The Cost of Racism: Examining the Experiences of the Majority

• In Event: Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: PS 12 Topic -Diversity, Equity & Social Justice

Abstract

The United States has a long, complicated history with institutional racism. Within the last few years, not only have public displays of racism become more visible (e.g. Charlottesville, Virginia; Posner, 2017), but the number of hate groups have been rapidly increasing (Beirich, 2019). Paralleling this, data provided by the FBI (2012, 2017) indicated that the number of hate crimes has increased by 23% from 2011 (n = 5,790) to 2017 (n = 7,106). Although a substantive body of research has examined the aversive effects of racism and discrimination, limited research has focused on how White individuals are impacted by racism. Powell and colleagues (2005) posited that viewing racial inequality solely as an outgroup disadvantage only portrays half of the story of intergroup relations, and this obscures the “pervasive yet subtle benefits of ingroup membership”. In this way, the focus of inequality is not only about disadvantaged outgroups, it is also about privileged ingroups.
Scholars have recently begun to examine the costs of racism among White individuals. Most recently, Spanierman & Heppner (2004) identified three responses to racism: Empathic Reactions Toward Racism, Guilt, and Fear of Others. These constructs varied differently with levels of racial awareness. Although an increasing amount of research has focused on the psychosocial costs of racism to Whites, few studies have examined the association between these costs and mental health outcomes. Addressing these gaps in the current literature, the current study examined how psychosocial costs of racism to White individuals related to mental health outcomes (i.e., aggressive behavior and symptoms of depression).
Participants consisted of 149 non-Hispanic White college students from a large, diverse, Southeastern public university (77.9% female; Mage = 20.83). A path model was run in Mplus v8.0 to assess the relationships between psychosocial costs of racism and the outcome variables (see Figure 1). White Fear of Others was significantly and positively associated depressive symptoms (β = 0.16, p = .041, 95% CI [0.03, 0.38]), physically aggressive behavior (β = 0.21, p = .009, 95% CI [0.09, 0.66]), and socially aggressive behavior (β = 0.23, p = .007, 95% CI [0.07, 0.44]). At same time, results indicated that White Guilt had a significant positive association with depressive symptoms (β = 0.24, p = .003, 95% CI [0.08, 0.36]). Finally, White Empathic Reactions Toward Racism were not significantly associated with any of these outcomes.
By examining the association between mental health and the psychosocial costs of racism to Whites, the current study contributes to our understanding of the pervasive and negative effects of racism and institutional racism, even on those from the privileged group. It is important to further explore how White Guilt relates to depressive symptoms as this finding could serve as a hinderance to White individuals engaging in effective allyship against racism.
 

Authors

• Julie Rodil, Old Dominion University
  Presenting Author

• Alan Meca, University of Texas at San Antonio
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kelsie Allison, Old Dominion University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kenneth L. Ayers, Old Dominion University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kyla Monique Carr, Old Dominion University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Taityana Ray, Old Dominion University
  Non-Presenting Author