3-213 - White Young Adults’ Ideologies, Attitudes, and Responses to Racism

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Racism is a social and cultural construction, continually deconstructed and reconstructed to maintain the racial distance, power, and privilege between the racial majority and minority groups (Omi & Winant, 1994). It is a system of advantages that privileges whitenesss and White people on individual, institutional, and cultural levels (Jones, 1997). This symposium brings together three unique studies that use diverse theoretical frameworks, methodology, and analyses to explore how White young adults process and challenge racism. We focus on young adulthood, a developmental period characterized by increased cognitive reasoning, identity exploration, and inter-racial contact. Paper 1 examines young adults’ racial attitudes and psychological responses to racism using person-centered analyses and identifies unique profiles based on color-blind racial attitudes and feelings associated with being in the dominant position in an unjust system of racism. Paper 2 qualitatively explores White young adults’ explanations of privilege within an intensive university diversity-workshop. Individuals framed privilege as either individualistic or institutional, aligning with White Discourse and Race Critical Discourse. Paper 3 employs an experimental design and investigates White young adults’ verbal response to subtle and blatant racism within the lab setting. Whites were less likely to cognitively process and identify subtle racism. Our Discussant, who recently published a review paper about White youths’ racial socialization, will integrate the three studies into the existing knowledge, while also highlighting future directions. A discussion of how findings can be used in prevention/interventions aimed at White youths’ greater awareness of their role in and challenging racism will be provided.

Sub Unit

• Diversity, Equity & Social Justice

Chair

• Katharine H. Zeiders, University of Arizona

Discussant

• Aerika Brittian Loyd, University of Illinois at Chicago

Individual Presentations

• Color-Blind Racial Attitudes and Psychosocial Costs of Racism to White Young Adults - Presenting Author: Katharine H. Zeiders, University of Arizona; Non-Presenting Author: Hyung Chol (Brandon) Yoo, Arizona State University; Non-Presenting Author: Sarah J Parks, Arizona State University; Non-Presenting Author: Angela Cruze, University of Arizona; Non-Presenting Author: Melissa Y. Delgado, University of Arizona; Non-Presenting Author: Russell B Toomey, University of Arizona

• Variations Among White First-year College Students’ Ideological Explanations of Privilege - Presenting Author: D. Scott Tharp, DePaul University

• White College Students’ Verbal Responses to Subtle and Blatant Racism - Presenting Author: Emily J Blevins, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Non-Presenting Author: Sylvia Perry, Northwestern University; Non-Presenting Author: Allison Skinner, Northwestern University