Student reactions to two online demonstrations of racial bias in the United States.

Author(s):  
Carolyn R. Brown-Kramer ◽  
Amy L. Hillard
2014 ◽  
Vol 104 (11) ◽  
pp. 3397-3433 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alberto Alesina ◽  
Eliana La Ferrara

We collect a new dataset on capital punishment in the United States and we propose a test of racial bias based upon patterns of sentence reversals. We model the courts as minimizing type I and II errors. If trial courts were unbiased, conditional on defendant's race the error rate should be independent of the victim's race. Instead we uncover 3 and 9 percentage points higher reversal rates in direct appeal and habeas corpus cases, respectively, against minority defendants who killed whites. The pattern for white defendants is opposite but not statistically significant. This bias is confined to Southern states. (JEL J15, K41, K42)


2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (52) ◽  
pp. e2110347118
Author(s):  
Ray Block ◽  
Charles Crabtree ◽  
John B. Holbein ◽  
J. Quin Monson

In this article, we present the results from a large-scale field experiment designed to measure racial discrimination among the American public. We conducted an audit study on the general public—sending correspondence to 250,000 citizens randomly drawn from public voter registration lists. Our within-subjects experimental design tested the public’s responsiveness to electronically delivered requests to volunteer their time to help with completing a simple task—taking a survey. We randomized whether the request came from either an ostensibly Black or an ostensibly White sender. We provide evidence that in electronic interactions, on average, the public is less likely to respond to emails from people they believe to be Black (rather than White). Our results give us a snapshot of a subtle form of racial bias that is systemic in the United States. What we term everyday or “paper cut” discrimination is exhibited by all racial/ethnic subgroups—outside of Black people themselves—and is present in all geographic regions in the United States. We benchmark paper cut discrimination among the public to estimates of discrimination among various groups of social elites. We show that discrimination among the public occurs more frequently than discrimination observed among elected officials and discrimination in higher education and the medical sector but simultaneously, less frequently than discrimination in housing and employment contexts. Our results provide a window into the discrimination that Black people in the United States face in day-to-day interactions with their fellow citizens.


2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 20-33
Author(s):  
Stacy Keogh George

Abstract This article describes the incorporation of a refugee simulation into an upper-division sociology course on globalisation at a liberal arts institution in the United States. The simulation is designed to inform students of the refugee process in the United States by inviting participants to immerse themselves in refugee experiences by adopting identities of actual refugee families as they complete four stages of the refugee application process. Student reactions to the refugee simulation suggest that it is an effective tool for demonstrating the complexities of the refugee experience in the United States and for evoking social empathy.


2021 ◽  
Vol 75 (Supplement_2) ◽  
pp. 7512500020p1-7512500020p1
Author(s):  
Alaa Abou-Arab ◽  
Rochelle Mendonca

Abstract Date Presented 04/13/21 Racial bias is defined as the negative evaluation of a group and its members relative to another and can exist on explicit and implicit levels. This is an exploratory study to examine the presence of implicit and explicit racial bias among OT professionals across the United States. The results (N = 201) highlight the presence of implicit and explicit racial biases among OT professionals in the United States and the need for further education on racial bias. Primary Author and Speaker: Alaa Abou-Arab Additional Authors and Speakers: Alee Leteria, Kristina Zanayed, and Susanne Higgins


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Rizzo ◽  
Tobias Britton ◽  
Marjorie Rhodes

Anti-Black racism remains a pervasive crisis in the United States today. Racist social systems are rooted in prejudicial beliefs that reinforce and perpetuate racial inequalities. These beliefs have their developmental origins in early childhood and are difficult to change once entrenched in adolescence and adulthood. What causes children to form prejudicial beliefs and racial biases—and what steps can be taken to preempt them from forming—remain open questions. Here we show that children’s exposure to and beliefs about racial inequalities predict the formation of anti-Black biases in a sample of 712 White children (4-8 years) living across the United States. Drawing from constructivist theories in developmental science, we outline a novel account of the emergence of racial bias in early childhood: As children observe racial inequalities in the world around them, they develop beliefs about the causal factors underlying those inequalities. Children who believe that inequalities reflect the inherent superiority/inferiority of racial groups develop biases that perpetuate this worldview, whereas those who recognize the extrinsic causes of racial inequalities develop attitudes geared towards rectification. Our results demonstrate the importance of early intervention to disrupt problematic beliefs before they emerge and highlight children’s awareness of structural racism as an important target for anti-racist intervention.


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 168-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Otto Santa Ana

Abstract This is a critical analysis of the discourse of an elected state official in the years leading up to the passage of arguably racist legislation. It was submitted to a U.S. court of law to support the plaintiffs’ claim that since the legislator publicly expressed racial bias against the groups of people affected by the law, then his legislation should be voided because the United States Constitution requires that laws treat citizens equally. The fact that critical discourse analytic findings have been entered into the U.S. courts leads to the question whether such analyses of public pronouncements May ever be permitted to serve as legally probative evidence.


2020 ◽  
pp. 78-96
Author(s):  
Benjamin Wiggins

Calculating Race’s fourth chapter demonstrates that race has become so highly correlated with other social statistics that actuarial science in general has developed a baked-in racial bias. Racial discrimination by proxy (e.g., zip code standing in for race) can be glimpsed in the disparate impact of data-driven decision-making in housing, healthcare, policing, sentencing, and more. Simply leaving out racial data in statistically aided decision-making distances institutions from claims of intentional discrimination, but a disparate, discriminatory impact lingers when other factors correlated with race power actuarial analyses. Chapter 4 considers how insurance law in the United States has defined the limits of acceptable discrimination. By surveying the progression of state-by-state regulations that prohibit or accept the use of race, gender, sex, sexuality, ability, age, and genetics in an industry that revolves around the ability to discriminate risk, it uncovers who the United States has historically chosen to protect.


1963 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 349-362 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack D. Forbes

The student of history who is concerned with the historical past of the American Indian and who is also a reader of general American historical works is faced with a provocative problem which apparently does not seriously bother other members of the historical profession. That is, he is aware of the question of defining what is meant by the concepts of “United States history “and “American history.” Most historically minded people would solve the problem very simply: American history is the story of America’s past (meaning by “American “the United States of America only) or, Unįted States history is the story of the development of the United States as a nation and as a region.


2020 ◽  
pp. 183
Author(s):  
Shontel Stewart

The use of dogs as tools of oppression against African Americans has its roots in slavery and persists today in everyday life and police interactions. Due to such harmful practices, African Americans are not only disproportionately terrorized by officers with dogs, but they are also subject to instances of misplaced sympathy, illsuited laws, and social exclusion in their communities. Whether extreme and violent or subtle and pervasive, the use of dogs in oppressive acts is a critical layer of racial bias in the United States that has consistently built injustices that impede social and legal progress. By recognizing this pattern and committing to an intentional effort to end the devaluation of African Americans, the United States can begin to address the trailing pawprints of its racial inequities.


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