Toward a Social Psychology of Race and Race Relations for the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

The United States, like many nations, continues to experience rapid growth in its racial minority population and is projected to attain so-called majority-minority status by 2050. Along with these demographic changes, staggering racial disparities persist in health, wealth, and overall well-being. In this article, we review the social psychological literature on race and race relations, beginning with the seemingly simple question: What is race? Drawing on research from different fields, we forward a model of race as dynamic, malleable, and socially constructed, shifting across time, place, perceiver, and target. We then use classic theoretical perspectives on intergroup relations to frame and then consider new questions regarding contemporary racial dynamics. We next consider research on racial diversity, focusing on its effects during interpersonal encounters and for groups. We close by highlighting emerging topics that should top the research agenda for the social psychology of race and race relations in the twenty-first century.

Americans misperceive racial economic equality

“…espite some indications of racial progress in American society (e.g., the Supreme Court decision in Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas, the 2008 election of Barack Obama as President of the United States), racial economic inequality continues to be strikingly high (1)(2)(3). For instance, a recent Pew Research analysis of the Current Population Survey (CPS) found that racial gaps in income and earnings, with White households earning more than their Black counterparts, remained largely constant or even widened between 1967 and 2015 (3,4).…”

Disorder and Perceptions of Insecurity in Urban Neighbourhoods – The Overrated Role of “Broken Windows” and the Challenge of Ethnic Diversity

“…Überein-stimmend mit den Ergebnissen bisheriger Studien rechnen wir besonders mit einem Effekt der ethnischen Diversität auf die Wahrnehmungsverzerrung. Diese Studien stammen jedoch ausschließlich aus den USA mit ihren besonderen "race relations" (Richeson und Sommers 2016), was die Übertragbarkeit auf europäische Länder als nicht selbstverständlich erscheinen lässt. In der Hamburger Studie wurden einzelne sozialräumliche Merkmale nicht getrennt untersucht, sondern soziale und ethnische Segregation in einem Faktor zusammengefasst (Häfele 2013 Das zweite Ziel des Aufsatzes ist die Klärung des Einflusses von Unordnung auf die Unsicherheitswahrnehmungen im Wohngebiet, also einer zentralen theoretischen Annahme der "Broken Windows"-Theorie.…”

Intraminority Support for and Participation in Race-Based Collective Action Movements: An Intersectional Perspective

“…Minority-minority relations differ from minority-majority relations, interactions, and alliances in that, though each racial group is distinct, a collective self-representation and common minority status can induce feelings of common identity and fate, even across domains (Craig & Richeson, 2014). Within race specifically, the results found between majority-minority groups may not be generalizable to intraminority outcomes, as the relations are qualitatively different and sensitive to social context (Richeson & Sommers, 2016). It is particularly important to examine various racial groups and their outcomes while considering their historical and current differences in social psychological research.…”

“…However, much of this research has focused on majority-minority (i.e., White-Black) intergroup attitudes and 18 behaviors, with very little research examining minority-minority relations (i.e. BlackLatinx; Richeson & Sommers, 2016). Though these previously mentioned theories and studies have provided useful information about intergroup relations and ways to begin to reduce prejudice, more literature examining the similarities and differences between majority-minority and minority-minority relations is needed, especially as the social and cultural contexts continues to shift and become more multicultural in the United States.…”

“…White, for race in the US) towards minority groups and group members. Intra-minority attitudes and relations (i.e., racial minorities' attitudes toward other racial minority outgroups) have been less explored (Richeson & Sommers, 2016), and even less as they relate to collective action and behavior (Wright, 2003).…”