Group Identities and Experiences with Legal Authorities

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
James L. Gibson ◽  
Michael J. Nelson
Keyword(s):  
Legal System ◽  
Group Identification ◽  
White Americans ◽  
Negative Experiences ◽  
Linked Fate ◽  
Explicit Attitudes ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Group Identities ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Vicarious Experiences

Black and white Americans hold vastly different explicit attitudes about law, justice, and the legal system. But to what extent are the views of blacks toward the legal system homogeneous? We argue that identities and experiences color the extent to which blacks exhibit high levels of support for the legal system. First, we discuss how both personal and vicarious experiences with the legal system vary among blacks, and explain how individuals who have had more negative experiences with the legal system may be less likely to support it. Second, drawing from a rich and developing literature on race and politics, we catalog variation in feelings of linked fate and group identification among blacks. Relying on a nationally-representative survey of blacks, we demonstrate that these two forms of group attachments are surprisingly different.

Symbols of Justice or of Social Control? Legal Authority and the Views of African Americans

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
James L. Gibson ◽  
Michael J. Nelson
Keyword(s):  
African Americans ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Legal Authority ◽  
White Americans ◽  
Negative Experiences ◽  
Explicit Attitudes ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Implicit Information ◽  
American Legal System

Extant research has established that black and white Americans hold vastly different explicit attitudes about law, justice, and the legal system. What has not been established, however, is whether implicit attitudes—such as the networks of considerations that are activated by the symbols of legal authority—differ between blacks and whites. Earlier research has shown that exposure to the symbols of authority can have legitimacy-enhancing consequences, increasing the likelihood that an unwelcomed court decision will be accepted. Given the negative experiences many African Americans have with legal authorities—and clear evidence that blacks learn vicariously from the experiences of their co-ethnics—it seems unlikely that the finding from earlier research that law is viewed as just and benevolent is widely shared in the black community. Instead, we hypothesize, legal symbols are likely to stimulate associations colored with thoughts of injustice and social control. The American legal system is developing a crisis of legitimacy among its black constituents; understanding how explicit and implicit information processing systems affect black attitudes is therefore of crucial scientific and political relevance.

The Legal System and Its African American Constituents

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
James L. Gibson ◽  
Michael J. Nelson
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Black People ◽  
Legal Authority ◽  
Linked Fate ◽  
Group Identities ◽  
Legal Legitimacy ◽  
Black Public Opinion ◽  
Representative Samples

Despite popular reports that the legal system is in a state of crisis with respect to its African American constituents, research on black public opinion in general is limited owing to the difficulty and expense of assembling representative samples of minorities. We suspect that the story of lagging legal legitimacy among African Americans is in fact quite a bit more nuanced than is often portrayed. In particular, black public opinion is unlikely to be uniform and homogeneous; black people most likely vary in their attitudes toward law and legal institutions. Especially significant is variability in the experiences—personal and vicarious—black people have had with legal authorities (e.g., “stop-and-frisk”), and the nature of individuals’ attachment to blacks as a group (e.g., “linked fate”). We posit that both experiences and in-group identities are commanding because they influence the ways in which black people process information, and in particular, the ways in which blacks react to the symbols of legal authority (e.g., judges’ robes).

scholarly journals Christian America in Black and White: Racial Identity, Religious-National Group Boundaries, and Explanations for Racial Inequality

2018 ◽  
Vol 80 (3) ◽  
pp. 277-298 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel L Perry ◽  
Andrew L Whitehead
Keyword(s):  
Racial Inequality ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
Black Americans ◽  
White Americans ◽  
Racial Justice ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Group Boundaries ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Group Identities

Abstract Recent research suggests that, for white Americans, conflating national and religious group identities is strongly associated with racism, xenophobia, and Islamophobia, prompting some to argue that claims about Christianity being central to American identity are essentially about reinforcing white supremacy. Prior work has not considered, however, whether such beliefs may influence the racial views of nonwhite Americans differently from white Americans. Drawing on a representative sample of black and white Americans from the 2014 General Social Survey, and focusing on explanations for racial inequality as the outcome, we show that, contrary to white Americans, black Americans who view being a Christian as essential to being an American are actually more likely to attribute black–white inequality to structural issues and less to blacks’ individual shortcomings. Our findings suggest that, for black Americans, connecting being American to being Christian does not necessarily bolster white supremacy, but may instead evoke and sustain ideals of racial justice.

scholarly journals Christian America in Black and White: Racial Identity, Religious-National Group Boundaries, and Explanations for Racial Inequality

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Perry ◽  
Andrew L Whitehead
Keyword(s):  
Racial Inequality ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
Black Americans ◽  
White Americans ◽  
Racial Justice ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Group Boundaries ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Group Identities

Recent research suggests that, for white Americans, conflating national and religious group identities is strongly associated with racism, xenophobia, and Islamophobia, prompting some to argue that claims about Christianity being central to American identity are essentially about reinforcing white supremacy. Prior work has not considered, however, whether such beliefs may influence the racial views of nonwhite Americans differently from white Americans. Drawing on a representative sample of black and white Americans from the 2014 General Social Survey, and focusing on explanations for racial inequality as the outcome, we show that, contrary to white Americans, black Americans who view being a Christian as essential to being an American are actually more likely to attribute black–white inequality to structural issues and less to blacks’ individual shortcomings. Our findings suggest that, for black Americans, connecting being American to being Christian does not necessarily bolster white supremacy, but may instead evoke and sustain ideals of racial justice.

Black and Blue

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
James L. Gibson ◽  
Michael Nelson
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Social Identity Theory ◽  
Black People ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Group Identities ◽  
Legal Legitimacy ◽  
System 2 ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Learning Through Experience ◽  
System 1

It is not hyperbole to proclaim that a crisis of legal legitimacy exists in the relationships between African Americans and the law and legal authorities and institutions that govern them. However, this legitimacy deficit has largely (but not exclusively) been documented through anecdotal evidence and a steady drumbeat of journalistic reports, but not rigorous scientific research. We posit that both experiences and in-group identities are commanding because they influence the ways in which black people process information, and in particular, the ways in which blacks react to the symbols of legal authority (e.g., judges’ robes). Based on two nationally-representative samples, this book ties together four dominant theories of public opinion: Legitimacy Theory, Social Identity Theory, theories of adulthood political socialization and learning through experience, and information processing theories, especially the Theory of Motivated Reasoning and theories of System 1 and System 2 information processing. Our findings reveal a gaping chasm in legal legitimacy between black and white Americans. More importantly, black people themselves differ in their legal legitimacy. Group identities and experiences with legal authorities play a crucial role in shaping whether and how black people extend legitimacy to the legal institutions that so much affect them.

Chicken or the egg? A cross-lagged panel analysis of group identification and group-based relative deprivation

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (7) ◽  
pp. 1032-1048 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Zubielevitch ◽  
Chris G. Sibley ◽  
Danny Osborne
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Relative Deprivation ◽  
Group Identification ◽  
Reciprocal Relationship ◽  
Causal Direction ◽  
Causal Pathway ◽  
Group Identities ◽  
Lagged Effects ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
The Relationship

Group identification and group-based relative deprivation (GRD) are critical predictors of numerous group-oriented attitudes and behaviours. While social-identity-based approaches suggest that salient group identities increase social comparisons, empirical data bearing on the causal direction of the relationship between group identification and GRD are mixed. To resolve this inconsistency, we examined the cross-lagged effects of group identification on GRD—as well as the potential reverse causal pathway—using three annual waves of data from a nationally representative sample of ethnic minorities in New Zealand ( N = 5,115). Although we found evidence of a reciprocal relationship between variables, ethnic group identification had a stronger positive cross-lagged effect on ethnic GRD than vice versa, suggesting that social identity is an important antecedent to invidious group-based comparisons. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

scholarly journals When Race Matters and When It Doesn't: Racial Group Differences in Response to Racial Cues

2007 ◽  
Vol 101 (2) ◽  
pp. 339-354 ◽  
Author(s):  
ISMAIL K. WHITE
Keyword(s):  
African Americans ◽  
Racial Differences ◽  
Group Identification ◽  
White Americans ◽  
Verbal Cues ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Political Messages ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Racial Cues

Building on previous research on the effects of racial priming on the opinions of White Americans, this paper engages the question of how exposure to racial cues in political messages shapes the opinions of African Americans. I argue that explanations of racial priming that focus exclusively on White Americans are insufficient to explain how racial cues influence the opinions of Black Americans, as they fail to account for the activation of in-group attitudes and mis-specify the role of explicit racial cues. In two separate laboratory experiments, I test the effects of explicitly racial, implicitly racial, and nonracial verbal cues on both Black and White Americans' assessments of an ostensibly nonracial issue. The results point to important racial differences in the effectiveness of explicit and implicit racial verbal cues in activating racial thinking about an issue. Only frames that provide oblique references to race successfully activated racial out-group resentment for Whites. Among Blacks, explicit references to race most reliably elicited racial thinking by activating racial in-group identification, whereas the effect of implicit cues was moderated by the activation of negative representations of the in group. These findings not only demonstrate that racial attitude activation works differently for African Americans than for Whites but also challenge conventional wisdom that African Americans see all political issues through a racial lens.

Interracial contact at work: Does workplace diversity reduce bias?

2020 ◽  
pp. 136843022093263
Author(s):  
Sean Darling-Hammond ◽  
Randy T. Lee ◽  
Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton
Keyword(s):  
Intergroup Contact ◽  
Workplace Diversity ◽  
White Americans ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Interracial Contact ◽  
Working Adults ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Hispanic Adults ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
The Relationship

Research suggests that anti-Black bias among White Americans is persistent, pervasive, and has powerful negative effects on the lives of both Black and White Americans. Research also suggests that intergroup contact in workplaces can reduce bias. We seek to address two limitations in prior research. First, the workplaces reviewed in prior studies may not be typical. Second, previously observed relationships between workplace contact and bias may stem from selection bias—namely, that White individuals who tend to work with Black individuals are systematically different from those who do not, and those systematic differences explain lower bias levels. To address these issues, we review records ( N = 3,359) of White, non-Hispanic, working adults in a nationally representative survey to examine the relationship between workplace contact and racial closeness bias after adjusting for an exhaustive set of potential confounders. Using propensity score matching, we compare individuals who work with Black individuals with their “virtual twins”—individuals who have the same propensity of working with Black individuals but do not. We estimate that having a Black coworker causes a statistically significant reduction in racial closeness bias for White, non-Hispanic adults.

The Racial and Economic Context of Trump Support: Evidence for Threat, Identity, and Contact Effects in the 2016 Presidential Election

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Knowles ◽  
Linda Tropp
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Local Economy ◽  
Racial Identification ◽  
White Americans ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Neighborhood Diversity ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
To Come ◽  
Neighborhood Level ◽  
Support Evidence

Donald Trump's ascent to the Presidency of the United States defied the expectations of many social scientists, pundits, and laypeople. To date, most efforts to understand Trump's rise have focused on personality and demographic characteristics of White Americans. In contrast, the present work leverages a nationally representative sample of Whites to examine how contextual factors may have shaped support for Trump during the 2016 presidential primaries. Results reveal that neighborhood-level exposure to racial and ethnic minorities is associated with greater group threat and racial identification among Whites, as well as greater intentions to vote for Trump in the general election. At the same time, however, neighborhood diversity afforded Whites with opportunities for intergroup contact, which is associated with lower levels of threat, White identification, and Trump support. Further analyses suggest that a healthy local economy mutes threat effects in diverse contexts, allowing contact processes to come to the fore.

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