SCIENCE Roundup
Identity politics have been defeated, science and reason are in control
Let’s check in on some science.
Since we’re now hearing that identity politics are finished, that “wokeism” has been defeated, let’s turn to the research that informs the socioeconomic policy-making decisions of America’s post-identity politics experts.
White People Problems? White Privilege Beliefs Predict Attitudes Toward Confederate Symbols
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/19485506211051913
Continuing in the grand social science tradition of branding conceptual normative content with the prestige of value neutral science, here we have a study that proves that white people adopting the paranoid projections of non-white group narcissists about white privilege results in white people agreeing with non-white group narcissists’ paranoid projections. This assessment of ideological conformity is rebranded as a study of the pre-conceptual psychological module known as “empathy.”
Abstract:
Building upon Intergroup Threat Theory and research on group-level empathy, we tested the relationship between White privilege beliefs and White Americans’ attitudes toward Confederate symbols. In three experiments, participants induced to think about White privilege exhibited more opposition to Confederate symbols, perceived less realistic threat to their group’s power/resources and symbolic threat to their group’s values/identity from the prospect of these symbols being removed, and (in Study 2) felt more empathetic toward racial/ethnic minorities who may view these symbols. Further, a meta-analytic path analysis across studies demonstrated that the effect of White privilege reminders on opposition to Confederate symbols was driven by reduced realistic and symbolic threat, as well as greater outgroup empathy.
How the term “white privilege” affects participation, polarization, and content in online communication
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9067660/
But wait! It turns out that people who believe they are white also find the concept of white privilege to be alienating. Expect a new rebrand for anti-white rhetoric.
Abstract:
“The language used in online discussions affects who participates in them and how they respond, which can influence perceptions of public opinion. This study examines how the term white privilege affects these dimensions of online communication. In two lab experiments, US residents were given a chance to respond to a post asking their opinions about renaming college buildings. Using the term white privilege in the question decreased the percentage of whites who supported renaming. In addition, those whites who remained supportive when white privilege was mentioned were less likely to create an online post, while opposing whites and non-whites showed no significant difference. The term also led to more low-quality posts among both whites and non-whites. The relationship between question language and the way participants framed their responses was mediated by their support or opposition for renaming buildings. This suggests that the effects of the term white privilege on the content of people’s responses is primarily affective. Overall, mention of white privilege seems to create internet discussions that are less constructive, more polarized, and less supportive of racially progressive policies. The findings have the potential to support meaningful online conversation and reduce online polarization.”
Internalized racism and self-esteem: Do depressive symptoms matter?
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34014704/
Here we see how, consistent with our analysis of social psychological research on group identity, promoting race-based group narcissism should be considered as a clinical intervention tool to address depression caused by “internalized racism” in people who do not believe they are white.
Abstract:
Objectives: This study examines the relation between internalized racism and self-esteem in a sample of students of Color while controlling for depressive symptoms. Internalized racism has been demonstrated to contribute to negative mental health outcomes in people of Color, however the nuanced relations between these interrelated outcomes and internalized racism are unclear.
Methods: Participants were 140 students of Color (83% female; mean age = 26.11, SD = 7.21) who self-identified as African American (45.7%), Asian (18.6%), Latino (16.4%), Multiracial (16.4%), Native American (1.4%), and Middle Eastern (1.4%). Data were analyzed using hierarchical linear regression.
Results: Internalized racism was inversely related to self-esteem when controlling for depressive symptoms, with devaluation of one's racial group being the largest contributor to this relation.
Conclusions: Psychological responses to internalized racism can include non-pathological states such as lowered self-esteem. Given the strong contribution of devaluation, for students of Color, the promotion of racial pride could be an important intervention. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).
‘American’ is the Eye of the Beholder: American Identity, Racial Sorting, and Affective Polarization among White Americans
In Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates suggests that people who believe in the Dream – people who believe they are white – can only be saved by becoming “American.” Indeed, it is common to see Redditor-Americans stress that white Americans must be American, whereas members of state-licensed groups can be hyphenated or exclusive members of the group. This study suggests that American is no longer an adequate category because the sense of the term now connotes assumptions about American demographics for both Republicans and Democrats. Who could’ve predicted that group narcissism would infect the concept of ‘American’?
Abstract
White Americans are more affectively polarized today than at any point since at least the 1870s—and the trend shows no sign of abating any time soon. Recent work using the Common In-group Identity Model (CIIM) suggests that appealing to a super-ordinate identity—in this case, American national identity—holds the potential of bridging the social distance between partisans (Levendusky, Americans, not partisans: can priming American national identity reduce affective polarization? J Polit 80(1):59–70, 2018). However, CIIM assumes that the normative content—i.e. the norms and stereotypes—that people associate with being an American are the same across subordinate groups. Using the 2016 and 2020 American National Election Studies cross-sectional surveys, as well as the 2016–2020 ANES panel survey, we demonstrate three key findings. First, White Democrats and White Republicans have systematically different ideas about what attributes are essential to being a member of the national community. Second, the association between partisanship and these competing conceptions of American identity among White Americans has gotten stronger during the Trump Era, largely because of Democrats adopting a more racially inclusive conception of American identity. Lastly, appeals to American identity only dampen out-partisan animosity when the demographic composition of the opposing party matches their racialized conception of American identity. When there is a mismatch between people’s racialized conception of American identity and the composition of the opposition party, American identity is associated with higher levels of partisan hostility.
US universities are not succeeding in diversifying faculty
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-022-01495-4
It appears that whereas administrative offices are bursting with handsomely-compensated Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity staff, Universities continue to lag in awarding their most prestigious positions to Non-white, Non-Asian minorities.
Abstract
US universities have made public commitments to recruit and retain faculty of colour. Analysis of three federal datasets shows that at current rates diversity in US faculty will never reach racial parity. Yet, colleges and universities could achieve parity by 2050 by diversifying their faculty at 3.5 times the current pace
Inflammatory Political Campaigns and Racial Bias in Policing
On a more positive note, it seems like Trump rallies could help reduce the number of Black vehicular deaths, documented by Sailer as “deaths of exuberance,” by up to 5.74% for 60 days.
Abstract
Can political rallies affect the behavior of law enforcement officers toward racial minorities? Using data from 35 million traffic stops, we show that the probability that a stopped driver is Black increases by 5.74% after a Trump rally during his 2015–2016 campaign. The effect is immediate, specific to Black drivers, lasts for up to 60 days after the rally, and is not justified by changes in driver behavior. The effects are significantly larger among law enforcement officers whose estimated racial bias is higher at baseline, in areas that score higher on present-day measures of racial resentment, those that experienced more racial violence during the Jim Crow era, and in former slave-holding counties. Mentions of racial issues in Trump speeches, whether explicit or implicit, exacerbate the effect of a Trump rally among officers with higher estimated racial bias.
Police Facebook Posts Disproportionately Highlight Crimes Involving Black Suspects, Study Finds
Contrary to the claims of evil racists, Black crime is actually OVER-reported by local law enforcement on facebook.
No Abstract
Brain scans of Black women who experience racism show trauma-like effects, putting them at higher risk for future health problems
Racism is a public health crisis like 2nd Amendment jurisprudence, and Black women are hardest hit.
No Abstract
Pregnant Moms’ Stress May Accelerate Cell Aging of White, Not Black, Kids
On the other hand, maybe not. Maybe racism is making Black women more resilient.
In this study, telomeric stress identified in children of stressed out pregnant mothers does not appear in black mothers and their children. Scientists speculate as to why this is the case.
Some Black women never compromise. They cope.
Quote:
The telomere effect in white children was seen only for stressors during pregnancy – not adolescence or across the lifespan. Non-financial stressors, such as divorce or death of a loved one, had no observable telomere effect on children of either race.
While the reason for the difference in prenatal results by race is unknown, researchers offered several possibilities. One is that coping strategies developed by Black women may reduce the impact of maternal stress.
"Now I just need something sweet": Racism, emotional eating, and health among African Americans
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35410763/
But those coping mechanisms don’t seem to be so healthy.
Background: The Environmental Affordances Model theorizes that systemic racism disproportionately exposes African Americans in the United States to chronic everyday stressors (e.g., individual racism) while simultaneously shaping the availability of coping resources (e.g., fast food outlets) and engagement in self-regulatory strategies (e.g., emotional eating). Greater engagement in self-regulatory strategies is theorized to preserve mental health while contributing to medical morbidities and mortality.
Objective: However, few studies have tested the Environmental Affordances Model, limiting our understanding of how the proposed pathways operate in the lives of African Americans.
Methods: In the present study, the associations between systemic racism (institutional racism, cultural racism, neighborhood disadvantage), chronic everyday stressors (exposure to individual racism), emotional eating, and mental (anxiety symptomatology) and physical (self-rated overall physical health) health are assessed in a sample of 751 African Americans aged 18 to 88.
Results: The path analysis reveals that institutional and cultural racism are both positively associated with individual racism. Neighborhood disadvantage is inversely associated with individual racism. Individual racism is significantly associated with greater anxiety symptomatology but is unrelated to self-rated overall physical health. Institutional and cultural racism are associated with emotional eating although individual racism and neighborhood disadvantage are not. Moreover, engagement in emotional eating exacerbates, rather than mitigates, the impacts of individual racism on anxiety symptomatology.
Conclusions: We conclude that institutional and cultural racism contribute to individual racism experiences and emotional eating whereas emotional eating exacerbates associations among individual racism and anxiety symptomatology.
83 percent female in the one study group and I liked the other one that felt it necessary to mention “former slave-holding counties”
I have no idea how you muscle through this shit. I can't even bring myself to skim the abstracts