Jenell Clarke
School of Social Work
University of Michigan
1080 S. University Ave
Ann Arbor MI 48109-1106
USA
Phone: (734) 973-6967
FAX: (734) 763-3372
Email: jsclarke@umich.edu
Purpose: The present study investigated how racism is defined by a sample of African American and White Americans and the association of these definitions to respondents’ socio-demographic characteristics.
Methods: The sample included 99 Black and 98 White respondents recruited from a Midwestern city. Respondents were asked the open-ended question, “What does racism mean to you”? Responses were analyzed using qualitative analytic techniques. The following codes were generated: stereotype, prejudice, discrimination, individual racism, aversive racism, symbolic racism, institutional racism, everyday racism, neutrality, and ignorance. Logistic regression was used then to assess the association between socio-demographic characteristics and the endorsement of racism codes. OLS regression was used to assess a cumulative variable examining the number of racism codes endorsed.
Results: Results show an association between being African American and defining racism as discrimination (behavioral) and everyday (covert, recurrent). Higher levels of education was associated with defining racism as stereotypes, discrimination, and institutional. Gender differences were not linked to any of the definitions of racism. Within group analyses suggest that among African Americans, higher levels of education were associated with defining racism as discrimination and institutional. Among White Americans, higher levels of education were associated with defining racism as stereotypes. Additionally, being African American was associated with endorsing more categories of racism compared to Whites. Higher levels of education was associated with more racism categories for both African Americans and White Americans.
Discussion: The results suggest that differences in racial experiences may account for variations in definitions of racism. African Americans were more likely to include action-oriented (discrimination), subtle (everyday), and institutional definitions of racism as opposed to cognitive definitions (stereotypes, prejudice). The implications of educational differences in definitions of racism highlight the need for further efforts around anti-bigotry education in order to promote broader, more comprehensive understandings of racism in U.S. society.