Perceived Discrimination: Multiple Measures and the Intersections of Race and Gender

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the degree to which adults in four racial/gender categories perceive that they experience discrimination. Using the 1995-1996 National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS), the author employs logistic regression to compare the likelihood of perceiving specific types of discrimination for black men, black women, white men, and white women. Results indicate that variations in perceived discrimination occur across the racial/ gender categories. The findings highlight the need for researchers to be aware of gendered and racialized perceptions of discrimination. Keywords Perceived discrimination . Intersections of race and genderDrawing on multiracial feminist discourse theory (Baca Zinn and Dill 1996; Collins 1991), this paper explores how race and gender simultaneously affect perceptions of personal discrimination. Collins (1991) describes a "matrix of domination" that represents intersecting systems of oppression that differentially affect individuals' lives. In this schema, race and gender "are not reducible to individual attributes to be measured and assessed for their separate contribution in explaining given social outcomes" (Baca Zinn and Dill 1996:22). Instead, the influence of gender on a given outcome may differ by race, and vice versa. Few studies have analyzed the ways race and gender intersect to produce differences in perceived discrimination (Broman et al. 2000;Levin et al. 2002;Sigelman and Welch 1991) and few have assessed both majority and minority group members' perceptions of various types of personal discrimination.Using a nationally representative sample, this paper provides evidence of the degree to which four racial/gender groups (black men, black women, white men, and white women) perceive specific types of personal discrimination and whether the levels and types vary across the four categories. Studying perceptions of discrimina-J Afr Am St (2008) 12:348-365

Discrimination in the United States: Experiences of black Americans

“…Surprisingly, we found little variation in experiences of discrimination among black adults by socioeconomic status, gender, and neighborhood racial composition, likely because of the high proportion of black adults who reported experiencing discrimination across domains. Discrimination experiences varied by domain, consistent with prior research showing that reporting discrimination varies by both demographic characteristics and the type of discriminatory treatment tested . In addition, living in a predominantly black neighborhood was not predictive of discrimination in any domains.…”

“…Discrimination experiences varied by domain, consistent with prior research showing that reporting discrimination varies by both demographic characteristics and the type of discriminatory treatment tested. 28 In addition, living in a predominantly black neighborhood was not predictive of discrimination in any domains. This is inconsistent with prior research using census data which found that among blacks, living in a neighborhood with a higher percentage of blacks was associated with lower levels of discrimination.…”

“…It was conducted as part of a larger nationally representative survey fielded in 2017 in response to a growing national debate about discrimination in the United States today, to understand experiences of discrimination against several different groups in America, including blacks, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, women, and LGBTQ people. Specifically, the purpose of this study was to (a) document the prevalence of racial discrimination against black adults across multiple institutional and interpersonal domains, including health care, education, employment, housing, health care, political participation, police, the criminal justice system, slurs, microaggressions, harassment, and violence; (b) to compare blacks’ experiences to whites; and (c) to examine the variation of self‐reported discrimination among black adults by gender, education, and neighborhood racial composition, as prior research suggests significant variation in blacks’ experiences of discrimination by these factors …”

“…Specifically, the purpose of this study was to (a) document the prevalence of racial discrimination against black adults across multiple institutional and interpersonal domains, including health care, education, employment, housing, health care, political participation, police, the criminal justice system, slurs, microaggressions, harassment, and violence; (b) to compare blacks' experiences to whites; and (c) to examine the variation of self-reported discrimination among black adults by gender, education, and neighborhood racial composition, as prior research suggests significant variation in blacks' experiences of discrimination by these factors. [26][27][28][29][30][31] 2 | ME THODS The full sample included 3453 US adults aged 18 years and older, and this paper examines the subsample of 802 non-Hispanic African American or black and 902 non-Hispanic white US adults. Throughout the paper, we use shorthand descriptors of black or white.…”

Racial Identity, Perpetrator Race, Racial Composition of Primary Community, and Mood Responses to Discrimination

“…For instance, an African American woman who experiences discrimination from a White male may be more likely to attribute a discriminatory act as being a result of her race and gender than if she experiences the same discriminatory act from other Black males or White women. African American men also may experience gendered types of discrimination in the form of more violent forms of discrimination than Black women (Rodriguez, 2008). Thus, future studies would be wise to explore the ways in which different experiences with discrimination, as a function of gender, may influence gender differences in affective responses to discrimination.…”