Thesis (Ph. D.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of Sociology, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

There is currently a paucity of literature in the field to provide clinicians guidance regarding best practices when clients make racist comments during individual therapy. As of this writing, very little theoretical literature and no empirical literature had been published on the topic. To address this gap in the literature, the current study used a mixed-methods design to investigate the topics. The investigation queried clinicians trained in Clinical and Counseling Psychology who had had at least three years of experience working with adult clients in individual therapy. As a starting point, the investigation focused on participants' experiences when White clients made racist comments, as White individuals have historically held more social power than People of Color. As the first of its kind, this exploratory study asked participants what they do when their White clients make racist comments in session and what factors (i.e., motivators, barriers, and other influencing factors) influence their decision-making in these situations. Data analysis was also done to identify some characteristics of the clinician that relate to the behaviors in which the clinician engages when clients make racist comments in therapy. Participants reported engaging in a range of behaviors from ignoring the comment or changing the subject to directly confronting the client's comment, labeling it racist and processing this with the client. In general, participants reported wanting to intervene with the comments more than they actually did. They indicated that the factors that influenced their behaviors included their own values regarding eradicating racism, their theoretical orientations, a desire to keep the focus on the client's presenting concern, and concerns about negative consequences that might result from confronting the comments. The information gleaned from the current study can be useful in beginning the conversation about what to do in these situations so that psychology's value of multiculturalism is upheld while also respecting clients' individual beliefs and values as well as their autonomy in therapy. It is hoped that this information will prompt additional process research in this area to establish best practices for therapeutically addressing racism and other forms of prejudice as they arise in therapy.

This thesis reports on the effectiveness of an anti-racist training program implemented at secondary schools in Vancouver and Richmond in February and March of 1995. The program used Responding to Racism; a guide for High School Students, prepared by the author, with John Kehoe and Lily Yee. Training involved three hours of anti-racist role-play exercises from Responding to Racism. A pretest-posttest control group design was employed to measure: retention of given models for dealing with racist incidents, post-treatment levels of racism, and behavioral reactions during a staged racist incident. Ten social studies classes from two schools made up a sample population of 262 students. Following half-day workshops, three teachers carried out the program with a total of six classes of either grade 9 or 11 students. Four additional classes continued with regular curriculum to serve as the Control sample. The Cultural Diversity Scale (Kehoe, 1982, 1984), was given as a pretest to establish Control to Experimental group equivalency. A posttest Written Response to Racist Incidents instrument, used to measure knowledge of how to respond to a racist incident, found a significant positive difference between Experimental and Control groups, (t=(3.83) p.<.001). Post-training levels of racism, evaluated through the Evidence of Racism Scale, were not significantly different (+.16Sd). The final postmeasure, the Racist Incident Behavioral Scale (Culhane, 1995), found significant positive effect among a sample of 68 students (40-Exp./28-Cntl.), (t=(3.33) p.<.001). Students undergoing treatment were in the 68th percentile of Control students on the Written Response to Racist incidents, (+.47Sd), and the 92nd percentile (+1.23Sd) of Control subjects on results from the Racist Incident Behavioral Scale. Experimental students did not show significant difference when compared to Control subjects on items pertaining to empathy for the victims of racism. The results suggest the program was most successful in changing behaviour, over attitudes, within the context of a relatively short-term time period. Responding to Racism provided students with methods for responding to racist incidents which were evident on written and behavioral measures. Support given to the victims of the racist incidents, opposition to the perpetrators, and positive attempts to limit the racism in each incident were all significantly more apparent in responses of Experimental students over Control. The results reaffirm the utility of role-play anti-racist training, and validate the use of Responding to Racism as an effective package for use in secondary school settings, notably in regards to changing student behaviour in racially-motivated situations. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

The present study used a mixed-experimental analog design to examine 858 undergraduate students' reactions to a scenario depicting a store clerk being mildly rude to a customer. The ethnicity of the clerk and customer were manipulated. Results indicated that participants' beliefs regarding the general prevalence of racism and the degree to which they identify with their respective ethnic group significantly predicted the extent to which they perceived the clerk's behavior as being racially motivated. It also was found that participants' beliefs regarding the general prevalence of racism, levels of cynicism, and attributional style significantly predicted the extent to which they perceived the clerk's behavior as unjust. Moreover, participants' beliefs regarding the general prevalence of racism, levels of cynicism, self-esteem, and symptoms of depression significantly predicted the extent to which they considered the clerk's behavior as a common occurrence. Finally, participants judged the clerk's behavior to be significantly more racially motivated when the clerk was White and the customer was Hispanic or African American than when the clerk was Hispanic or African American and the customer was White. This last finding was robust for White, Latino and African American participants. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Internalized racism is a contributing factor to the inability of African Americans to overcome racism. (Speight, 2007) Because this is a cognitive phenomenon over which individuals can have agency, it is important to study, understand, and seek out ways that African Americans are able to gain a liberatory perspective in the midst of a racist society. By using colonization psychology and post-traumatic slave psychology to define the phenomenon, and Jackson’s Black identity development model theory to ground and analyze participants’ process of liberation, this study used phenomenological in-depth interviewing to understand the experiences of African American and Black women who have gained more consciousness of their internalized racism. The researcher interviewed 11 U.S. Born African American and Black women for an hour and a half to gain their understanding of internalized racism and liberation. The study found that Black and African American women in a process of liberation 1) move from experiencing lack of control to an experience of having agency; 2) gain agency from developing greater knowledge and pride of a positive black identity; 3) replace negative socialization with a knowledge of self; and 4) are supported in their liberation by a systemic analysis of racism. The study also found that 1) internalized racism and liberation are complexly defined phenomena, 2) participants continued to practice manifestations of internalized racism while practicing a liberatory consciousness, which confirms the theories of the cyclical nature of identity, and 3) racial identity development models offer a framework for understanding a transition from internalized racism towards liberation but lack clarity about how transformation actually occurs.

Very few studies have investigated how psychopathic traits might contribute to our understanding of prejudicial attitudes. Moreover, previous studies involve a number of limitations which cloud interpretation of their findings. The current study examined the relationship between prejudice and a number of its predictors (e.g., social dominance orientation (SDO) and right-wing authoritarianism (RWA)), while also including psychopathic traits and an innovative new measure of empathy using an online sample. A path analytic framework was employed to comprehensively model relations among psychopathic traits, SDO, RWA, and affective empathy domains in the prediction of generalized prejudice. Overall, there was support for certain psychopathic traits being modest predictors of racial prejudice, although more proximal measures were much stronger predictors. The results revealed a number of novel relationships that may help in further understanding the links between psychopathic propensities, empathy, and social-cognitive variables predictive of racial prejudice.

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The purpose of this essay is to show how elements of racism and xenophobia manifest themselves in H.P. Lovecraft’s 1931 novella The Shadow over Innsmouth. Through a close reading of the text, I show how these two matters contribute to creating fear and horror in the story. In addition to the analysis of the text I also relate the elements found in the text to letters and essays written by Lovecraft to show how several aspects of the novella contribute to the theme of racism and xenophobia. Throughout the essay I suggest how topics such as miscegenation, the vilification of another race of people and even the landscape itself mesh together to form the basis of the horror and the fear in the story. In the end, it is clear that Lovecraft’s own racism permeates the story.

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