State of Color
Racial Orders, Congress, and the Agricultural Welfare State, 1865-1940
Kimberley Johnson
Studies in American Political Development, October 2011, Pages 143-161
Abstract:
One of the key questions posed by analysts of modern, twentieth-century agricultural politics is, "How and when did agrarian democracy end and the dominance of agribusiness interests begin?" In this article I argue that the roots of this transformation lie in the origins of the agricultural welfare state and the overlapping of its birth with distinct eras in America's racial orders - those moments in time when political players mobilized coalitions and institutions around racial issues such as slavery, Reconstruction, or the segregated state of the Jim Crow order. As a result of these historical overlaps, the agricultural welfare state was shaped in surprising and not-well-understood ways by America's racial orders. In order to trace these two intertwining aspects of racial governance and agricultural welfare state development, I provide a reinterpretation of the development of the agricultural welfare state from its Civil War origins to its New Deal transformation. I show that, from 1865 to 1964, the confluence of racial orders, partisan alignments, and congressional orders created an agricultural welfare state in which African Americans were variously included and excluded in a pattern of "two-tier" citizenship. The broader racial governance aims of the Jim Crow order also had a significant role in shaping the development of the organizational ethos and administrative structures and practices within the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The practice of "two-tier" agricultural citizenship, which initially affected only African American and other minority farmers, was gradually extended to reflect the divide between large commercial farmers and the rural poor (including small farmers). The results from this analysis strengthen our understanding of how the American welfare state has been shaped - in particular, the ways in which racial governance and racial orders are deeply embedded in the American state building process.
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Thomas LaVeist et al.
Health Affairs, October 2011, Pages 1880-1887
Abstract:
Much of the current health disparities literature fails to account for the fact that the nation is largely segregated, leaving racial groups exposed to different health risks and with variable access to health services based on where they live. We sought to determine if racial health disparities typically reported in national studies remain the same when black and white Americans live in integrated settings. Focusing on a racially integrated, low-income neighborhood of Southwest Baltimore, Maryland, we found that nationally reported disparities in hypertension, diabetes, obesity among women, and use of health services either vanished or substantially narrowed. The sole exception was smoking: We found that white residents were more likely than black residents to smoke, underscoring the higher rates of ill health in whites in the Baltimore sample than seen in national data. As a result, we concluded that racial differences in social environments explain a meaningful portion of disparities typically found in national data. We further concluded that when social factors are equalized, racial disparities are minimized. Policies aimed solely at health behavior change, biological differences among racial groups, or increased access to health care are limited in their ability to close racial disparities in health. Such policies must address the differing resources of neighborhoods and must aim to improve the underlying conditions of health for all.
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Thomas Fuller-Rowell, Anthony Burrow & Anthony Ong
Developmental Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
The current study considered the influence of the 2008 presidential election on the racial identity of African American college students (Mage = 19.3 years; 26.3% male). The design of the study consisted of 2 components: longitudinal and daily. The longitudinal component assessed 3 dimensions of racial identity (centrality, private regard, and public regard) 2 weeks before and 5 months after the election, and the daily diary component assessed racial identity and identity exploration on the days immediately before and after the election. Daily items measuring identity exploration focused on how much individuals thought about issues relating to their race. Analyses considered the immediate effects of the election on identity exploration and the extent to which changes in exploration were shaped by racial identity measured prior to the election. We also considered immediate and longer term changes in racial identity following the election and the extent to which longer term changes were conditioned by identity exploration. Findings suggest that the election served as an "encounter" experience (Cross, 1991, 1995, pp. 60-61), which led to increases in identity exploration. Moreover, analyses confirmed that changes in identity exploration were most pronounced among those with higher levels of racial centrality. Results also suggest that the election had both an immediate and a longer term influence on racial identity, which in some instances was conditioned by identity exploration.
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Cheng Xue et al.
PLoS ONE, October 2011, e26027
Abstract:
Lower energy expenditure (EE) for physical activity was observed in Africans than in Europeans, which might contribute to the higher prevalence of obesity and more athletic capability in Africans. But it is still unclear why EE is lower among African populations. In this study we tried to explore the genetic mechanism underlying lower EE in Africans. We screened 231 common variants with possibly harmful impact on 182 genes in the catabolic process. The genetic risk, including the total number of mutations and the sum of harmful probabilities, was calculated and analyzed for the screened variants at a population level. Results of the genetic risk among human groups showed that most Africans (3 out of 4 groups) had a significantly smaller genetic risk in the catabolic process than Europeans and Asians, which might result in higher efficiency of generating energy among Africans. In sport competitions, athletes need massive amounts of energy expenditure in a short period of time, so higher efficiency of energy generation might help make African-descendent athletes more powerful. On the other hand, higher efficiency of generating energy might also result in consuming smaller volumes of body mass. As a result, Africans might be more vulnerable to obesity compared to the other races when under the same or similar conditions. Therefore, the smaller genetic risk in the catabolic process might be at the core of understanding lower EE, more athletic capability and higher prevalence of obesity in Africans.
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Ladies and Lynching: Southern Women, Civil Rights, and the Rhetoric of Interracial Cooperation
Jordynn Jack & Lucy Massagee
Rhetoric & Public Affairs, Fall 2011, Pages 493-510
Abstract:
As a women's antilynching association in the 1930s, the Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching (ASWPL) developed a repertoire of rhetorical strategies to encourage communication between their white supporters and their African American counterparts. These strategies included choices that may not seem overtly rhetorical, but can nonetheless be understood as laying the groundwork for communication between groups. Strategies such as choosing meeting facilities, composing official statements, and listening to guest speakers helped members to forge common ground, but ultimately, larger disagreements prevented the ASWPL supporters from reaching consensus with African American campaigners who were pushing for federal antilynching legislation. Nonetheless, this example contributes to scholarship on the rhetoric of the civil rights movement by highlighting the importance of interracial communication as a rhetorical practice.
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Unsupported Labeling of Race as a Risk Factor for Certain Diseases in a Widely Used Medical Textbook
Lincoln Sheets et al.
Academic Medicine, October 2011, Pages 1300-1303
Purpose: Confounding of racial, socioeconomic, and behavioral characteristics may lead to the misidentification of race as a risk factor for certain diseases. The authors evaluated the validity of attributing race as a risk factor in a widely used pathology textbook.
Method: In 2009-2010, the authors searched Robbins and Cotran Pathologic Basis of Disease, Professional Edition (8th ed) for assertions that African Americans have a different disease profile than do individuals of other races. They evaluated the references cited in the textbook, assessing the quality of the sources and whether those authors controlled for confounding variables, such as socioeconomic status and behavioral characteristics. For statements that remained unconfirmed, the authors searched the literature for evidence supporting or contradicting the claims made in the textbook. The authors classified each statement from the textbook as supported, unconfirmed, or contradicted.
Results: Of the 31 relevant statements, 11 were supported by the literature review, 17 remained unconfirmed, and three were contradicted.
Conclusions: About two-thirds of the assertions that different risk factors exist for African Americans found in a widely used pathology textbook could not be supported by the published literature. Failure to separate race from other socioeconomic and behavioral characteristics as risk factors for certain diseases may contribute to the misdiagnosis of patients and interfere with efforts to identify and remove causes of health disparities.
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Pay Discrimination, Exit Discrimination or Both? Another Look at an Old Issue Using NBA Data
Peter Groothuis & James Richard Hill
Journal of Sports Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
Economic literature has identified two potential types of racial discrimination in sports careers: exit discrimination and wage discrimination. The authors test for both types of discrimination in National Basketball Association (NBA) data in two ways. First using a modified Heckman procedure, they control for potential survival bias that may arise from exit discrimination in panel data and could possibly bias the coefficients of wage equations. Not controlling for survival bias could lead to false conclusions concerning the presence of pay discrimination. Using 1990-2008 NBA data, the authors fail to find any evidence of either pay or exit discrimination in the NBA utilizing this new technique. In one specification, however, a negative coefficient on the white dummy is found after controlling for height and being foreign-born suggesting that reverse discrimination is present. Yet, using a subset of the panel data used to examine pay discrimination in the NBA with career earnings the authors find that there is a pay premium paid to White players over their career in the magnitude of 16%-20%, ceteris paribus. Neither of these results, however, is robust and highlights the pitfalls of using the residual method in measuring both pay and exit discrimination.
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Racial Disparities in Job Finding and Offered Wages
Roland Fryer, Devah Pager & Jörg Spenkuch
NBER Working Paper, September 2011
Abstract:
The extent to which discrimination can explain racial wage gaps is one of the most divisive subjects in the social sciences. Using a newly available dataset, this paper develops a simple empirical test which, under plausible conditions, provides a lower bound on the extent of discrimination in the labor market. Taken at face value, our estimates imply that differential treatment accounts for at least one third of the black-white wage gap. We argue that the patterns in our data are consistent with a search-matching model in which employers statistically discriminate on the basis of race when hiring unemployed workers, but learn about their marginal product over time. However, we cannot rule out other forms of discrimination.
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White and Black American children's implicit intergroup bias
Anna-Kaisa Newheiser & Kristina Olson
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Despite a decline in explicit prejudice, adults and children from majority groups (e.g., White Americans) often express bias implicitly, as assessed by the Implicit Association Test. In contrast, minority-group (e.g., Black American) adults on average show no bias on the IAT. In the present research, representing the first empirical investigation of whether Black children's IAT responses parallel those of Black adults, we examined implicit bias in 7-11-year-old White and Black American children. Replicating previous findings with adults, whereas White children showed a robust ingroup bias, Black children showed no bias. Additionally, we investigated the role of valuing status in the development of implicit bias. For Black children, explicit preference for high status predicted implicit outgroup bias: Black children who explicitly expressed high preference for rich (vs. poor) people showed an implicit preference for Whites comparable in magnitude to White children's ingroup bias. Implications for research on intergroup bias are discussed.
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Chad Forbes et al.
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, forthcoming
Abstract:
Priming negative stereotypes of African Americans can bias perceptions toward novel Black targets, but less is known about how these perceptions ultimately arise. Examining how neural regions involved in arousal, inhibition and control covary when negative stereotypes are activated can provide insight into whether individuals attempt to downregulate biases. Using fMRI, White egalitarian-motivated participants were shown Black and White faces at fast (32 ms) or slow (525 ms) presentation speeds. To create a racially negative stereotypic context, participants listened to violent and misogynistic rap (VMR) in the background. No music (NM) and death metal (DM) were used as control conditions in separate blocks. Fast exposure of Black faces elicited amygdala activation in the NM and VMR conditions (but not DM), that also negatively covaried with activation in prefrontal regions. Only in VMR, however, did amygdala activation for Black faces persist during slow exposure and positively covary with activation in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex while negatively covarying with activation in orbitofrontal cortex. Findings suggest that contexts that prime negative racial stereotypes seem to hinder the downregulation of amygdala activation that typically occurs when egalitarian perceivers are exposed to Black faces.
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Constance Lindsay
Social Science Quarterly, September 2011, Pages 761-781
Objectives: This article examines the relationship between race, socioeconomic status, and achievement using an ecological perspective.
Methods: Conventional theory suggests that as parent human capital increases, family resources increase, and therefore student achievement should increase. However, differential academic achievement is still observed between black and white adolescents in similar middle-class families. I first provide a descriptive analysis of three domains of the local ecology that I theorize influence adolescent achievement: neighborhoods, parenting styles, and time use. I then use OLS regression analysis to explore whether the inclusion of various domains of adolescents' environments eliminates the black-white test score differential.
Results: I find that the inclusion of the three domains lessens, but does not eliminate, the black-white test score differential.
Conclusion: Black and white adolescents at all socioeconomic levels face different contexts; these different contexts are associated with differences in achievement.
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Travis Wilson & Philip Rodkin
Child Development, September/October 2011, Pages 1454-1469
Abstract:
With a sample of African American and European American 3rd- and 4th-grade children (N = 486, ages 8-11 years), this study examined classroom ethnic composition, peer social status (i.e., social preference and perceived popularity as nominated by same- and cross-ethnicity peers), and patterns of ethnic segregation (i.e., friendship, peer group, and cross-ethnicity dislike). African American - but not European American - children had more segregated relationships and were more disliked by cross-ethnicity peers when they had fewer same-ethnicity classmates. African American children's segregation was positively associated with same-ethnicity social preference and perceived popularity and with cross-ethnicity perceived popularity. European American children's segregation was positively associated with same-ethnicity social preference but negatively associated with cross-ethnicity social preference and perceived popularity.
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Why Do Black Men Suffer from Low Self-Rated Job Productivity? A Multi-Theory Approach
Song Yang & Shauna Morimoto
Sociological Inquiry, November 2011, Pages 431-453
Abstract:
This article uses data from a national representative employer-employee matched dataset to assess the race/sex disparity in workers' self-rated productivity levels. Findings show that a significant proportion of black men report that they cannot achieve high job productivity. We conduct regression analyses based on human capital, social closure, and social psychological models to identify the specific mechanisms that account for black men's low self-rated job productivity. We find that social psychological work relational issues such as closeness of supervision and job evaluation explain the race/sex disparity in self-rated productivity. Findings are considered in the context of emergent intersections of race and gender in accounting for disparities in workplace outcomes.
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Looking the Part: Social Status Cues Shape Race Perception
Jonathan Freeman et al.
PLoS ONE, September 2011, e25107
Abstract:
It is commonly believed that race is perceived through another's facial features, such as skin color. In the present research, we demonstrate that cues to social status that often surround a face systematically change the perception of its race. Participants categorized the race of faces that varied along White-Black morph continua and that were presented with high-status or low-status attire. Low-status attire increased the likelihood of categorization as Black, whereas high-status attire increased the likelihood of categorization as White; and this influence grew stronger as race became more ambiguous (Experiment 1). When faces with high-status attire were categorized as Black or faces with low-status attire were categorized as White, participants' hand movements nevertheless revealed a simultaneous attraction to select the other race-category response (stereotypically tied to the status cue) before arriving at a final categorization. Further, this attraction effect grew as race became more ambiguous (Experiment 2). Computational simulations then demonstrated that these effects may be accounted for by a neurally plausible person categorization system, in which contextual cues come to trigger stereotypes that in turn influence race perception. Together, the findings show how stereotypes interact with physical cues to shape person categorization, and suggest that social and contextual factors guide the perception of race.
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Perceived Racial Discrimination as a Barrier to College Enrollment for African Americans
Ross O'Hara et al.
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, forthcoming
Abstract:
African Americans trail European Americans in terms of academic achievement, even when accounting for differences in socioeconomic status. One cause of this gap may be racial discrimination. In the current article the authors hypothesized that early perceived racial discrimination (by 5th grade) would predict college enrollment, mediated by changes from 7th grade to 10th grade in academic orientation, college aspirations and expectations, and deviance tolerance. Participants were 750 African Americans from the Family and Community Health Study. A structural equation model that controlled for socioeconomic status and earlier academic performance supported the hypothesis, with the exception that discrimination did not influence aspirations. The effect of discrimination on expectations, however, was moderated: Participants with high future orientation maintained high expectations in spite of discrimination. These results suggest that discrimination discourages some African Americans from pursuing higher education and that increasing future orientation may promote African Americans' college enrollment.
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Jenifer Bratter & Bridget Gorman
Journal of Health and Social Behavior, September 2011, Pages 365-382
Abstract:
Using the 2004 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, we explore the relationship between racial awareness, perceived discrimination, and self-rated health among black (n = 5,902) and white (n = 28,451) adults. We find that adjusting for group differences in racial awareness and discrimination, in addition to socioeconomic status, explains the black-white gap in self-rated health. However, logistic regression models also find evidence for differential vulnerability among black and whites adults, based on socioeconomic status. While both groups are equally harmed by emotional and/or physical reactions to race-based treatment, the negative consequences of discriminatory experiences for black adults are exacerbated by their poorer socioeconomic standing. In contrast, the association between racial awareness and self-rated health is more sensitive to socioeconomic standing among whites. Poorer health is more likely to occur among whites when they reflect at least daily on their own racial status - but only when it happens in tandem with mid-range educational achievement, or among homemakers.
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Race, Place, and Veteran Status: Migration among Black and White Men, 1940-2000
Amy Kate Bailey
Population Research and Policy Review, October 2011, Pages 701-728
Abstract:
In this paper, I gauge the impact of veteran status on migration probabilities for black and white men in the late 20th century United States, comparing cohorts that were subject to various military staffing policies. I find that white veterans are more likely than are white non-veterans to live outside the state of their birth and to have recently migrated. These effects persist regardless of whether veterans were subject to the draft or the All Volunteer Force staffing policy, and are durable across the life course. Among blacks, elevated rates of veterans' migration are first observed in 1980. These results illuminate a previously unidentified consequence of veteran status, and may point to a policy-linked mechanism through which prior military employment influences social mobility, the American labor force is redistributed, and the racial composition of states and localities is altered.
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Rachael Woldoff, Yolanda Wiggins & Heather Washington
Journal of Black Studies, October 2011, Pages 1047-1079
Abstract:
This study examines adjustment differences between in-state Black students who are familiar with rural and predominantly White environments versus out-of-state Black students who mainly come from segregated, Black neighborhoods and larger cities. Focus group discussions highlight the role of students' residential backgrounds, especially racial composition and rural status, in understanding their social adjustment and perceptions of divisions within the Black student population on campus. With regard to geographic divisions, students reported: 1) differences in their comfort levels in predominantly White environments; 2) perceptions of in-state Blacks "acting White" (out-of-state students equating urban residence of origin with authentic Blackness); and 3) perceptions of differences between the two groups in provincialism versus sophistication. We conclude that while race is often seen as unifying Black students at predominantly White colleges, students also have strong place identities that are tied to the racial composition and location of their home communities that serve to divide the Black student community. The study concludes by discussing the importance of Black students' home environments for shaping their social experiences at predominantly White institutions and suggests avenues for future research.
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Race and preference-based health-related quality of life measures in the United States
Claudia Pereira et al.
Quality of Life Research, August 2011, Pages 969-978
Background: Health-related quality of life instruments (HRQoL) are widely used to produce measures that summarize population health and to inform decision-making and health policy. Although the literature about the relationship between health and race in the United States is quite extensive, there is a lack of studies that comprehensively examine the relationship between race and preference-based HRQoL. Given the widespread use of these measures, it becomes important to understand the extent of the race differences in HRQoL scores and factors associated with any such differences.
Methods: We examined the differences in HRQoL, between blacks and whites and associated factors, using the summary scores of the SF-6D, EQ-5D, QWB-SA, HUI2, HUI3, administered by telephone to a nationally representative sample of 3,578 black and white US adults between the ages of 35 and 89 in the National Health Measurement Study (NHMS).
Results: Black women had substantially lower HRQoL than white women. The difference was largely explained by sociodemographic and socioeconomic variables. Black men did not differ significantly from white men, except for the EQ-5D. HRQoL among black men was higher at higher income levels, while the HRQoL of black women was especially low compared to other groups at high income levels.
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Sheretta Butler-Barnes, Tabbye Chavous & Marc Zimmerman
Race and Social Problems, July 2011, Pages 75-91
Abstract:
This study conceptualized individual-level cultural-ecological factors (racial identity and religious coping) as adolescent assets that would promote achievement motivation and reduce negative associations between community violence exposure and motivation. Our examination of African American adolescents (N = 380) from urban contexts indicated a negative association between community violence exposure and motivation beliefs (academic self-efficacy and academic importance). Accounting for socioeconomic factors and parental support, higher racial pride (private regard), and higher use of religion to cope with difficult times predicted higher motivation beliefs. Religious coping reduced the negative association of violence exposure with motivation beliefs. Among boys, however, there was a stronger, negative relationship between community violence and academic self-efficacy for those higher in private regard. Boys reporting higher private regard had more positive motivation beliefs when experiencing lower community violence. Results suggest cultural-ecological factors can support academic motivation but also may not fully protect youth exposed to high ecological risk.