Find the cause: Critical historical education affects racism attributions and policy support

Abstract

Does education about historical racism land differently when accompanied by evidence of modern racial disparities? In Study 1, students from a United States (U.S.) university and an online survey platform were randomly assigned to hear a podcast about historical racist practices in higher education (e.g., states’ efforts to avoid integrating universities), modern racial disparities (e.g., Black student representation at flagship public universities), or both combined. Asked to evaluate attributions for current educational racial inequalities, participants in the combined and history conditions agreed more with structural and interpersonal racism attributions compared to participants in the modern disparities condition. Racism attributions—especially structural—mediated increases in reparative policy support. Study 2 also recruited nonstudents and added a control podcast. It replicated the effects of history versus modern information, and showed that history and (to a lesser extent) modern information each yielded more reparative policy support than the control condition. These findings support critical history’s utility in education.

Keywords

attributions critical history higher education racial disparities structural racism

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