Race talk: How racial worldview impacts discussions in interracial relationships

Abstract

Using a mixed-method approach, this study investigates how individuals believe race impacts their interracial relationship. Two-hundred and three individuals representing diverse racial-gender compositions of relationships responded to a series of measures to assess their Racial Worldview—a collective of notions about racial/ethnic identity, intergroup relations, and recognition of racist hegemony—before indicating the ways in which race or racial issues affect their romantic partnership. Results revealed four distinct types of Racial Worldview through K-means cluster and four broad themes of influences on relationship communication and functioning. Cross-tabs analyses indicated that Racial Worldview and participants perceptions of the impact of race were related with statistically significant differences between those who acknowledge racism and valued group differences reaching different conclusions than those who do not. The results add to existing research by drawing attention to the heterogeneity of thought and understanding within interracial relationships. The promise of using Racial Worldview in future research is discussed.

Maybe, maybe not: Racial discourse and worldview in interracial relationships.

“…While the salience of racial group membership may fluctuate (Sellers et al, 2011) in moments when it is salient (e.g., during a social movement addressing systemic racism), discussion about race may be initiated. As conceptualized, racial worldview understands these components of racial understanding as related but separate constructs that may produce any number of combinations or types (Brooks et al, 2021). Though theoretically relevant to the discussion of race, how racial worldview impacts discussions of race is still unknown.…”

Unaffirmed and color‐blind: Racial worldview and stigma experienced in interracial relationships

“…An important construct to consider in addressing this gap is racial worldview. Introduced by the Brooks et al (2021), racial worldview is comprised of an individual's understanding of the intrapersonal, interpersonal, and institutional influence of race for lived experiences. Racial worldview offers a novel approach to understanding the influence of race in IRs and is intended as a comprehensive conceptualization of race as it relates to identity, relationships, and power.…”

Stigma and Relationship Quality: The Relevance of Racial-Ethnic Worldview in Interracial Relationships in the United States

“…Understanding heterogeneity in perceptions of stigma can be advanced with a novel understanding of the impact of race that is not predicated on ascribed group membership. Brooks et al ( 2021b ) introduced the concept of a racial worldview (here termed Racial-ethnic Worldview) as a way of assessing the impact of race on the perceptions and experiences of individuals. Racial-ethnic worldview (REW) suggests that race has an impact on the lived experiences of individuals across the (1) intrapersonal, (2) interpersonal, and (3) institutional domains of life.…”

“…Specifically, those who felt positively about their ethnic identity and have engaged in behaviors to learn more about their ethnicity were classified as Color-blind Achieved and those who did not engage in high levels of exploration but still had favorable feelings were classified as Color-blind Affirmed. Finally, a third group, who tended to deny institutionalized racism and had negative feelings about their ethnic identity, were named Color-blind Unaffirmed (Brooks et al, 2021b ). This classification system has been used to explore differences in the reported experiences of individuals in interracial relationships.…”

“…A developing body of research has shown that Racial-ethnic Worldview impacts whether partners in interracial relationships initiate discussions about race in their relationship (Brooks et al, 2021a ). Brooks et al ( 2021b ) classified individuals in interracial relationships with those who had a strong understanding of institutional, interpersonal, and intrapersonal aspects of race as Multiculturalists, and subdivided those with a relatively lesser understanding of institutionalized racism and poorer intergroup attitudes as Color-blind types. They concluded that those who (a) deny institutional forms of racism (b) are less certain of the intrapersonal meaning of race or ethnicity, and (c) have poorer interpersonal attitudes toward other groups (Color-blind types), were more likely to report not discussing race.…”