Racist Events and Individual Coping Styles as Predictors of African American Activism

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine racist events and three individual coping styles (reflective, suppressive, and reactive) as predictors of involvement in African American activism in a sample of 269 African American women and men. In addition, it examined the moderating roles of individual coping styles in the racist events-African American activism link. Results indicated that racist events, reflective coping, and the interaction of racist events and reflective coping uniquely and significantly predicted involvement in African American activism, accounting for 33% of the variance. Racist events and reflective individual coping styles were related to involvement in African American activism. Results also supported a moderating role of individual reflective coping styles in the link between frequency of racist events and involvement in African American activism. That is, participants with high reflective coping engaged in more African American activism than participants with low reflective coping when experiences of racist events were low, but a larger number of racist events mitigated this effect.

Perceiving Allies from the Perspective of Non-Dominant Group Members: Comparisons to Friends and Activists

“…In this way, the Activist condition employed a conceptualization used in activism research (Stake, 2007;Szymanski, 2012). After removing the eight participants who indicated that they could not think of a specific White activist, the Activist condition included 37 participants.…”

“…Activism is conceived as intentional action designed to promote social and/or political change (Stake, 2007;Szymanski, 2003). Particularly given the intractable, systematic nature of various systems of inequality in many societies, activism can include formal, confrontational forms, such as demonstrations, rallies, boycotts, or letter-writing campaigns (Montgomery & Stewart, 2012;Szymanski, 2004), as well as informal, non-confrontational activism, including mentoring, discussing racial bias with others, or becoming educated about discriminatory situations (Szymanski, 2012). Through their actions addressing inequality aimed at non-dominant group members, both allies and activists express an awareness of the ubiquity of systematic inequality, the different aspects of power employed to perpetuate inequality, the way in which history contributes to ongoing inequality, and various efforts to deny or minimize inequality (Kivel, 2002).…”

“…Through their actions addressing inequality aimed at non-dominant group members, both allies and activists express an awareness of the ubiquity of systematic inequality, the different aspects of power employed to perpetuate inequality, the way in which history contributes to ongoing inequality, and various efforts to deny or minimize inequality (Kivel, 2002). For both allies and activists, this heightened awareness instills increased involvement that can lead to keeping current with issues affecting a non-dominant group community, educating others about inequality, intervening when situations of bias occur in one's presence, speaking up to family and friends, and joining groups and/or organizations to stand against inequality or improve a community (Case, 2012;Kivel, 2002;Reason & Broido, 2005;Szymanski, 2012).…”

“…The IFAS has been previously modified to assess African American activism by replacing the word "feminist" with "African American" (Involvement in African American Activism Scale; Szymanski, 2012). For the current study, the IFAS was also adapted by substituting the word "feminist" with "racial" and using another-rating, rather than self-rating (e.g., "I attend conferences/lectures/classes/training addressing feminist issues" was altered to "this person attends conferences/lectures/classes/training addressing racial issues").…”

“…For predominantly formal, confrontation-based intergroup support represented by the Racial Issues Activism Scale, non-dominant group members rated activists higher than non-dominant group members evaluating allies, however allies and activists were not scored differently on the informal, non-confrontational dimension captured by the PACS-Informed Action measure. This differential comparison for allies and activists likely occurred because activists are more associated with formal, confrontation-based intergroup support, such as demonstrations, rallies, and boycotts (Szymanski, 2012), which is consistent with a stereotypically activist stance (Bashir et al, 2013;Diekman & Goodfriend, 2007). Alternatively, non-dominant group members may have seen allies and activists as expressing similar levels of informal, non-confrontational behaviors, such as acknowledging social status differences and discussing systematic bias with others (Brown & Ostrove, 2013), because: (1) activists can exhibit this kind of intergroup support when they interact with non-dominant groups to achieve broad social change; and (2) allies emphasize such informal, non-confrontational actions to ensure they are working in partnership with non-dominant group members (Goodman, 2001).…”