Racial Identity, Perpetrator Race, Racial Composition of Primary Community, and Mood Responses to Discrimination

Abstract

Studies suggest that racial identity, race of the perpetrator, and prior race-related experiences influence responses to racial discrimination. This study employed a visual imagery paradigm to examine how racial centrality (or the significance of one’s race), perpetrator race, and the racial composition of one’s primary community were associated with mood responses to racial discrimination vignettes. Participants were 129 self-identified African American young adults (55% female) recruited from a southeastern university in the United States. Participants completed measures of sociodemographic characteristics and racial centrality and rated their mood following exposure to vignettes consisting of blatant and subtle discrimination with Black and White actors. Individuals with higher racial centrality endorsed greater anger and disgust and had stronger overall mood ratings following the subtle discrimination condition. Also, participants reported significantly higher levels of distress and disgust when the perpetrator was White. These results suggest that individual and situational factors help shape affective responses to discrimination. We discuss implications of the findings and highlight being connected to one’s racial identity as a healthy psychological response to racism.