STEREOTYPING 13

Stereotyping and Its Impact on African-American Outcomes in Education
Marissa Jones
Diversity in Higher Education
December 13, 2011

African-American Stereotyping – A Historical Perspective

While there is no definite start of when the stereotyping of African Americans began, history does show us that slavery and the post civil-war descriptions of blacks depicted them as “watermelon addicts, chicken thieves, irresponsible, stupid, lazy (especially the men), and dishonest.” (Lemons, 1977, p. 111) Caricatures of ape-like creatures with skin as black as tar and distinct enlarged foreheads were prevalent among commercial media promoting items such as general household goods and performers used these over exaggerated features to make themselves mimic social perceptions of African-Americans.

During the era of the civil rights movement, organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (1909), and the Urban League (1911) sought to “change the white perception of black Americans as well as altering the laws which discriminated against blacks.” (Lemons, 1977, p. 113) Lemons (1977) highlights that the image of African Americans increased through the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s, the reaction to Nazi racism in the 1930s and 1940s, the growth of the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s, and the appearance of the Black Power and the "black-is-beautiful” concepts in the 1960s. (p. 116)

Diversity Within Education

The Civil Rights Movement changed race relations in the United States in its attempts to include minorities into the forefront of society. According to Massey and Fischer (2005), this effort couldn’t have been more apparent than in higher education. (p.45) The authors indicate that American colleges and universities made deliberate attempts to recruit minority students through a variety of “affirmative actions” which contained a range of different mechanisms for enhancing minority recruitment and admissions. (p. 46)

Many saw affirmative action policies as a way to increase the diversity within their student bodies. Colleges and universities saw increased minority student enrollment which in turn, increased the opportunities for minorities to enter the work force. Although these policies have aided in the rise of minority student enrollment, affirmative action has been at the center of many debates surrounding the admissions policies of many institutions.

With academic institutions becoming increasingly focused on improving diversity, administrators continue to struggle with identifying ways to enroll talented students of color. According to a study by Owens et al., (2010) “African American students have been found to be less academically prepared for the rigor of college courses and have limited information about the college process in general.” (p.292) Many institutions have created “bridge” programs to assist African American students with the transition into college by providing academic support, but several lack emphasis on the social and cultural battles faced in the environments from which they hail. Studies show that minority students entering college often encounter a conflict between the college environment and the cultures in which they were raised. (Owens, 2010, p. 292)

Stereotype Threat

The theory of stereotype threat was developed by Steele and Aronson (1995), who proposed that differences in academic performance between minority and nonminority students, as measured by standardized achievement tests such as the SAT, could partially be explained by anxiety and evaluation apprehension produced by knowledge of negative stereotype related to group membership. (Keller and Jones, 2008, p.95-96) They argued that members of a disparaged minority group are prone to underperform academically because of a fear of living up to negative group stereotypes about intellectual ability. Here, Taylor and Antony (2000) explain stereotype threat in depth:

Stereotype threat is the social and psychological sense of peril that negative racial stereotypes induce, which results in a climate of intimidation that can hamper academic achievement. This fear comes not from internal doubts about their ability, but from situations, such as testing, class presentations, or token status, where concerns about being stereotyped can cause anxiety and self-consciousness. Steele (1997) describes this "threat in the air:" It is the social-psychological threat that arises when one is in a situation or doing something for which a negative stereotype about one's group applies. This predicament threatens one with being negatively stereotyped, with being judged or treated stereotypically, or with the prospect of conforming to the stereotype. (p.187)

Stereotype threat can be conceptualized using the figure below:

This diagram created by Schmader et al. (2008) examines an individual’s cognitive process by highlighting three components that create situations of stereotype threat and the factors that increase susceptibility. The authors explain that this pattern of evidence suggest that stereotype threat lessens the ability for one to pay attention to complex tasks where it is necessary to coordinate information processing online and inhibit thoughts, feelings, and behaviors counterproductive to one’s current goals. (p. 338-340)

Stereotype threat can weaken an African-American student’s actual potential to succeed in college. The fear of being classified may take a toll so serious on the psyche of the student that they become unable to self-identify their actual role in the college community. Steele (1997) explains this further by adding, “…as schooling progresses and the obstacles of structure and stereotype threat take their cumulative toll, more of this vanguard will likely be pressured into the ranks of the unidentified.” (p. 95) The drive to be seen as someone “successful” is a pressure placed on African Americans, because the assumption that one is not doing well could subject an individual to negative historical stereotypes like being lazy, jobless, and living off the system.

Stereotyping and Educational Outcomes

In African-American households, the long, arduous history of being denied many rights that were basic norms for others during the slavery and civil right era has compelled subsequent generations to seek opportunities not easily afforded to their ancestors. The impact of the past can be summarized best through the Hinton, Howell, Merwin, Stern, & Turner (2006) article, “…the legacy of segregation and discrimination in prior decades may contribute to racial differences in parental wealth, parental education, and pre-collegiate educational opportunities for students in contemporary cohorts.” (p.120)

In the Hall, Mays & Allen (1984) article, the authors note that “Occupational aspirations among college and graduate students are said to be an important indicator of upward social mobility, especially for blacks.” (p. 274) African-Americans often pass on stories of their professional hardships with their children or other relatives. While this exchange of information can be traced to African American traditionsofstorytellingas a tool for instructing and community building, it is mostly done to ensure that others do not go through what they’ve endured. Race and gender have long been factors that contribute to inequity in the workforce, and have forced the disadvantaged groups to submit to internal pressures to be as valued as their counterparts.

Thompson (2009) also claims that “Parental education and family income is probably the best predictor of eventual academic outcomes among youth”.(p. 838) The author explains that affluent parents have the ability to send their children to good schools by moving to an elite school district or sending them to private school. Parents with a college education are more likely to pass that knowledge and those skills on to their children. Whatever the mechanism, the financial and educational traits, and accompanying cultural traits parents possess, they have a major effect on the educational attainment of their children. (p. 838)

Intervention Strategies

Careers and lifestyle choices are influenced by educational attainment and have their own inputs such as prejudiced hiring and promotional practices. It is evident that in order to remove stereotype threat from the consciousness in the academic setting, interventions must be in place when students begin to take assessments that can be perceived as a situational comparison to another group.

Within the academic setting, according to an article by Whaley, (2011) the negative perceptions of Black culture in the school environment enable oppression and discrimination against African American students, which may cause them to feel that investing any effort in achievement in an environment that caters to Whites would be a betrayal of their Black cultural identity. (p.152)

Preparing an individual to perceive their peers as equal can happen before they are actually exposed to the environment. A study by Spencer et al. (1998) argues that when people experience self-image threat, they will have the goal to restore their self-image, and if they encounter a member of a group for which there is a readily available stereotype, they will be likely to stereotype that person even if this stereotyping occurs outside of their conscious awareness. (p.1140)

The role we play as peers, educators, and administrators serve as primary points of influence on students. Identifying potential stereotype threats and having an open conversation about the sources of the perceived threats can help eliminate the need for one to defend themselves when placed in a situation where the threat can occur.

Thompson (2009) proposes that we look at the communities in which young Black people grow up and consider their orientation toward education. That is, does the community support education as a viable option for social and economic advancement or is there an oppositional stance toward the mainstream? (p. 843) It is instrumental that anyone who possesses the ability to serve as an influence does so in a manner that strengthens and cultivates their culture, so that beliefs and perceptions are not prohibiting one from seeing their own potential.

Good et al. (2003) found with Black students that promoting the idea that intelligence is malleable, and that academic difficulties can be sometimes attributed to situational factors rather than dispositional factors, was effective in reducing vulnerability stereotype threat. (p. 650)

Research identifying individual differences in susceptibility to threat provides a basis for the development of intervention strategies. Teaching individuals tasks and techniques that can be applied to educational or other settings may directly counter threat effects. (Crisp and Abrams, 2008, p.245) Studies done by Masse,J. , Perez,R. , & Posselt,J. (2010) mention that students can also aid in the removal of the threats they encounter. The authors advise, “negatively stereotyped students may adopt a goal to avoid situations where they may appear to be incompetent according to normative, evaluative standards.”

Crisp and Abrams (2008) recommend interventions designed to reduce prejudice towards others and isolating theoretical processes common to reducing negative attitudes towards others as well as negative attitudes held towards the self. The authors contend that this can have benefits for self-confidence, self-esteem, and the ability to deflect stereotype threat while increasing the value of existing methods of improving intergroup relations, as they will be shown not only to improve harmony between groups, but also to reduce negative self-stereotyping for lower status or stigmatized groups. (p. 245)

An additional way to address stereotype threat is through the removal of those boundaries that trigger the anxiety. Crisp and Abrams (2008) advocate blurring categorical representations from ‘‘us’’ and ‘‘them’’ to a more inclusive ‘‘we’’ dialogue. (p. 260) Within the African-American culture, there is a commonly shared attitude of “us” vs. the world when it comes to outside perceptions. It is assumed that one will find difficulty being both black and attributed something positive, so the individual must work extra hard to be distinguished as both. Because this dialogue has the potential to happen in every day circumstances, it can easily translate over to one’s beliefs toward education. Research done by Whaley (2011) shows that high achieving African-American students adopt a “raceless” persona, where they believe that achievement in the academic domain requires them to disidentify with their culture and emphasize an individualistic orientation over the collective Black identity. (p.152)

Potential Implications for Intervention Strategies

When discussing possible strategies to address stereotype threat, we must also be aware of the implications that may occur with the various populations being addressed. African-American students who are labeled as “high-achievers”, may be perceived by university staff that as individuals who do not need special support services or that their academic experience the same issues as academically talented White students, so the open conversation about factors that trigger stereotype threat may never occur. (Fries Britt, 2007, p.509) Fries Britt goes further to explain that “Despite their increased academic capability, high-achievers continue to be vulnerable to these stresses and may encounter stereotypes about their racial group affiliation and their academic ability.” (p.509)

Preparing the student to encounter stereotype threat in environments where skill is being assessed may not be enough. The student may not be prepared to face negative attitudes and judgment from their instructors. The study by Fries Britt (2007) found that “blacks reported many instances of peers and professors questioning their academic abilities both in and outside of the classroom and reported sensing that they were seen as being less intelligent students that could not have been admitted to college without affirmative action.” (p.511) These attitudes can prove detrimental to the students’ overall sense of achievement and self-esteem and the consequences of such may lead to the student suffering academically, or dropping out.

Conclusion

While the purpose of this paper is to highlight how stereotyping and stereotype threat can impact the overall success of the African-American student in education, it must be noted that these same pressures can serve as a rationale to excel. Many see the historical events that have oppressed our culture as a motivator to ensure such actions never happen again. Whether it is an example of a black physician, lawyer, or someone who finally made it out of the projects, African-Americans who have overcome adversity serve as influences for generations to come.

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