Ethnocultural empathy and diversity training: the case of campus policing

Ethnocultural Empathy and Racial Colorblindness Among White Police Recruits: Do Cross-Racial Friendships Matter?

“…Specifically, earlier endorsement of EE predicted lower ratings of CBRI through Black friendships. These findings thus provide additional support for Vaughn and Johnson's (2020) interpretation of the research that empathy is a necessary disposition for the development of cultural competencies such as increased awareness about institutional racism. Findings indicated that close racial friendships with Black friends have intervening effects on the relationship between EE and CBRI.…”

“…Researchers in police studies have identified ethnocultural empathy as a precursor to cultural competencies and a necessary attribute to reduce police misconduct directed toward BIPOC communities (Birzer, 2008; Vaughn & Johnson, 2020). Ethnocultural empathy (EE) is the understanding toward and acceptance of different ethnic groups.…”

“…Birzer (2008) found that among a sample of Black community members, EE was considered to be one of the most important attributes of a police officer. Emerging data also suggest that White police officers report lower EE than their BIPOC peers (Vaughn & Johnson, 2020). Thus, while ethnocultural empathy is desirable among all officers, interventions may want to target White officers because police departments are Whiter than the urban communities that they serve (Keating & Uhrmacher, 2020) and they, on average, report lower levels of EE than their BIPOC peers.…”

“…Additionally, both are related to theoretically relevant variables such as racial insensitivity (Goff et al, 2013) and racial fear (Todd et al, 2011) among primarily White students. Consistent with Vaughn and Johnson’s (2020) assertion that EE is essential in order for a person to develop cultural competencies, historian Lanzoni (2018) builds a case for empathy serving the basis of awareness of racism and antiracism activism. Emerging empirical evidence further supports that empathy drives the reduction of racial prejudice (Pashak et al, 2018).…”

“…The current project was designed to address the gaps in the literature by exploring the association between ethnocultural empathy and racial colorblindness among police recruits. Having this information can help shape recruitment and training strategies (April et al, 2019; Vaughn & Johnson, 2020), and inform policies and practices within police departments, including community-based cultural competency training (McLane-Davison et al, 2018). We argue that in order for officers to support antiracism policies and practices it is essential to have care and compassion for BIPOC and to have an awareness that structural racism exists and negatively influences the lived realities of BIPOC communities.…”