Intervention to Reduce Color-Blind Racial Attitudes 1
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Intervention to Reduce Color-Blind Racial Attitudes 1 AN INTERVENTION TO REDUCE COLOR-BLIND RACIAL ATTITUDES IN WHITE COLLEGE STUDENTS A Dissertation Presented to The Graduate Faculty of The University of Akron In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Ellen Cecelia Bronder July 8, 2016 Intervention to Reduce Color-Blind Racial Attitudes 2 AN INTERVENTION TO REDUCE COLOR-BLIND RACIAL ATTITUDES IN WHITE COLLEGE STUDENTS Dissertation Ellen Cecelia Bronder ____________________ ______________________ Advisor Department Chair Dr. Suzette Speight Dr. Paul Levy ____________________ ______________________ Committee Member Interim Dean of Arts & Sciences Dr. Dawn Johnson Dr. John Green ______________________ ______________________ Committee Member Dean of Graduate School Dr. Amber Hewitt Dr. Chand Midha ______________________ Committee Member Dr. John Queener ____________________ ______________________ Committee Member Date Dr. John Zipp Intervention to Reduce Color-Blind Racial Attitudes 3 ABSTRACT Color-blind racial attitudes (CoBRAs) have emerged as the newest form of racism. Individuals with these attitudes deny the importance of race and therefore the existence of racism. CoBRAs have negative consequences for Whites and People of Color. Consequences for Whites include poor interracial interactions, increased race- based judgments in education and clinical settings, increased affective costs such as fear and guilt and increased isolation from diverse others. There have been few efforts within the literature to change colorblind racial attitudes with experimental intervention techniques and to determine the temporal stability of these changes. Also, there have been no efforts to measure the practical significance of changes by examining the relationship of changes in CoBRAs with changes in potential activism. A sample of White college students was collected and completed several self-report measures including the Color-Blind Racial Attitudes Scale, the Motivation the Respond Without Prejudice scale, The Psychosocial Costs of Racism to Whites scale, and the Activism Orientation Scale. The sample was divided into experimental and control groups and the experimental group received a race-based video and discussion intervention. Data was collected across three time periods: before the intervention, immediately after the intervention and 2 weeks after the intervention. MANCOVAs were conducted to examine differences between the experimental and control groups, as well as between Time 1 and Time 2. Significant differences were found between groups and the main hypotheses of the study were supported. The results provided evidence that a brief video intervention can reduce color-blind racial attitudes in White college students. Overall, these findings suggest the importance of continued research in experimental interventions to reduce racism. Intervention to Reduce Color-Blind Racial Attitudes 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page I. CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION…….……………………..…………………...5 II. CHAPTER 2: A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE………...………………...12 III. CHAPTER 3: METHODS…………………..…..……………...........................55 IV. CHAPTER 4: RESULTS…………………..…..…………….............................70 V. CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION……………..…..……………..............................80 REFERENCES……………………………………………..…………………………..95 FIGURES……………………………………………………….………………..……114 FIGURE 1. Design………………………….…………………..………………115 APPENDICES…………………………………..………………………………..…...116 APPENDIX A. Intervention Discussion Questions ……………….…………...117 APPENDIX B. Control Discussion Questions …………………….…………..118 APPENDIX C. Demographic Questionnaire……………………...…………....119 APPENDIX D. Color-Blind Racial Attitudes Scale………………………........121 APPENDIX E. Motivation to Respond Without Prejudice Scale………………122 APPENDIX F. Psychosocial Costs of Racism Scale………...………………....123 APPENDIX G. Activism Orientation Scale……….…………………………...124 APPENDIX H. Tables………...…….….............................................................125 Intervention to Reduce Color-Blind Racial Attitudes 5 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”-William Faulkner Racism is a pervasive problem that negatively affects the lives of People of Color. However, racism, racist attitudes and racist behaviors of Whites have evolved through the decades (Neville, Lilly, Duran, Lee & Browne, 2000). From early in the formation of our country to the not so distant past, Whites have led centuries of the legal enslavement, oppression, segregation of Blacks and other legalized and overt discrimination (McConahay, 1986). Multiple generations of Whites have reaped the socioeconomic benefits of this oppression and still do as part of White dominance and privilege (Feagin & Bennefield, 2014). However, we have moved from blatant “old-fashioned” racism to a newer form of racism (Neville et al., 2000). Most recently, color-blind racial ideology (CBRI) has been argued to be the foundation for the newest form of racism (Neville, Awad, Brooks, Flores & Bluemel, 2013). In part, the concept of CBRI is fueled from myths of a color-blind justice system (Sealing, 1998). CBRI emphasizes sameness among the treatment of groups while ignoring systemic issues (e.g., racial discrimination) that make this type of ideology invalid (Neville et al., 2000). CBRI is about denying the importance of race and the existence of racism; it is uniquely motivated by individuals’ needs to appear nonracist (Bonilla-Silva, 2014; Neville et al., 2013). It is also fueled by the need of Whites to delegitimize the existence of racism in order to protect their own racial privilege (Neville, Worthington, & Spanierman, 2001). Color-blind racism is thus an extension of this ideology. Although related to older forms of racism (e.g., old-fashioned racism and symbolic racism), color-blind racism is subtle and covert (McConahay, 1986; Intervention to Reduce Color-Blind Racial Attitudes 6 McConahay & Hough Jr., 1976; Neville et al., 2000). Colorblind racial attitudes (CoBRAs) are defined by “the belief that race should not and does not matter” (Neville et al., 2000, p. 60). CoBRAs are part of the ideology that asserts that race is no longer relevant and that society has eradicated racism, thus making it an issue of the past (Neville, Poteat, Lewis, & Spanierman, 2014). Derived from Frankenberg’s (1993) concepts of color-evasion and power-evasion, Neville et al (2000) developed a tripartite definition and measurement of CoBRAs includes a denial of the following issues: 1) racial privilege, 2) institutional racism, and 3) discrimination. Color-blindness is not simply on an individual level, but as a phenomenon that is social, cultural and institutional (Neville et al., 2001). Although arguments for and against CBRI exist, the negative consequences of holding CoBRAs are well established in the literature. CoBRAs are positively related to prejudice and racial discrimination (Neville et al., 2000; Poteat & Spanierman, 2012). The deleterious psychological and physiological effects of prejudice and discrimination for Blacks are numerous and well-studied. For instance, multiple studies demonstrate associations between racism and increased depression, anxiety and decreased life satisfaction and self-esteem (Donovan, Galban, Grace, Bennett & Felicie, 2012; Ponterotto, Utsey, & Pedersen, 2006; Seaton, Caldwell, & Sellers, 2010). Also, the hopelessness, fear and frustration that may be experienced as a result of discrimination, may lead to cardiovascular problems and substance use (Harrell, Hall, & Taliaferro, 2003; Ponterotto et al., 2006). Furthermore, racism reduces access to educational and vocational resources (Vera, Buhin, & Shin, 2006). All of these negative outcomes further contribute to already existing racial disparities in education, socioeconomic status, prison Intervention to Reduce Color-Blind Racial Attitudes 7 incarceration and health (Cox, 2012; Darity Jr., & Hamilton, 2012; O’Connell, 2012; O’Gorman, 2009; Smedley, Stith, & Nelson, 2002). These negative consequences demonstrate the need for interventions that target color-blind individuals with the aim of educating and increasing awareness to reduce CoBRAs and the bias and prejudice associated with them. Although less studied, deleterious effects of racism for Whites also exist. Whites experience affective costs as a result of racism such as exaggerated levels of fear and heightened levels of guilt (Kivel, 2011; Spanierman & Heppner, 2004) and social costs such as diminished relationships and isolation from diversity (Goodman, 2001). More specifically, CoBRAs have negative social consequences for Whites during interracial interactions with Whites appearing more biased to Blacks and producing more explicit and implicit racial attitudes (Apfelbaum, Sommers & Norton, 2008; Richeson & Nussbaum, 2004). Also, those with higher CoBRAs are more likely to make race-based judgments in clinical and educational settings (Biernat & Sesko, 2013; Gushue, 2004). CoBRAs will be examined alongside the motivation to respond without prejudice, psychosocial costs of racism and activism orientation. Given today’s sociopolitical atmosphere, one in which blatant racism is denigrated and being called a racist is socially damaging, it is ever more important to understand the motivations that drive individuals to respond without prejudice. It is apparent that contemporary norms have likely increasingly inhibited overt expressions of prejudice and discrimination (Neville et al., 2001), but many have questioned whether these