One issue sparking off from the fiery debate around the police shootings of black men is the extent to which Americans simply react negatively to seeing black – whether it is a police officer making a life-and-death split-second decision about the threat a black man poses, a store clerk tracking a black customer in a … Continue reading »
discrimination
The NAACP and the politics of race and regulation
There’s a bit of a kerfuffle going on about the NAACP’s defense of over-sized soft-drinks. In an amicus brief challenging New York City’s new ban on the super-size, the NAACP (joined by the Hispanic Federation and an association of Korean grocers) takes a surprisingly libertarian stance against government regulation. It laments that the ban is … Continue reading »
How others’ (and our) attitudes about race affect our health
Health disparities across racial and ethnic groups suggest— but not conclusively— that discrimination affects your health. As a recent report from the American Psychological Association that I was a co-author on notes, minorities are far more susceptible to many diseases relative to majority groups, most notably heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. The data are as consistent … Continue reading »
Does White identity predict positive or negative attitudes towards diversity?
In recent years, research on White identity has gained traction in the psychological literature, as researchers and clinicians have grown to realize that this group also struggles with questions such as, “what does it mean to be White in my culture,” and “what does being White mean to me?” One of the most interesting– and … Continue reading »
Jeremy Lin and racism? How subtle discrimination affects targets
In last week’s post, I compared Jeremy Lin to Jackie Robinson, making the point that Lin might open doors for other Asian American athletes in pro sports. One reader, Angela, astutely pointed out that the analogy is problematic: “There was an actual structure preventing such players from participating, a structure that doesn’t exist for Asians … Continue reading »
Racial bias and bankruptcy: Implications for the 2012 election
In the news this week, more evidence of discrimination under our seemingly egalitarian noses: A forthcoming study in the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies shows that lawyers are about twice as likely to steer blacks debtors filing for bankruptcy towards the harsher chapter 13 than they are other filers, whom they are more likely to … Continue reading »
Curbing LGBT teen bullying: Neutrality is not an option
By guest blogger James Telesford, Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley Once, while wandering down Michigan Avenue in Chicago, I spotted two African American males walking out of the store next to me. They were wearing baggy jeans, hooded sweatshirts, and sneakers. As I watched them, they started to hold hands, kissed, stepped into the … Continue reading »
Making the invisible visible: Campus Republicans’ bake sale
As reported by CNN here, Berkeley’s campus Republicans are planning a bake sale with a sliding scale for payment, depending on the buyer’s gender and background. According to the organization’s president, “it’s really there to cause people to think more critically about what this kind of policy would do in university admissions.” The organization is protesting … Continue reading »
Accusations of discrimination: Finger pointing vs. teachable moments
So, two guys walk into a bar… and quite suddenly this story turns unfunny. As reported here, two African American men sitting at a bar in Georgia were apparently asked to vacate their seats so that the seats could be given to two White women. At issue is whether this is a case of racial … Continue reading »