1 UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK IN PRAGUE Department of Psychology Racial Attitudes and White Upbringing Master Thesis Prague 2018 B.A. Psychology Svobodova 1 1 UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK IN PRAGUE Department of Psychology Racial Attitudes and White Upbringing Master Thesis Supervisor : Submitted by: Jan Zahorik Sarah Svobodova Prague, 2018 1 Declaration I hereby declare that I wrote this thesis individually based on literature and resources stated in references section. In Prague: 15.8.2018 Signature 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would first like to thank my thesis advisor Dr. Jan Zahorik of the at The University of New York. He consistently allowed this paper to be my own work, but steered me in the right the direction whenever he thought I needed it. I would also like to acknowledge Dr. Radek Ptacek, Director of the Masters of Psychology program for all of his continued support during this thesis. Finally, I must express my gratitude to my parents, my sister, my friends and to my partner for providing me with their continued support throughout my years of study and through the process of researching and writing this thesis. This accomplishment would not have been possible without them. Thank you. 1 Table of Contents ABSTRACT...................................................................................................................7 INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................8 LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................9 METHODOLOGY.........................................................................................................28 RESULTS ......................................................................................................................32 DISCUSSION................................................................................................................60 CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................80 REFERENCES...............................................................................................................82 APPENDICES ...............................................................................................................84 Appendix A: Consent Form ...........................................................................................85 Appendix B: Interview Guide.........................................................................................87 1 ABSTRACT The purpose of this qualitative study is to examine the impact in which upbringing affects attitudes on race. Since negative racial views still persist within America, there needs to be increased awareness within the white community. Developing children’s racial awareness within white society is crucial to understanding American systemic racism. For this study ten American citizens, both living in the states and abroad, were interviewed about their upbringing, neighborhood diversity, and current racial views. They were also questioned on childhood experiences regarding implicit and explicit racism both at home and at school, religious beliefs, their professional experiences and their current political views. The interviews were then transcribed and coded into themes according to their prevalence during the interviews. The results showed that parental upbringing had a significant influence during their childhood and anti-racist values and racial awareness diminished racial prejudices. Aversive Racism, Ambivalent Prejudice, and Color-blindness were also reported. Although participants reported growing up in all loving, open minded household, they did not discuss race explicitly and witnessed acts implicit and explicit racism. 8 out of 10 (80%) of the participants responded with an answer that suggested color-blindness was present in their upbringing. Answers ranged from “we didn’t speak about race” to “ I would say both my parents are very open-minded and accepting of all people.” Racism was also reported in many of their views about white privilege mindfulness. 1 Introduction Following the 2016 U.S. Elections, events such as the White nationalist rally at University of Virginia, the overwhelming public adherence to the Government’s recent immigration proposals including costly Border Security measures, which were a major component leading up to the Government’s January 2018 shutdown, alongside the impact of the Global Refugee crisis have highlighted racism’s continuous stronghold in America’s present culture. These events exhibit America’s ongoing racial divide and how it’s time our nation faces the prejudice that lurks behind our country’s intransigent mirror. Many Americans feel they currently live in a post- racial time. Although extensive survey data records show that attitudes of Blacks and Whites have changed over the years with questions including “racial equality, government efforts to ensure equal treatment, affirmative action, preferred social contact with racial groups, and other topics”, Krysan & Moberg’s Trends in Racial Attitudes (2016) research finds that indeed racial attitudes are far complex than we imagined. The purpose of this research is to examine the impact in which upbringing affects views on race, particularly in developing racial habits within white society. Studies have shown that children’s attitudes and prejudices regarding race are consistent with overt influences during developmental upbringing. This qualitative study will examine white adults aged 21-30 and their current racial attitudes and reveal the extent that domestic upbringing and social experiences (school, media) influenced their attitudes. The first section of the paper introduces the terminology to provide the reader with a basic understanding of the terms and relevant studies mentioned throughout the 1 paper. The second section of the paper discusses the methodological processes which were conducted to perform this study. The third section reviews the results found during the interviews, these results provided insight into the understanding the development of racial attitudes. The penultimate section of the paper provides the interpretation of the results. It also focuses on the strengths and weaknesses of the methodology, provides further implications for future studies, and highlights the significance of the study backed by evidence based interpretation. The final section of the paper synthesizes the main ideas, and provides possible solutions to decrease the prevalence of systemic racism in America. Literature Review Definition of Terms: Race is the distinguishable physical differences that an individual person has, representing the carnal part of their identity. Some of these features include the shape of one’s eyes, the hue of skin, or the texture of hair. Race differs from ethnicity in the sense that race refers solely to physical traits, whereas ethnicity is a grouping of social traits within a culture, such as language, customs, and heritage. We attribute these traits to into different ethnic groups which carryover similar overall physical characteristics. However, race can attest to both biological and social concepts. Race has closer ties with social connotations and less as just a geographically focused origin. A person can typically self identify as a race based on one’s ancestry, social, and cultural identities. Interestingly enough, in the 1 United States Census there had not been an official option to choose multi-racial in the questions regarding race until the year 2000 (Census). In essence, the twenty first century has led America into recognizing the importance of self identity through race. Yet, it should be noted that any conclusions based on solely one’s race are not truly definitive and serves an environment that is substantially divisive amongst races. Racial Divide: The divide created when making conclusions based on race, is one of the key determining factors of racism. Inherently, racism is a mindset that focuses on the racial superiority or inferiority of one race when compared to one another. According to Diangelo (2010), “Race is not about difference, it is about the meaning a society assigns to difference, in this case the superficial differences of physical appearance.” Race is presently referred as social construct, one which unnaturally categorizes individuals based on appearance, but not limited to culture, socioeconomic class, political needs, relations historical relations within as society, and most importantly as Diangelo describes, an “Unequal distribution of privileges, resources and power between Whites and people of Color. (Diangelo, 2010) This can be further broken down into subcategories such as individual racism and institutionalized racism. One of the issues posed with individual racism is the (colorblind) mindset towards minorities being the reason for their respective failures (Bonilla-Silva, 2017). In addition, Whites are found guilty of ditching racial slurs of the past for blaming the very communities in which they have been passively and actively suppressing for centuries. According to the Oxford Dictionary institutionalized racism is a form of, “Racial discrimination that has become established as normal behavior within a society or organization.” The normalization of racial discrimination 1 leads to strong hindrances of those deemed as racially oppressed in society. As it stands, between whites and nonwhites when institutionalized racism is present,