Antiracism: Development and validation of a measure designed to identify White Americans who proactively fight to end discrimination toward Black Americans

Abstract

Despite reductions in traditional racial prejudice among non-Hispanic and non-Latino White Americans, Black Americans regularly experience discrimination. We argue that bias persists because although many White Americans espouse nonracist beliefs, far fewer actively work to combat the societal and institutional discrimination that impedes social change. In the current work, we were interested in identifying and measuring the belief systems associated with White Americans’ active participation in the fight against racial discrimination. In six studies, we developed and validated a measure of antiracism to tap into the belief that White people should proactively fight racial discrimination. Results established the convergent and discriminant validity of the measure and confirmed that antiracism was related to, but distinct from, personal nonracist beliefs. Moreover, higher levels of antiracism were associated with greater perceptions of racial discrimination, collective action intentions, willingness to condemn an officer in a racially motivated shooting, support for diversity tax incentives, and likelihood of signing up to receive information about volunteering for an equal rights organization. Results suggest antiracist beliefs may be the key to understanding White Americans’ active support for social change.

Keywords

antiracism collective action discrimination nonracism social change

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