships has emerged. Results from our replications of their first and third studies showed minimal support for the argument that being White is a component of the business leader prototype. Additionally, across six separate studies, we found no conditions in which White leaders received more favorable evaluations than their non-White counterparts. Contrary to our expectations, we found that non-White leaders received marginally more favorable ratings than White leaders in four of our studies.
The Disparate Impacts of College Admissions Policies on Asian American Applicants
Joshua Grossman et al.
NBER Working Paper, August 2023
Abstract:
There is debate over whether Asian American students are admitted to selective colleges and universities at lower rates than white students with similar academic qualifications. However, there have been few empirical investigations of this issue, in large part due to a dearth of data. Here we present the results from analyzing 685,709 applications from Asian American and white students to a subset of selective U.S. institutions over five application cycles, beginning with the 2015–2016 cycle. The dataset does not include admissions decisions, and so we construct a proxy based in part on enrollment choices. Based on this proxy, we estimate the odds that Asian American applicants were admitted to at least one of the schools we consider were 28% lower than the odds for white students with similar test scores, grade-point averages, and extracurricular activities. The gap was particularly pronounced for students of South Asian descent (49% lower odds). We trace this pattern in part to two factors. First, many selective colleges openly give preference to the children of alumni, and we find that white applicants were substantially more likely to have such legacy status than Asian applicants, especially South Asian applicants. Second, after adjusting for observed student characteristics, the institutions we consider appear less likely to admit students from geographic regions with relatively high shares of applicants who are Asian. We hope these results inform ongoing discussions on the equity of college admissions policies.
Teachers' racialized anger: Implications for discipline disparities
Kamilah Legette et al.
Journal of School Psychology, August 2023
Abstract:
The contribution of racial bias to teachers' racialized discipline practices is increasingly clear, but the processes by which these biases are activated are less well understood. This study examined teachers' emotional responses to students' misbehaviors by student race as well as whether teachers' emotional responses serve to mediate the association between student race and teachers' discipline practices. Results from a sample of 228 teachers in the United States indicated that teachers were 71% more likely to report feeling anger as compared to concern when they read about a potentially challenging behavior of a Black student as compared to a White student. Additionally, teachers' anger mediated the association between student race and discipline, suggesting teacher anger as a potential point of intervention for change.
White privilege, white grievance, and the limitations of white antiracism
Leah Christiani & Lucy Britt
Politics, Groups, and Identities, forthcoming
Abstract:
In the Trump and Black Lives Matter eras, many of the trends observed by theorists of colorblind racism have reversed, making whiteness newly visible to white Americans. This new white awareness of whiteness has emerged through divergent frames of white grievance and white privilege. In this article, we use a survey experiment to examine the effects of these frames on white antiracism, or opposition to racist institutions and beliefs. Results indicate that neither frame is able to significantly motivate white antiracism. These results suggest that the newly open discussions of white privilege by white Americans might not translate into the kinds of deeper behavioral and attitudinal changes for which racial justice advocates have hoped. However, the white grievance frame, which could be expected to elicit a backlash against racial progressivism, did not elicit significantly lower levels of antiracism, either. These null findings have important implications for the empirical and theoretical study of whiteness, the possibilities for and limitations of white antiracism, and white solidarity with racially minoritized groups. Further, this study takes an innovative approach by empirically testing insights from political theory, contributing to the study of race and politics by bridging disciplinary and methodological divides.
Asian American Racial Threat and Support for Racially Discriminatory Policy
Andrew Ifedapo Thompson
Political Science Research and Methods, forthcoming
Abstract:
Across a series of experiments, I show that racial threat from a stereotypically nonthreatening racial minority group, Asian Americans, has a direct impact on white Americans' views of discrimination toward the group. When white Americans learn the group is growing, they feel a distinct racial threat which decreases support for the idea that Asian Americans experience discrimination while simultaneously increasing support for policy which actively discriminates against Asian Americans. I show this concept to be portable over context, examining support for discriminatory policy toward Asians in education policy and COVID-19 policy. I conclude by discussing the implications for how racial threat can drive more racial conflict while simultaneously decreasing the perception that this discrimination is occurring.
How Education Shapes Women's Work and Family Lives Across Race and Ethnicity
Léa Pessin, Sarah Damaske & Adrianne Frech
Demography, August 2023, Pages 1207–1233
Abstract:
Drawing on life course and intersectional approaches, this study examines how education shapes the intertwined domains of work and family across race and ethnicity. By applying multichannel sequence analysis and cluster analysis to the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, we identify a typology of life course trajectories of work and family and test for the interactive associations of race and ethnicity with college education for different trajectory types. While our results show statistically significant and often sizable education effects across racial and ethnic groups for most of the work‒family clusters, they also suggest that the size and direction of the education effect vary widely across groups. Educational attainment plays an outsize role in shaping Black women's work‒family lives, increasing their access to steady work and partnerships, while educational attainment primarily works to increase White women's participation in part-time work. In contrast, Latina women's work‒family trajectories are less responsive to their educational attainment. In combination, the racialized role of education and persistent racial and ethnic gaps across the education distribution yield unequal patterns in work‒family strategies among Black, Latina, and White women.