scholarly journals Dual pandemics of COVID‐19 and systemic racism: The roles of perceptions of inequities, civic values, and conservatism in mask‐wearing behavior

Author(s):  
Christopher M. Wegemer ◽  
Luise Keyserlingk
Keyword(s):  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Wegemer ◽  
Luise von Keyserlingk

Amid unprecedented political polarization, the US continues to grapple with the simultaneous crises of COVID-19 and structural racism. We examine potential predictors of COVID-19 mask-wearing at the intersection of these crises, with particular attention to the behavior of conservatives and young people, who have resisted compliance with efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19. Specifically, we investigate perceptions of racial/ethnic inequities in the healthcare system and civic values as predictors of COVID-19 mask-wearing frequency and potential moderators of the relationship between political orientation and COVID-19 mask-wearing frequency. Diverse college students at a university in southern California participated in our longitudinal survey, which was initiated prior to the COVID-19 pandemic (N = 431). We found that perceptions of inequities and civic values predicted mask-wearing, whereas political conservatism was negatively related to mask-wearing. Further, conservative participants were more likely to wear masks if they reported greater perceptions of inequities. Our results provide a foundation for future research that may inform targeted public health interventions aimed at encouraging responsible COVID-19 behavior and fostering dialogue on structural equities in a contentious political environment.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 100-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth F. Desnoyers-Colas

The road a predominantly white institution (PWI) takes to maximize diversity, inclusion, and equity can be fraught with challenges. One midsize institution learned through an assessment of its campus climate that its institutional practices and arrangements impeded diversity, inclusion, and equity despite white administrators' beliefs to the contrary. To help quell systemic racism habits, monthly campus-wide workshops focused on several key racial injustice habits and hurtful microaggressions generated from white privilege. A faux social justice allure to white allies who considered themselves advocates of nondominant people is one that should ultimately call into question the genuineness and true nature of their support. This semi-autoethnographic essay is a plaintive call to white colleagues in the academy to earnestly acknowledge white privilege and to use it to actively fight the destructive force of racial battle fatigue and institutional racism.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Payne ◽  
Heidi A. Vuletich ◽  
Kristjen B. Lundberg

The Bias of Crowds model (Payne, Vuletich, & Lundberg, 2017) argues that implicit bias varies across individuals and across contexts. It is unreliable and weakly associated with behavior at the individual level. But when aggregated to measure context-level effects, the scores become stable and predictive of group-level outcomes. We concluded that the statistical benefits of aggregation are so powerful that researchers should reconceptualize implicit bias as a feature of contexts, and ask new questions about how implicit biases relate to systemic racism. Connor and Evers (2020) critiqued the model, but their critique simply restates the core claims of the model. They agreed that implicit bias varies across individuals and across contexts; that it is unreliable and weakly associated with behavior at the individual level; and that aggregating scores to measure context-level effects makes them more stable and predictive of group-level outcomes. Connor and Evers concluded that implicit bias should be considered to really be noisily measured individual construct because the effects of aggregation are merely statistical. We respond to their specific arguments and then discuss what it means to really be a feature of persons versus situations, and multilevel measurement and theory in psychological science more broadly.


2021 ◽  
pp. 004208592199841
Author(s):  
Arthur Romano ◽  
Rochelle Arms Almengor

This paper uses critical race theory to analyze several case studies focused on the experiences of two restorative justice coordinators (RJCs), both Black women and how they understood and responded to perceived racial injustices in urban schools with white leadership. These schools were attempting to address unequal disciplinary practices toward students of color through restorative justice and the RJCs adapted their approaches to addressing racialized dynamics while also developing school-wide networks to foster broader critical reflection on race. They navigated the risks of challenging white privilege and systemic racism both of which at times limited their attempts at influencing change.


Collections ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 155019062098103
Author(s):  
Shonda Nicole Gladden

As a scholar practitioner, a trained philosophical theologian, Methodist clergywoman, and social enterprise founder who is conducting oral histories as part of my doctoral internship in the IUPUI Arts and Humanities Institute, my scholarly lens and methodological skills are being defined as I interrogate the COVID-19 archive. In this article I attempt to offer some preliminary reflections on my oral history curation focused on how Black and brown artists and activists, primarily based in Indianapolis, IN, frame their lived experiences of death, dying, mourning, and bereavement in the wake of COVID-19 utilizing critical archival practices: those practices that take seriously the methods of critical race theory, critical gender theory, Womanist, mujerista, and feminist methodologies, to name a few. The COVID-19 archive is a collection of oral histories, stories and artifacts depicting the times in which we are living, through the lenses of storytellers grappling with the pandemics of systemic racism, COVID-19, distrust in government, and various relics representing the idea of the United States of America in 2020, as such, I conclude with a brief exploration of how art emerges as both an outlet for creators and a mode of illumination for consumers.


2021 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 351-371
Author(s):  
Sevan G. Terzian

AbstractThis essay examines the first detailed study of gifted African American youth: Lillian Steele Proctor's master's thesis from the late 1920s on Black children in Washington, DC. Unlike formative research on gifted children by educational psychologists, Proctor's investigation emphasized children's experiences at school, home, and community in determining their abilities, opportunities, and accomplishments. Proctor's work also anticipated African American intellectuals’ critiques of racist claims about intelligence and giftedness that would flourish in the 1930s. In focusing on the nation's capital, her investigation drew from a municipality with a high proportion of African American residents that was segregated by law. Proctor pointed directly to systemic racism as both contributing to the relative invisibility of gifted African American youth and in thwarting opportunities to realize their intellectual potential. In an environment of racial subordination and segregation, these gifted children found themselves excluded from cultural resources and educational opportunities.


2021 ◽  
pp. 014616722110241
Author(s):  
Shai Davidai ◽  
Jesse Walker

What do people know about racial disparities in “The American Dream”? Across six studies ( N = 1,761), we find that American participants consistently underestimate the Black–White disparity in economic mobility, believing that poor Black Americans are significantly more likely to move up the economic ladder than they actually are. We find that misperceptions about economic mobility are common among both White and Black respondents, and that this undue optimism about the prospect of mobility for Black Americans results from a narrow focus on the progress toward equality that has already been made. Consequently, making economic racial disparities salient, or merely reflecting on the unique hardships that Black Americans face in the United States, calibrates beliefs about economic mobility. We discuss the importance of these findings for understanding lay beliefs about the socioeconomic system, the denial of systemic racism in society, and support for policies aimed at reducing racial economic disparities.


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