I’m White and You’re Not: The Value of Unraveling Ethnocentric Science

Abstract

Whether motivated by racist intent, ethnocentric arrogance, or data analytic myopia, research that systematically stigmatizes specific human groups is destructive. The racist assumptions of the inferiority of African culture and persons of African descent have contributed substantially to stigmatizing beliefs about African Americans. This article presents historical examples of several kinds of motivated or myopic theoretical and empirical projects that stigmatize African Americans and examples of how an examination of culture and social context may alleviate these problems. A discussion of ways to diversify psychological science includes diversifying those who do it, broadening the cultural perspectives and problems from which psychological concepts emanate (particularly in the United States), and formalizing diversity science as a system of theoretical and empirical research.