Does Racial Identity Predict Civic Engagement Among African Americans?

Though considerable empirical work has documented the ways in which African Americans are dehumanized by other racial groups, there is no research examining how perceiving dehumanization (i.e., metadehumanization) is associated with the mental health of African Americans. In this study, we examined the indirect effect of racial discrimination on depressive symptoms through metadehumanization and explored whether this indirect effect was contingent on racial identity (i.e., centrality, private regard). African American students completed measures in a university lab located in the Midwestern region of the United States ( N = 326; Mage = 19.7, 72.4% women). We found that the degree to which racial discrimination was indirectly associated with depressive symptoms through metadehumanization was contingent on racial identity dimensions. Specifically, the indirect effect of racial discrimination on depressive symptoms through metadehumanization was only significant for individuals who were relatively higher on centrality and private regard. This research suggests that the role of metadehumanization is stronger among African Americans who strongly identify with and have positive views of their racial group. We discuss these results in the context of social cognitive theories.

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IMAGINING A BETTER WORLD:

Du Bois Review Social Science Research on Race ◽

10.1017/s1742058x18000322 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 15 (02) ◽

pp. 353-385

Author(s):

Lakeyta M. Bonnette-Bailey ◽

Ray Block ◽

Harwood K. McClerking

Keyword(s):

African Americans ◽

Civic Engagement ◽

Political Participation ◽

Hip Hop ◽

Youth Culture ◽

Black Youth ◽

Black Music ◽

Hip Hop Culture ◽

Negative Messages ◽

Mass Level

AbstractDespite a recent increase in research on its sociopolitical implications, many questions regarding rap music’s influence on mass-level participation remain unanswered. We consider the possibility that “imagining a better world” (measured here as the degree to which young African Americans are critical of the music’s negative messages) can correlate with a desire to “build a better world” (operationalized as an individual’s level of political participation). Evidence from the Black Youth Project (BYP)’s Youth Culture Survey (Cohen 2005) demonstrates that rap critique exerts a conditional impact on non-voting forms of activism. Rap critique enhances heavy consumers’ civic engagement, but this relationship does not occur among Blacks who consume the music infrequently. By demonstrating rap’s politicizing power and contradicting certain criticisms of Hip Hop culture, our research celebrates the possibilities of Black youth and Black music.

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Religion, Social Incorporation, and Civic Engagement among Generations

Ethnic Church Meets Megachurch ◽

10.18574/nyu/9781479804757.003.0006 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Prema A. Kurien

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Racial Identity ◽

Civic Engagement ◽

Second Generation ◽

Civic Participation ◽

The United States ◽

Religious Institutions ◽

Immigrant Generation ◽

Intergenerational Differences ◽

First And Second Generation

Chapter 5 shows how negotiations and disagreements between generations shape the civic engagement of Mar Thoma American congregations in the United States and India. Recent studies have demonstrated that participation in religious institutions facilitates the civic incorporation of contemporary immigrants. These studies have focused on either the immigrant generation or on the second generation. In one way or another, these studies indicate that concepts of identity and of religious obligation play an important role in motivating civic participation. Not surprisingly, given the different models of religion of immigrants and their children, definitions of community and their perceived Christian obligations toward this community varied between first- and second-generation Mar Thomites. There are no academic studies that examine how intergenerational differences in the understanding of religious and racial identity affect the civic engagement of multigenerational congregations. This is important to understand, however, as most religious institutions of contemporary immigrants are multigenerational.

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