Racial Identity, Perpetrator Race, Racial Composition of Primary Community, and Mood Responses to Discrimination

Studies suggest that racial identity, race of the perpetrator, and prior race-related experiences influence responses to racial discrimination. This study employed a visual imagery paradigm to examine how racial centrality (or the significance of one’s race), perpetrator race, and the racial composi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of black psychology 2014-12, Vol.40 (6), p.539-562
Main Authors: Rucker, Julian M., Neblett, Enrique W., Anyiwo, Nkemka
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
African Americans
Anger
Black White Relations
Centrality
Community
Demographics
Discrimination
Emotions
Ethnic Identity
Imagery
Individuals
Mood
Psychological Distress
Race
Racial Composition
Racial Discrimination
Racial Identification
Racial identity
Racism
Sociodemographic Characteristics
U.S.A
Universities
Vignettes
Youth
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Summary:Studies suggest that racial identity, race of the perpetrator, and prior race-related experiences influence responses to racial discrimination. This study employed a visual imagery paradigm to examine how racial centrality (or the significance of one’s race), perpetrator race, and the racial composition of one’s primary community were associated with mood responses to racial discrimination vignettes. Participants were 129 self-identified African American young adults (55% female) recruited from a southeastern university in the United States. Participants completed measures of sociodemographic characteristics and racial centrality and rated their mood following exposure to vignettes consisting of blatant and subtle discrimination with Black and White actors. Individuals with higher racial centrality endorsed greater anger and disgust and had stronger overall mood ratings following the subtle discrimination condition. Also, participants reported significantly higher levels of distress and disgust when the perpetrator was White. These results suggest that individual and situational factors help shape affective responses to discrimination. We discuss implications of the findings and highlight being connected to one’s racial identity as a healthy psychological response to racism.
ISSN:0095-7984
1552-4558
DOI:10.1177/0095798413499371