Inconceivable Middle-Class Black Space: The Architecture and Consequences of Space-Focused Stereotype Content at the Race–Class Nexus

Abstract

White Americans tend to stereotype a Black neighborhood as lower class and less desirable than a similar White neighborhood. A strong mental image of Black areas, in general, as lower class and undesirable contributes to this perceptual race-gap. The present studies show that a weak mental image of middle-class Black space as middle class and desirable may also contribute. First, stereotype content analyses reveal how Whites’ diffuse mental image of middle-class Black space— rundown, suburban, clean, crime-ridden—overlaps with both Black and middle-class space stereotypes. Second, the more difficulty Whites experience imagining middle-class Black space as invariably middle class and desirable, the more likely they are to stereotype a Black (vs. White) neighborhood as low quality, feel less connected to it, and devalue a house there. Whites’ diffuse mental image of middle-class Black space may thus contribute to ongoing racial injustices (e.g., wealth disparities, residential segregation).

Invisible middle-class Black space: Asymmetrical person and space stereotyping at the race–class nexus

“…It is thus possible that people perceive middle-class Black (vs. White) space as lower class and less desirable in part because they lack a well-formed middle-class Black space subtype. Indeed, emerging research shows that Whites’ mental image of middle-class Black (vs. White) space is less coherent and more likely to include negative characteristics (e.g., overpopulated; Yantis & Bonam, 2018). Therefore, in addition to holding a strong and coherent lower-class Black space prototype, Whites demonstrate a weak and incoherent middle-class Black space subtype, which could further dampen the likelihood that they will incorporate counterstereotypic class information into their perception of Black spaces.…”

Space-Focused Stereotypes About People Living With HIV/AIDS and the Effects on Community-Approaching Willingness

“…The results demonstrated that, compared to evaluations of those without HIV/AIDS, the participants' evaluations of the living spaces of PLWHA were more negative in terms of community evaluation and community-approaching willingness. Unlike previous research focused on Black Americans (e.g., Bonam et al, 2016;Yantis and Bonam, 2021), this study investigated the space-focused stereotype and its corresponding influence on cognition and behavioral inclinations in another social group with concealable stigma. Although it seems unlikely that people can distinguish PLWHA from non-infected people by appearance, geographical segregation between them does exist worldwide (e.g., Zulu et al, 2014;Jeefoo, 2016;Chávez, 2021), including as in China (Qin, 2017;Qiao et al, 2019;Wu et al, 2019).…”

“…Another aspect lies in the explicit measures of space-focused stereotypes. When measuring the space-focused stereotype and community evaluation of PLWHA, we mainly constructed the items from the view of socio-economic status based on previous literature (Bonam et al, 2016;Yantis and Bonam, 2021). However, we could not simply conclude that space-focused stereotypes of PLWHA only exist in terms of economic-related community evaluations.…”

“…In China, people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) are represented geographically segregated social groups (Qin, 2017). Moreover, similar to Black Americans in the US (Yantis and Bonam, 2021), it is also a stigmatized group perceived as having lower socioeconomic status (Li et al, 2008). Therefore, could the spacefocused stereotypes also be found in other social groups (e.g., PLWHA) with geographical segregation?…”

“…Black Americans and PLWHA are typical stigmatized social groups in the US and China, respectively (Zhang, 2011;Li et al, 2017;Yantis and Bonam, 2021). Stigma refers to demeaning and insulting labels society imposes on a specific individual or group (Guan, 2007;Zhang and Yu, 2007).…”