Despite the numerous efforts to reduce prejudice and social discrimination as well as their repercussions, such phenomena are still part of everyday life and mark individual life stories. The experiences of the target and the agent of discrimination were differents. The present study addresses a gap in the literature of social psychology: through a relational analysis, it explores the perceptions of the target of discrimination without leaving aside the perspective of the agent. Using a computerized version of a self-report instrument, we aimed to assess the relation between the experience of racial discrimination and skin color and to what extent this relation is modulated by psychosocial and sociodemographic variables in two national contexts, Brazil and Mozambique. A total of 150 university students participated in the study, 89 from Brazil and 61 from Mozambique. The results show that in both countries the participants report more experiences of discrimination coming from White than from Black people, with a larger difference for the Brazilian sample population. The study also verified that the darker the person’s skin color, the higher their perception of having been discriminated against. In the Brazilian group, the accounts of discrimination coming both from White and Black people are associated with darker skin color. In the Mozambican group, diversely, participants with lighter and darker skin color perceived being the target of discrimination, inflicted both by White and Black people. Finally, we identified that perceived discrimination is predicted by skin color. The discussion focuses on the perspective of the targets of discrimination and highlights the role of skin color in the process of perceiving racial discrimination, especially regarding the psychosocial variables motivation to control prejudice and social domination.
The Role of Poverty and Racial Discrimination in Exacerbating the Health Consequences of COVID-19