The zoot effect in personality: a race riot participant.

Clark, Kenneth B.; Barker, James A.

doi:10.1037/h0062983

Cited by 19 publications

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“…By his own testimony, R. epitomized the criminal behavior White and others warned about. Clark wrote that although R. understood very well the American ideals of social, racial, and material progress, he consciously chose to reject those norms~Clark and Barker, 1945!. Confronted by the questions R. had raised for him, Clark arrived at a new concept to describe this behavior which he called the "zoot effect." He defined the zoot effect or "zoot personality" as an individual's attempt to stabilize his or her ego in the face of societal rejection-a form of psychological protection against a racially hostile society.…”

Section: "Nancy" the 1943 Harlem Riot And The Zoot Personalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: “Nancy” the 1943 Harlem Riot And The Zoot Personalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In his mind, the zoot personality was the complex result of structural inequalities rooted not only in White supremacy, but in the total pattern of American culture that encouraged striving for materialistic rewards and status. These larger social, economic, and cultural patterns damaged all human beings whether they were victims or victimizers and inhibited their potential~Clark 1945potential~Clark , 1946potential~Clark , 1948potential~Clark , 1950potential~Clark , 1955potential~Clark , 1965Clark and Barker, 1945!. In articulating this concept, Clark followed the thinking of other social psychologists in situating the individual within the broader social context. For him, the problem of damage was inextricably linked to the wider culture; American society as a whole had developed historically deep-seated racial prejudices that served both psychological and economic needs of insecure European immigrants.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the early 1940s, he developed a concept which he called the “zoot effect” or “zoot personality.” He defined it as the attempt by a person, regardless of race, to stabilize his or her ego in opposition to the larger society's insistence on that individual's inferiority. It reflected not only what went on inside a person, but also the larger society's pathology (Clark and Barker, 1945). Although Clark believed human beings who demonstrated the zoot effect could engage in pathological actions that were destructive to themselves and the larger society, he never believed that such behavior was one-dimensional or intrinsic to African American culture.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Reconsidering Kenneth B. Clark and the Idea of Black Psychological Damage, 1931–1945

Freeman

2011

Du Bois Rev.

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One of the most controversial figures in Black intellectual history is psychologist Kenneth B. Clark. Prominently identified as the main proponent of the idea that racial segregation led to psychological damage in Black children, Clark's work heavily influenced the U.S. Supreme Court in its 1954Brown v. Board of Education school desegregation decision. Almost immediately afterwards, his research methods and conclusions were challenged as incomplete and biased. Scholars now argue that Clark and other racial liberals became solely wedded to the idea of racial psychological damage in order to secure victory in Brown. Yet a closer analysis of his thought reveals a more complex picture. During the early 1940s, he developed a new psychological concept which he called the “zoot effect.” He defined the zoot effect as the attempt by a person to gain psychological security in a society which mandated that individual's inferiority. The zoot effect or zoot personality reflected the larger society's pathology, which manifested itself internally in individuals. This concept was heavily shaped by ideas about race, class, and in particular the work of Alfred Adler, which he first learned as a student at Howard University. Using archival and secondary sources, I argue for a reconceptualization of Clark within the broader context of his social thought, suggesting that the zoot-effect concept grounded his research on Black children and set the stage for his later views on desegregation, civil rights, and American society.

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Section: "Nancy" the 1943 Harlem Riot And The Zoot Personalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: “Nancy” the 1943 Harlem Riot And The Zoot Personalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Reconsidering Kenneth B. Clark and the Idea of Black Psychological Damage, 1931–1945

Freeman

2011

Du Bois Rev.

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Group dynamics and psychological well-being: The impact of groups on adjustment and dysfunction.

Forsyth

Elliott²

The Social Psychology of Emotional and Behavioral Problems: Interfaces of Social and Clinical Psychology.

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Groups are the setting for most social activities. All but an occasional recluse or exile belong to groups, and those who insist on living their lives apart from others, refusing to join any groups, are considered curiosities, eccentrics, or even mentally unsettled (Storr, 1988). Nearly all human societies are organized around small groups, such as families, clans, communities, gangs, religious denominations, and tribes, and the influence of these groups on individual members is considerable. Virtually all social activities-working, learning, worshiping, relaxing, playing, socializing, chatting in cyberspace communities, and even sleeping-occur in groups rather than in isolation from others.Groups exert a ubiquitous, unrelenting influence over their members, shaping both their psychological adjustment and their dysfunction. Those who study mental health-clinical psychologists, counseling psychologists, community psychologists, health psychologists, social workers, and psychiatrists-have long recognized the relationship between groups and 339

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Los Angeles Zoot: Race "Riot," the Pachuco, and Black Music Culture

Daniels¹

2002

The Journal of African American History

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The zoot effect in personality: a race riot participant.

Cited by 19 publications

References 0 publications

Reconsidering Kenneth B. Clark and the Idea of Black Psychological Damage, 1931–1945

Reconsidering Kenneth B. Clark and the Idea of Black Psychological Damage, 1931–1945

Group dynamics and psychological well-being: The impact of groups on adjustment and dysfunction.

Los Angeles Zoot: Race "Riot," the Pachuco, and Black Music Culture

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