The American Negro is therefore surrounded and conditioned
by the concept which he has of White people and his is treated in
accordance with the concept they have of him.
INTRODUCTION
Stereotypes are an important aspect of analyzing cross-cultural
understanding and social inequality. Defined broadly, stereotypes are
“cognitive structures that contain the perceiver's
knowledge, beliefs, and expectations about human groups”
(Hamilton and Trolier, 1986, p. 133). Racial
stereotypes, therefore, are the projected thoughts and beliefs that
members of one racial group hold about another racial group. They
involve “a set of social cognitions that specify personal
qualities, especially personality traits, of members of an ethnic
group” (Ashmore and Del Boca, 1981, p.
13). Many of these racial perceptions are likely to be common knowledge
to all societal groups and are usually passed down from one generation
to another. As a general rule, the power of racial stereotyping lies
with the dominant racial/ethnic group, since they control access to
society's major institutions (Lieberson
1985). Members of subordinate groups are, of course, aware of
the dominant groups' perceptions of them.
Du Bois (1989 [1903]) articulates
this phenomenon in The Souls of Black Folk, asserting that
Black Americans are “shut out from the world by a vast
veil” that shrouds them from being fully seen and understood by
Whites. Consequently, Blacks experience a
“double-consciousness,” viewing themselves through both
their own eyes and the eyes of Whites. Racial stereotypes are,
therefore, not simply exaggerated beliefs or overgeneralized
prejudgments promoting in-group solidarity and out-group disdain (Allport 1954; Ehrlich
1973). Racial stereotypes are also about power and ideology;
once crystallized, “these images ultimately indicate (although in
distorted ways) and justify the stereotyped group's position in
society” (Bonilla-Silva 1997, p. 476;
see also Blumer 1958; Bobo
and Johnson, 2000).
In this analysis, we employ qualitative in-depth and focus group data
to examine how racial stereotypes affect relations between Black and
White undergraduates at the University of Pennsylvania. Specifically,
we employ the concept of metastereotypes—Blacks'
knowledge and perceptions of the racial attitudes that Whites have of
Blacks (Sigelman and Tuch, 1997). Our
interest is in the relative accuracy and social effects of Black
students' beliefs about Whites' racial attitudes where their
group is concerned. Metastereotypes are salient to the discussion of
Black academic outcomes because a Black individual's behavior is
not shaped so much by White stereotypes themselves, as by that
person's perceptions of White stereotypes about Blacks.
Metastereotypes, we submit, are one manifestation of
double-consciousness as described by Du Bois. The dilemma of
double-consciousness is especially acute in the predominantly White,
highly competitive, Ivy League, where Black students often confront
societal stereotypes of Black inferiority and social pathology (Massey et al. 2003; Willie
2003). From an early age, Blacks must learn to deal with the
negative attitudes and beliefs about their racial group, and exert
substantial energy trying to both contradict the harmful social images
held by Whites and, at the same time, keep from internalizing them
(Massey et al., 2003; Tatum 1997). Living through the refracted lens of
race, Blacks are socialized to understand how others perceive
“people like them” and how they may expect to be treated as
a result (Fiske et al., 2002; Massey et al., 2003; Operario
and Fiske, 2001). The results of our research suggest that Black
students exhibit substantial concerns regarding how Whites perceive
them, and how, they, as “blue chip” Blacks (Fulwood 1996) can disprove Whites' negative
assumptions about Blacks and successfully navigate college.
The belief by many Whites in the intellectual inferiority of their
Black classmates and their concomitant opposition to affirmative action
are at the heart of our analysis. Most of our White respondents believe
that affirmative action opens the doors for Blacks who are less
intelligent than they are and ill-prepared for the rigors of the Ivy
League. This is a particularly salient metastereotype among Black
students who, as a consequence, experience increased anxiety about
their own academic performance. These beliefs and associated anxieties
are consistent with the stereotype threat hypothesis (Steele
1992, 1998), which
posits that a sort of performance anxiety resulting from fears of
living up to the stereotype of Black intellectual inferiority is a
major source of Blacks' academic underperformance.
Black respondents talk at length about their belief that Whites view
them as less intelligent and/or academically incapable of
succeeding at an elite private university. They discuss the
“pressures” associated with having to prove their worth to
White students—that they are, in fact, qualified and intelligent
members of the student body. The Black students in our sample are
keenly aware that poorer academic performance by Blacks is the expected
outcome. Our research questions are three-fold. First, what are
Blacks' metastereotypes? Second, are they actually borne out in
what Whites say they think about Blacks (and what Whites think most
other Whites think about Blacks)? And finally, what are the
consequences of metastereotypical thinking for Blacks' academic
performance at an elite university, and for patterns of Black-White
social interaction?
A substantial body of evidence suggests that, despite meaningful
progress, most Whites continue to express negative stereotypes of
Blacks (for a recent overview, see Bobo
2001). Much less is known, however, about the racial attitudes
of Blacks; in particular, relatively little is known about 1) how
Blacks perceive Whites' attitudes toward them and 2) how Blacks
respond to Whites' negative images. An important exception to the
general tendency to ignore Blacks' racial attitudes is Sigelman
and Tuch's (1997) analysis of
Blacks' metastereotypes. They found a good deal of overlap in how
Blacks' think Whites view Blacks' and Whites' actual
adherence to negative stereotypes of Blacks. Sigelman and Tuch
hypothesize that Blacks with more sustained contact with Whites will
have less negative metastereotypes than those who have little
interaction with Whites. This is consistent with the contact hypothesis
(Allport 1954), which posits that, in
general, increased interracial contact leads to a reduction in racial
stereotypes and, as a consequence, improved intergroup relations.1
An important stipulation, however, is that
contact must occur between groups of equal status; this means not only
that individuals have similarly defined roles, but also that they
perceive each other as equals. Evidence regarding the effect of the
contact hypothesis is mixed. Sigelman and Welch (1993) find that interracial contact in neighborhood
settings has a positive impact on racial attitudes and that such
contact enhances desires for integration. Jackman and Crane (1986), on the other hand, suggest that the effects
of interracial contact are selective and that intimacy is less
important than a variety of contacts.
Yet, contrary to the predictions of the contact hypothesis, Sigelman
and Tuch find that Blacks reporting the most contact with Whites also
have the most negative metastereotypes. We will argue that these
seemingly counterintuitive findings—which we replicate with
qualitative data—are tied to Whites' general lack of
sustained contact with Blacks (both prior to and while in college), and
their tendency to perceive Blacks as intellectually inferior to them.
This is witnessed most tangibly in Whites' opposition to
affirmative action, as well as their general and college-specific
stereotypes of Blacks. In short, we find that White students at the
University of Pennsylvania do not perceive their Black classmates as
their intellectual or social equals.
Our analysis replicates and extends Sigelman and Tuch (1997) in four important ways. First, we employ
qualitative data and methods, and we study metastereotypes in a
specific and particularly important context: an Ivy League University.
These data provide rich contextual information that allow us to examine
how Blacks' metastereotypes operate in a real world context, and
to explore the potential consequences of metastereotypical thinking.
Second, instead of using respondents' family background
characteristics as proxies for prior interracial contact the way
Sigelman and Tuch did, we collected detailed information about the
actual extent of interracial contact—at school and at
home—prior to entering college, in addition to information on the
extent of their interracial contact once enrolled in college. Third, we
examine the existence and prevalence of Black metastereotypes at two
levels—Whites' broad societal images of Blacks, as well as
those images that are specific to the collegiate context—and how
accurately they reflect White students' stereotypes of their Black
peers. Consistent with Sigelman and Tuch, we find that sustained
pre-college interracial contact does not appear to decrease Black
students' proclivity to negative metastereotypes. Finally, we take
the analysis of Blacks' metastereotypes one step further,
investigating the extent to which Black students internalize negative
stereotypes of their group. By and large, Black students at the
University of Pennsylvania do not perceive themselves as
“average” Black Americans because they are not on welfare
or engaged in criminal activity. Indeed, in their descriptions of
themselves as “not like those other Blacks” the Black
students we spoke with reveal a tendency toward acceptance and
internalization of negative societal stereotypes of Blacks as a group,
while at the same time distancing themselves individually from those
images. Moreover, there seems to be a deep commitment to
“represent the race” in a positive and responsible way by
dispelling myths of intellectual inferiority and social pathology. Each
of these tendencies—internalizing negative stereotypes of Blacks
and the responsibility to dispel those same stereotypes—suggests
that these students are especially vulnerable to stereotype threat.
DATA AND METHODS
Our data come from in-depth interviews and focus groups with
fifty-five Black and White college students at the University of
Pennsylvania—one of the most elite universities in the
country—collected between Fall 2000 and Spring 2003. Thirty-three
of the fifty-five interview respondents are also part of the focus
group sample. At the time of the study, all respondents were full-time
college students between the ages of eighteen and twenty-two. There are
equal representations of students by racial background and gender.
According to University statistics from Fall 2001, Black students
represented just 5% of an undergraduate population numbering nearly
10,000 (Princeton Review 2002; Weiss 1995). Respondents were located through
snowball sampling—initial contacts led to subsequent ones (Glaser and Strauss, 1967; Weiss
1995). There are equal representations of students by racial
background and gender.
Though the sample is not representative of all students at the
University of Pennsylvania, significant efforts were made to sample
students from a wide range of backgrounds and perspectives. We
over-sampled Black men as they are out-numbered by their same-race
female counterparts on-campus by a two-to-one ratio (Frank et al., 1999; Massey et
al., 2003). To protect confidentiality, each respondent has been
given a pseudonym.
Although the interview and focus group scripts concentrate on various
aspects of how race pertains to the college experience, for this paper
we only consider data that directly pertains to the issue of Black
metastereotypes. After each intact transcript was transcribed in its
entirety, they were analyzed thematically in line with our research
questions (Strauss and Corbin, 1990).
In-depth Interviews and Focus Groups
The in-depth interview sample includes forty-three in-depth
interviews with Black (n = 22) and White (n = 21) University of
Pennsylvania students. The first author completed all the in-depth
interviews with twenty-four men and nineteen women, using a structured
(but open-ended) interview script. Interviews lasted anywhere from two
to six hours, often taking place over several sessions. With
supervision from the second author, we adapted the survey instrument
from the National Longitudinal Study of Freshmen (NLSF), conducted by
Massey et al. (2003).
Eight focus groups were conducted with fifty-five students,
twenty-nine Blacks, and twenty-six Whites. The in-depth interview
script was tailored to the focus group milieu, in keeping with the core
themes and concepts of the study. Three trained moderators (including
the first author) led the group discussions. Three of the focus groups
were stratified by race to study in-group conceptions of race and
racial identity. The remaining six focus groups included an even mix of
Black and White students. The mixed race groups provided us with the
opportunity to witness first-hand the extent to which interracial group
context impacts how students from different racial backgrounds discuss
race-related topics. Same-race moderators were used for two of the
Black groups and for the White group. The first author, a White woman,
moderated one of the Black American groups. Data analysis, however,
indicates strong continuity in the type and quality of the data
collected from each of the Black focus groups. This effort was no doubt
aided by the fact that the first author had built rapport with students
prior to the focus group—each of the students was also part of
the interview sample.
Our focus groups included six to ten students each. Thirty-three of
the fifty-five focus group participants also completed an in-depth
interview prior to the focus group. The focus group approach gave us
the added ability to document how group dynamics affected the ways in
which students interpreted and answered our questions. The interviewing
process is ideally suited for acquiring detailed narrative data about a
particular individual—with the interviewer always determining the
course of interaction. In contrast, the focus group setting allows
peers to feed off each other; certain ideas are articulated more based
on who is in charge of the conversation. The large overlap of
respondents in the interview and focus group samples, we believe, gives
us a more comprehensive lens for studying how Black and White
University of Pennsylvania students understand race as well as the
diverse ways that they actualize their racial attitudes and beliefs
within the collegiate context2
Because
complete demographic information on all focus group respondents does
not exist, only those focus group participants who completed an
individual, in-depth interview are included in Tables 1, 2, 3.
.
RESULTS
Before directly engaging the issue of metastereotypes,
contextualizing our findings by considering three issues is critical.
First, it is important to consider the social background
characteristics of the students in our sample. Second, to fully
understand the racial attitudes of our respondents, we must first
clarify the nature of their pre-collegiate experiences with people of
other races. And third, the attitudes and opinions of our students are
also likely to be influenced by the extent of their interracial contact
on the college campus itself. We discuss each of these below.
Sample Demographics
Contrary to White students' perceptions, the Black students in
our sample are a varied lot. Table 1
summarizes the sociodemographic characteristics of interview
respondents, showing that nearly sixty percent of the Black sample
report non-native origins, with parents from predominately Caribbean
and/or African countries. This compares to only two non-American
White respondents; both were of European descent and were not U.S.
citizens at the time of the study. White and Black respondents also
diverge with respect to their socioeconomic circumstances. White
respondents are twice as likely as Blacks to report having parents with
advanced degrees, and nearly all of the Black respondents receive
financial aid, compared to about one-third of Whites. This pattern of
White homogeneity and substantial Black heterogeneity is consistent
with recent research by Massey et al. (2003)
on college students at elite colleges and universities nationwide.
Consistent with other research on racial group differences in
collegiate academic achievement (see most recently Massey et al., 2003), the cumulative grade point
averages of White students are four-tenths of a point higher than Black
students GPAs (3.5 and 3.1, respectively).3
For additional information on respondents, including class
year, type of high school, urban/suburban origins, self-reported
social class, and region of the country that students came from, see
Appendix Tables 1 and 2.
Sociodemographic and Contextual Characteristics of Interview
Respondents
Pre-College Interracial Contact
Pre-college interracial contact is measured as respondents'
self-reported neighborhood and high school racial/ethnic
composition, as well as the racial/ethnic composition of their high
school peer networks; summaries of this information are located in the
bottom half of Table 1. Overall, both White
and Black respondents attended predominantlyWhite high schools;
nonetheless, pre-college interracial contact varies greatly by
respondent race. Black students tend to come from racially integrated
neighborhoods with substantial White and Black populations (and to a
lesser extent Latinos and Asians); they also tend to come from racially
integrated high schools. In contrast, White students report coming from
extremely segregated, predominantly White neighborhoods and high
schools. More than two-thirds of Whites attended high schools where
less than 10% of the students were Black, compared to Black respondents
whose schools were nearly 60% White, on average.
The racial/ethnic composition of respondents' high school
friends also differs meaningfully by respondent race.4
For this information, we asked respondents to consider
their best friends in high school, those they felt “closest
to,” and to report their racial/ethnic backgrounds.
Although the majority of Black respondents' high school friends
were same-race, the average Black respondent had a peer group that was
over one-quarter White. In stark contrast, White respondents report
having only a few non-White friends in high school, and most of these
were Asian. Here again, this information is consistent with those in
Massey et al. (
2003) for a representative
sample of students at twenty-eight elite colleges and universities.
5 Massey et al. (2003) find that the high school peer network of the
average White student in their sample was 81% White, 6% Black, 4%
percent Latino, and 8% Asian. Black students, on the other hand,
reported high school peer groups that were 61% Black, 22% White, 5%
Latino, and 6% Asian (2003, pp.
110–111).
These results reflect societal patterns of
racial segregation, and the reality that Blacks' cross-racial
interactions are conditioned largely by the White majority. White students
tend to come from overwhelmingly White, racially segregated neighborhoods
and schools where little opportunity (or desire) for interracial interaction
exists. Conversely, Black students are accustomed to being a numerical
minority at school while residing in neighborhoods with substantial Black
and White populations. The prevailing literature on White and Black racial
attitudes asserts that Blacks continue to be more open than Whites to
interracial contact of all sorts (
Bobo 2001;
Bobo and Massagli, 2001;
Bobo
and Zubrinsky, 1996;
Charles 2001;
Schuman et al. 1997).
Interracial Contact in College
To gauge the extent of interracial contact in college, we asked
respondents to tell us about the racial/ethnic composition of their
college friendship network, as well as the racial composition and focus
of their extracurricular activities. Coming to the University of
Pennsylvania for our Black respondents generally means an expanding
Black peer group, relative to their high school experience. Though
still predominately (indeed, overwhelmingly) White, the
University's Black population is substantially larger than was the
case at their high schools. Black students tell us that college is a
more “Black-friendly” place because they have more
potential Black peers to choose from, as well as a plethora of
university-sponsored, Black-oriented clubs and organizations. Table 2 details the increasing
“Blackness” of Black students' peer networks; the
average Black respondent has a college peer network that is nearly
three-quarters Black. When asked about their extracurricular
activities, most Black respondents reported activities and
organizations that were exclusively “Black-oriented”;
moreover, half of the Black students said they had lived in the Du Bois
College House (a residential space devoted to the celebration and study
of Black issues).
Racial/Ethnic Composition of College Peer Network
For the average White respondent, on the other hand, the number of
same-race peers decreased in college compared to high school. In
college, the average White respondent has a peer network that is nearly
20% Asian, but only slightly more Black. The substantial increase in
Asian friends may be attributed to two possible factors—one
demographic, the other attitudinal. First, roughly 20% of the
undergraduate population at the University of Pennsylvania was Asian at
the time of the study (Princeton Review
2002), making them the second-largest racial group on campus and
numerically offering the greatest opportunity for interracial contact.
Related to the demographic composition of the campus, patterns of
social distance attitudes reveal that Whites—both generally and
in college—perceive little, if any social distance between
themselves and Asians (Bobo 2001; Bobo and Johnson, 2000; Massey
et al., 2003). Moreover, the stereotype of Asians as the
“model” minority—intelligent, hard-working, and
economically mobile (Bobo 2001; Bobo and Johnson, 2000; Kao
1998, Massey et al., 2003) is especially
relevant in the college context. Indeed, only one White respondent reported
extensive contact with Black students. Due to a shortage of housing his
freshman year, this student ended up living in the Du Bois College House;
as a consequence, he says, his friendship circle is majority Black and, at
the time of his interview, he was residing in Du Bois for his second
year in a row.
BLACKS' METASTEREOTYPES
Attention now turns to Black students' metastereotypes: their
perceptions of what Whites think of their group. We asked Black
students to list the most common stereotypes that White people have
about Blacks in the United States. Because the questions were
open-ended, responses varied in content. The most widely cited
metastereotypes are reported in the top panel of Table 3. Consistent with the analysis by Sigelman
and Tuch (1997), the metastereotypes elicited
by Black University of Pennsylvania students can be classified into two
main categories: social pathologies associated with Blacks (e.g.,
violence-prone, welfare-dependent, dangerous, sexual promiscuity,
criminality, materialistic/not investment savvy, and/or urban
and poor) and more traditional images of Black inferiority (e.g.,
natural athletes, intellectually inferior, lazy, and as a consequence
of their inferiority, whether cultural or intellectual, not deserving
of “special treatment”).
Blacks' Metastereotypes
Comparison of Whites' Stereotypes and Blacks'
Metastereotypes
The most popular metastereotype is that Blacks are
entertainers—generally more musically and/or athletically
inclined than Whites. Implicit in this perception is that Blacks are
also less equipped for more cerebral pursuits. We include athleticism
in the entertainment category because Black respondents tended to
equate Black athleticism with White entertainment; there was also a
tendency for Blacks to suggest that Whites perceive Blacks'
musical talents as limited to Black-oriented, generation-specific
pursuits such as rap and hip-hop. In his commentary, John, a sophomore,
explains:
… A lot of White people perceive Black people as
entertainers. Whether it be on the athletic field, or you know, on
stage or somethin'. I think they're perceived as
different—you know, [we're] amusement,
[we're] entertainment.
Joe makes similar statements: “I think that most White people
view Blacks as entertainers, rappers, basketball players,
singers—things like that.”
Jill says that Whites tend to automatically assume that she can sing
and dance because of her skin color. When confronted with these
assumptions, she explains how she defies these stereotypes.
Jill: [White] people ask if I can sing and dance.
[Laughs] … I say ‘?no. I can't sing. I guess
I can dance, but I'm not this out-of-control dancer. I guess they
think, culturally, we're limited. Or, we're culturally
narrow-minded….’
Kim believes that White perceptions of Blacks as entertainers are
also directly correlated with beliefs about Black inferiority.
It's always like a level of inferiority. Oh, well,
I'm in the entertainment field. Or, I'm in the athletic
field. You know … that's what's seen, you know, well,
okay, they're making some money. They're
successful.
Another common metastereotype—that Blacks are
criminally-predisposed—is linked to two additional social
pathology metastereotypes: that Blacks are violent and/or to be
feared/dangerous. Nineteen Black respondents believe Whites
perceive Blacks to be criminals, fifteen said that Whites believe that
Blacks are to be feared/dangerous, and twelve said that Whites see
Blacks as violence-prone. Those Black students articulating the
criminality metastereotype also suggest that, for Whites, this is tied
to the perception of Blacks as unable and/or uninterested in
earning a “legitimate” living. As Kim explains:
White people, just automatically assume we're inferior.
Whether it's growing up, in the youth stage, or the street level,
or they're all like criminals [Black people], or drug
addicts, or this or that…
Sandra states that metastereotypes relating to criminality are
primarily directed at Black men and those of darker hue.
It seems as though people who are darker, well historically
that there seems to be more, like it seems like it's harder for
people to relate, you know, like there's a stereotype of like the
Black man that he's violent or whatever, or if he's dark,
he's very big.
Black student's responses related to Black criminality are not
derived simply from their perceptions of what White people think of
Blacks, but are often tied to their own personal experiences with
racial profiling while students at the University of Pennsylvania. This
is especially true for our Black male respondents. The University of
Pennsylvania's expansive picturesque campus is located adjacent to
West Philadelphia, a sprawling, predominantly Black, working-class
neighborhood—often labeled a ghetto by university students and
outsiders. Anecdotally, respondents said that prospective students are
warned by campus tour guides, current students, and faculty not to live
above 40th Street, the apparent physical divide between the
affluent safety of the university and the perceived crime and danger of
West Philadelphia. Matt rationalizes White fears as partly situational,
a result of the university's location.
… Considering where we are, we're right next to
this large Black population which is lowerclass, a lower-class Black
population, and so … when I walk down _______, and I don't
have a backpack with me, people think that I'm, you know, from the
neighborhood. And, so, people just treat you differently. Like, they
might—they'll look at you cautiously. And, when you're
in the buildings, they're like: Why is he in here? Things like
that … I mean, if I'm wearing a bubble jacket and wearing
some boots and no backpack, you know, I guess, I look like—I
dress like someone else from the neighborhood, which is
understandable.
He goes on to share that he often modifies his behavior to curb White
anxieties.
I kind of find myself thinking a lot before I leave my
house, like: Do I look too threatening? Like, maybe I shouldn't
wear this, maybe I shouldn't wear that. Sometimes, when I
didn't even need my backpack, but I'd carry it with me anyway
because…
Mike is also sensitive to how his presence on campus may magnify
White fears, especially those of White women. Like Matt, he works to
alleviate their fears by modifying his own behavior.
You get the vibes a lot of White students feel uncomfortable
around you, like I mean especially walking down Locust Walk at night.
Many times many [White] girls pull over and stop so …
I mean that's everybody, I mean everybody does that, that's
just across the board. But in me recognizing that, I know, sometimes I
might do something extra to alleviate that fear for them … I
know if I'm walking past and I'm coming behind you, I'm
gonna move to the side so you can [pass] because I know that
they're probably [scared].
Several Black men asserted their belief in the metastereotypes about
Black men being dangerous, and/or predisposed to crime and
violence. The gendered nature of this metastereotype has its complement
among our Black female respondents. Specifically, several Black women
described Whites' image of the ‘strong Black woman’ as
fuel for White discomfort with and alienation from Blacks. Kim
explains:
Oh … with the Black female—the strong Black
female image … But, the Black woman who just has so much
attitude, this and that, and you know, she's too progressive, too
proactive, too this, and too that. I think we see a lot of that. And,
that as a negative thing… That being proactive and fighting for
your certain causes, is a negative thing.
Sara's comments relate specifically to her encounters in the
classroom:
… it's just a feeling you get sometimes being in
a classroom from teachers or other students even… Sometimes
everything you say is interpreted as the angry Black female. I find
myself in that role in so many classes.
Thus, Black students—both male and female—express strong
beliefs that Whites find reason to feel minimally uncomfortable (for
the women) and often unsafe (for the men) around Blacks, and that this
has serious consequences for their own behavior.
Consistent with perceptions of Blacks as criminal, dangerous,
and/or violent noted above, is the belief that most Blacks are part
of the urban underclass. Indeed, twenty-one of the twenty-nine Black
respondents agree that Whites perceive most Blacks as urban and poor.
This metastereotype relates to several other widespread societal images
of Black inferiority, including the perceptions that Blacks prefer
welfare dependence over work, are not deserving of what they have, are
unintelligent, sexually promiscuous, lazy, and materialistic, but not
smart with money. The ghetto image was powerful in the minds of Black
respondents; they perceived Whites as viewing Blacks as not only poor,
but also responsible for their own impoverished condition.
Jessica's comments touches on several of these metastereotypes:
[Whites think] that they [Blacks] all
come from the working class or the ghetto, think that they're not,
that you're never going to see a rich Black person, that there are
no Black millionaires, that they don't go to school, they
don't get degrees, they're not as qualified to do the same
types of jobs, even if they may have been accepted into a
position.
Susan believes that she herself is often perceived as a young welfare
mother when she is with her infant son.
People see me, you know what I mean… I also look a
lot younger than I am, you know what I mean, so a teenaged mom, not
really doing anything while living at home with my mother, you know
what I mean… ? And you get a stereotype. And I knew that
… beforehand, but to experience it is something
different.
Other common themes include the tendency for Whites to believe that
Blacks are, generally, less intelligent than Whites themselves are and,
as a consequence of their intellectual or cultural inferiority, less
deserving. This is a general (meta)stereotype that is particularly
salient for the Black students we interviewed.
Carol also feels that Whites do not think Black people can make it on
their own without assistance.
Everything we have is hand-outs. We didn't necessarily
work for it and we're not necessarily deserving of
it.
Finally, the perception that Blacks cannot and do not manage money
well—that they prefer to live in the moment, are too caught up
with the fast life and are, therefore, financially
irresponsible—was a common metastereotype. John provides the
popular image of a rapper and how his lifestyle is perceived by
Whites.
I think they're [Black people] typically
categorized as having baggy jeans, probably rockin' Tims a lot,
a lot of jewelry, things like that. The ‘Bling-Bling’ or
whatever…. And, like, um, if you see a rapper, the thing is,
their sole purpose in life is attaining the material life which comes
in the form of money and girls … jewelry, cars, all that type
of stuff. I think that Black people are perceived as very
materialistic…
Christine expresses similar sentiments.
Oh, if a White person has money, you know, they know what to
do with their money and how to invest it. But, if a Black person gets
money, oh, they blow it all on drugs and stereos, cars, crazy
clothes.
Together, our findings to this point suggest that Black
metastereotypes are overwhelmingly negative. Our respondents do not
feel that Whites look at Blacks in a positive light on any dimension:
the overarching theme is that Blacks are categorically inferior to
Whites, engaging in deviant behaviors such as crime and drug-dealing
because they can not achieve parity in mainstream [White]
society. Moreover, Black male respondents discussed specifically how
they deal with racial stereotypes as students at the University of
Pennsylvania. They work to allay White fears, going out of their way to
appear less threatening, always treading on “thin ice” when
out on campus. So, whether or not they've internalized stereotype
threat, it does make them more conscious of how they interact with
their White peers. The negative emphasis of Blacks'
metastereotypes is consistent with results of Sigelman and Tuch's
(1997) analysis, with an important exception:
using a survey instrument, the Blacks in their study also acknowledged
positive Black metastereotypes—Blacks are patriotic, good
parents, and religious. In our open-ended conversations with Black
students, there was no mention at all of positive metastereotypes,
suggesting that these images are far less salient in these Black
students' day-to-day interactions with Whites.6
Athleticism is also a common theme in Sigelman and
Tuch's (1997) analysis; however, the
authors assert that it is unclear whether Blacks feel that this
metastereotype is positive or patronizing. Our results suggest that it
is more likely the latter.
THE ACCURACY OF BLACKS'
METASTEREOTYPES
To what extent do Blacks' metastereotypes accurately reflect
White's stereotypes of Blacks? To address this important question,
we compare the metastereotypes of Black students to the racial
stereotypes of our White respondents. As we did with Black respondents,
we directly questioned White respondents about what they believe are
the most common popular stereotypes held by Whites about Blacks. A
summary of this comparison is located in the top panel of Table 4. On the whole, we find that our Black
respondents' metastereotypes are quite consistent with the perceptions
of Blacks elicited from our White respondents. In general, White respondents
express racial stereotypes that are unequivocally negative, and this is
largely consistent with their patterns of interracial contact, both prior
to and once at college. Black criminality is at the forefront of this
discussion, with nearly 70% of White respondents (18 of 26) acknowledging
the primacy of this stereotype. Here again, the “Blacks as
criminals” stereotype is tied to perceptions of Blacks as violent and
poor as well. Tim reveals the common White perception that Black men are
‘dangerous’ and prone to physical violence.
Blacks' College-Specific Metastereotypes
Comparison of Whites' College-Specific Stereotypes of Blacks and
Blacks' College-Specific Metastereotypes
Interviewer: What are some common stereotypes that White
people have of Black people?
Tim: Dangerous… Especially, if you're
male… If you're walking, a Black person is going to come up
to you and beat you up.
In a focus group with other White students, Lisa shared her fear of
the Black people in her neighborhood. She lives in an off-campus
apartment just above 40th Street. Lisa is from a small
wealthy suburb in the Northeast.
Lisa: … And, I think of when I'm by myself,
walking home at night and I see a Black person—I do get nervous
at times… Because of the crime reports that you read in the
_____ [name of campus newspaper] everyday. You know, things
happen on the block that I live on.
Rich also lives above 40th Street and admits that he
sometimes fears for his safety if he sees a Black man walking near him,
especially late at night.
Yeah, I mean I think that there is—I mean I think like
in terms of like the young Black male as being a thug or, you know, a
gangster or something is very common. Like I definitely see it even in
myself, like when I go home to _____ Street, I normally often get home
like midnight … even if I'm on my bike and I see like a
Black man coming towards me just like walking … like my heart
rate probably increases, you know, I'm more nervous. And if it was
like a White female or something, I'm not gonna even like bat an
eyelash, you know. So I think that there's definitely, that's
like the, I mean the young Black male is like definitely stereotyped as
being like a criminal…
Similarly, the majority of White respondents also endorsed the
stereotype of Black people as poor, and tended to associate poverty
with being uneducated and engaging in deviant (criminal) behavior.
Amanda and Zak have similar perceptions:
Amanda: Stereotypes [about Blacks] are very
negative. So, poor, they're uneducated. And, all the men are
criminals, too. I think those are the pretty common stereotypes. I
mean, among White people.
Zak: Poor, violent, would be like common stereotypes. Yeah,
poor, violent, uncultured, sort of the same things that have been
around forever.
Rachel, however, wasn't sure if this White perception of Black
urban poverty measures up with reality.
… I know that it's most people's perception
that most Black people living in America are urban and poor…
But, then I was trying to think if that's actually the
correct—if that's the truth or that's our
perception.
Some White students admitted that their assumptions about Black
people stemmed from their lack of personal contact or interaction with
middle class or affluent Black people. Chris told the other students in
his (all White) focus group about his first experience in a Black
middle-class neighborhood, not far from campus:
Just about two weeks ago, I discovered the Black
middle-class for the first time. We were going to see a movie and it
was only playing at the _____ Street Theatre. So, we went all the way
out there—we took the ____ [name of transit line], or
whatever. And, it was the Black Middle Class. There were nice
stores and everything and you could tell all the stores were typically
African American. It was kind of weird for me because I've never
been in a Black middle-class place before… You guys should go!
It exists.
Beth also questioned her ignorance of middle-class and/or
affluent Black people. She grew up in a medium-sized city in the
Mid-Atlantic and is one of the few White participants who went to a
public high school that was fairly well integrated.
And, I don't know how big it is, and I have a feeling
that because I tend to pay attention to different issues, I guess the
middle class is bigger than I think…. The Black middle class.
Yeah. And, I have plenty of [Black] friends who are not as
poor as people living in boxes in the street, you know what I mean?
But, I was listening to how we are describing the average Black person,
and it's all like, poor, poor, poor, poor, poor. I think in my
head, that is kind of the average, but I know that I'm not
acknowledging more of the middle class experience…
Once again, even though our interview questions are open-ended, three
of the six most widely-cited Black metastereotypes and White
stereotypes (Blacks are lazy, unintelligent, and violent) are
consistent with those reported by Sigelman and Tuch (1997).7
Sigelman and
Tuch find that over half (54%) of White respondents characterized
Blacks as violent, 31% of Whites believed Blacks were less intelligent,
and 47% of Whites perceived Blacks to be lazy.
For example,
seventeen of the twenty-six White students we interviewed believe that
Blacks are categorically poor. In one way, however, our results are
substantially different from those reported by Sigelman and Tuch: White
students in our sample are much more likely to embrace the stereotype
of Black intellectual inferiority compared to those in Sigelman and
Tuch's quantitative analysis; moreover, our Black students'
metastereotypes in this case are also much more accurate.
8 Sigelman and Tuch report that 76% of Blacks
perceived most Whites as endorsing this stereotype; however, only 31%
of Whites actually accepted this image of Blacks.
We believe
that the specific context in which we are studying these
issues—an elite college campus—explains much of the
difference in findings across the two studies, and highlights the
situational importance of racial attitudes and their effects on
behavior.
Overall, these findings suggest that our sample of Black students
hold metastereotypes that are strikingly accurate, particularly those
related to perceptions of Black criminality, poverty, and proclivity to
violence. The comments from our White respondents also suggest that
their lack of interracial contact may play an important role in the
perpetuation of these attitudes. Finally, it appears that our Black
respondents are justified, not only in their beliefs about White
students as fearful of them, but also about their adherence to beliefs
about Black intellectual inferiority.
BLACKS' COLLEGE-SPECIFIC
METASTEREOTYPES
What do Black students think White students think of them as
students? How do these metastereotypes form the more general
metastereotypes outlined in the previous section? Equally important,
how accurate are Black students' college-specific metastereotypes,
and what, if any, are their consequences for Black students'
collegiate experience? First, to get a sense of what Black
students' college-specific metastereotypes are, the bottom panel
of Table 3 summarizes responses to our query
about what they think most White students think of Blacks as students
at the University of Pennsylvania. For comparative purposes, the bottom
panel of Table 4 compares these responses to
White respondents' answers to this same question. The most salient
issue mentioned by both Black and White students was Affirmative
Action. Fully, three-quarters of Black respondents and more than half
of White respondents agreed that most White students endorse the
stereotype that Black students are “not qualified to attend the
University of Pennsylvania.” That is, that Blacks did not earn
their place at the university on their academic merits; rather, they
are there to fill a ‘quota’ whether it is because of their
athletic prowess or, because the University of Pennsylvania wants a
certain number of Black students enrolled each year for purposes of
racial/ethnic diversity.
Another salient theme is that of Black ‘self-segregation’
on campus. While the majority of both White and Black respondents
indicate a preference for living and socializing primarily with
same-race peers, they have varying interpretations of this decision on
the part of Black students. Most of the White students relied on two
explanations: 1) they believed that the Du Bois House allows Black
students to self-segregate and promotes anti-White attitudes,
and/or 2) some White students suggested that, like Blacks more
generally, Black University of Pennsylvania students assume that all
Whites are racists and this, too, discourages interracial social
interaction. Conversely, many Black respondents blame White
students' anti-Black hostility for promoting racial separation,
while also lamenting the everyday frustrations of being in a place
designed to honor White history, White knowledge, and White cultural
practices at the expense of the Black experience (Feagin et al., 1996). To many of these Black
students, Du Bois College House serves as a refuge from the enduring
stresses of being Black in such a “White space.” We discuss
each of these themes in greater detail below, in a manner consistent
with the previous section: first, Black students' college-specific
metastereotypes, followed by a discussion of their accuracy.
Affirmative Action
In their commentaries, Black students speak at length about their
belief that Whites do not think they are intelligent or
academically-prepared enough to be at the University of Pennsylvania.
Related to this perception is the pressure that derives from having to
‘prove’ oneself to White students—demonstrating that
they are qualified, intelligent members of the student body.
Particularly noteworthy is that Black students reporting a high level
of pre-college interracial contact are at least equally inclined to
adhere to this metastereotype.
Devon believes that Black people are not given the benefit of the
doubt regarding academic ability:
[Whites believe] we just want to take welfare and
be happy and merry and I think that they also have the impression that
we're not as smart… Like, I think that a lot of them
[White people] are really surprised if you've been to a
good school or your SAT scores are or your grades are good. I think
they're like: Wow! How did you manage to pull off something like
that?
Devon grew up in an affluent, majority White Northeastern suburb and
attended an elite day school prior to coming to the University of
Pennsylvania. He has no Black friends and does not participate in
Black-oriented activities on campus.
Sara, a senior sociology major with an A− grade point average,
shares her feelings about White students' perceptions of Black
students as unqualified to be at the University of Pennsylvania.
… Both of my parents make a lot of money as
physicians right now and live in a nice area. But, I had to work so
much harder in high school to get where I was and right now, people
still question whether I belong at UPENN. They question things like my
SAT scores, they think I'm here because of affirmative
action… I think I'm a lot more qualified than a lot of
White students here. I think that I'm questioned… You can
never be sure. But, things like that have happened repeatedly in my
life that illustrate to me that a lot of things that I've had to
overcome have to do with race. Even though, as far as class, I'm
on a comparable level with most White people, if not in a better
situation.
At the time of her interview, Sara receives no financial aid. Both of
her parents are physicians; she attended one of the top public high
schools in her area and has done consistently well throughout her
academic career.
Jessica shares an experience of direct confrontation by a White
student who believed that Affirmative Action explained Jessica's
presence at the University.
… This girl, she said in reference to me, she said I
was going to UPENN, said it was only due to affirmative action…
[it] wouldn't have been too big a deal, only she had
gone on about all her connections to the Admissions Office here because
her brother went to UPENN… all I did was check a little box that
said Caribbean American… I think that we feel the need to prove
that we're really ten times better than people think we are
because of affirmative action, things like that, oh, you probably got
in here, you know, whatever.
Stressed out by Whites' assumptions that his race marks him as
inferior to White students, Matt explained how his skin color
negatively affects the treatment he receives in the classroom, and the
added pressure he feels to perform well academically and counter what
he sees as the prevailing campus stereotype among Whites: that of Black
intellectual inferiority:
… Going to class because I'll be the only Black
person in class. That's almost every class. I guess it isn't
too hard because most of my high school classes were like that, but
… It is different here because there's this idea that, you
know, affirmative action is why you're here … sometimes you
just seem to get that vibe from people… When you perform at the
same level as them, they're surprised that you can perform at that
level… Like, if we're having a discussion in class, and
I'll say something like, relatively intelligent, you know, people
will be like: Gee, I didn't know he could… I didn't
know he was smart. You know? You, being Black, they have the idea that,
you know, you're inarticulate or can't
graduate.
Brian is similarly convinced that the myth of Black intellectual
inferiority will haunt him even after graduation, despite the good
grades he earned at this Ivy League University. In order to convince
employers' that he is as qualified as White candidates, Brian
assumes that he has to academically outperform his White
counterparts.
… I think most of the Black students here, and
that's just in general, I mean if you're a White person
coming out of UPENN with a 3.0 and you're a Black person coming
out of UPENN with a 3.0, I think most people are gonna look at the
White person with the 3.0 saying, oh, you know, he's well-rounded,
had a good time… academics probably weren't like the most
important thing… Whereas the Black person, oh, he's an
affirmative action case, that's why he got a 3.0. So
it's important for that Black person to have that 3.5 and the 3.7
where I don't necessarily think it's as important for the
White person. I don't know, that's what I think. It's a
deep, heavy subject.
Scott's comments about affirmative action, however, are more
nonchalant. Rather than thinking about whether or not he was judged
differently based on his race, Scott perceives the playing field as
level since his matriculation. Scott is a junior in the Wharton School,
the University of Pennsylvania's top-rated business school
program.
If we go to colleges, [Whites think] we probably
got in through affirmative action, and stuff like that … if
it's because of that, so be it. I mean, I'm getting my
education… At the end of the day, I got, I got a piece of paper
that says I graduated from Wharton.
Black ‘Self-Segregation’
Nearly half of the Black students in our sample (thirteen of
twenty-seven) stated an explicit preference for living and socializing
primarily with other Blacks; however, their reasons for this preference
were markedly different from Whites' perceptions of Black
separatism. Many Black students spoke of the University of Pennsylvania
as a ‘White’ place that does not welcome or acknowledge the
diversity of Black students or their needs—as such, banding
together helps to alleviate some of the strain of being Black on an
elite, highly-competitive, and overwhelmingly White campus. These
feelings resonate fairly consistently with Black students from a
variety of backgrounds; the sustained interracial contact prior to
college reported by many of these students did not increase the
desirability or the perceived ease of socializing with Whites on
campus. Instead, Black students from predominately White backgrounds
were even more likely to gravitate toward Black peer groups in college.
Weary of existing in a White world with little Black companionship,
they rushed to align with the Black community at the University of
Pennsylvania. In fact, for many, college was the first time that they
could choose to interact with a sufficient number of other Blacks.
In her interview, Jessica partly attributes Whites' perceptions
of Black segregation on campus to Whites' lack of interracial
contact prior to University of Pennsylvania. At the same time, however,
she does not deny that many Black students do prefer to live only with
their same-race peers. Jessica, a junior, has never lived in Du Bois
College House, but spends a great deal of time socializing with friends
there.
It ends up being the perception that we're very
segregated—to a certain degree, we want to hang out with people
like us—but, I think a lot of what surrounds us, is a mystery for
them…. I feel like they're kind of afraid to approach us
because they might possibly feel like we're a big Black cloud of
students!
Susan concurs that White naiveté about Black people influences
how Whites perceive Du Bois. Susan attended high school at one of the
most elite prep schools in the Northeast, where she was one of only a
handful of Black students. She spent her first two years of college in
Du Bois, and would have lived there her third year, but moved off
campus because she was pregnant with her first child.
… People from the outside are quick to pass judgment
on us… And just, you know, they're sort of perceiving Du
Bois as like this monolithic environment [but] ignoring the
fact that we have students who are Caribbean American, African American
… [Du Bois] is very underrated by people who've
never been there … like the stereotypes, of course, are just
like oh, you know, Black people trying to segregate themselves, you
know, and whatever.
Susan's comments clearly feed into the metastereotype and
corresponding White stereotype that ‘all Black people are the
same.’
Stacey argues that White students fail to realize the importance of
their status as the numerical majority on campus, and do nothing to
promote more interracial contact. The onus is always on the Black
students to make the initiative.
… They think [Du Bois] shouldn't be
there… But, no one's really trying to do anything
different. So, why get on Du Bois, if you're not leaving the Quad?
… I mean, it's got to come from both sides.
In the focus group with other Black American students, Stacey and
Laura explained more about how White students associate anti-White
sentiment with living in Du Bois.
Laura: [They think you] hate White people,
especially at UPENN.
Stacey: You live in Du Bois. You don't let White people
in because you block the doorways when they try to come
in.
Interviewer: Yeah. I have been blocked several times.
[said jokingly].
Stacey: Yeah. That was my watch. [said jokingly].
I said: Hey! [The White girl's] comin'!
[laughter].
A majority of Black students said being able to socialize and live
with other Black people is crucial to succeeding at the University of
Pennsylvania. Constantly confronting a hostile racial climate, they
believe, necessitates the existence of the Du Bois House not just as a
living space, but a meeting place where Black students can come
together away from the pressures of rest of the campus environment.
Susan associates her love of the University of Pennsylvania with that
of the Du Bois House.
… First of all, Du Bois has been my absolute favorite
part of my life at UPENN, so far. And I still consider it my home
… It's a nice family environment, which is good when
you're away from your family, you know… Du Bois is so much
more than just a place to live, you know what I mean, like everything
is like—you can get involved in the activities through there.
They have academic channels there… there's so much going on
in the House that people just think, you know, we just want to go in a
place where, you know, it's all Black people and
stuff.
In addition to living space, Du Bois has several classrooms, study,
and rehearsal spaces for academic and extracurricular groups. Du Bois
frequently hosts outside speakers and various cultural events. As one
Black student put it, “it's the social mecca for the Black
community.”
Du Bois has served as an important social support for Paul as well.
Paul has lived in Du Bois for two and half years. He is very active in
Black student life and all of his close college friends are
Black—most of whom are brothers in his fraternity.
… you usually can find someone to relate to …
I can always find someone in Du Bois who has already taken the class or
is taking the class and might get the notes from them, even if I
don't know them.
Many Black respondents likened Du Bois House to a refuge where they
could get away from the stresses related to being Black in such a White
place. In the presence of other Blacks they felt they were able to
unwind and take solace in the fact that there were others who were in
the same boat. They welcomed the time when they did not have to feel
compelled to ‘represent the race’ in the classroom, or deal
with various other race-related issues. Sara, a senior explains:
I think [Du Bois] is really important. I think
especially at a school where there's so few ethnic minorities, I
think it's important for those people to have a community. And
just people to feel comfortable with—that understand like your
culture or norms or some of your values because I think people
overestimate the amount of isolation that happens. They think when
people live in places like Du Bois that they never have interaction
with anyone else… For me it was the only time of day where I
could go home and be like: Whew, I know everyone here, no one's
going to ask me about my hair today or look at me funny or think I
don't belong here.
Sara's high school experience was predominately White. Like many
of the Black students in our sample, Sara was one of the few Black
students in her honors classes. Susan had a similar high school
experience. Despite attending an overwhelmingly White, elite private
day school, Susan still feels uncomfortable in classes where she is the
only or one of a few Black students.
I'm still, even after going to a high school like
_______ [name of high school], I'm still uncomfortable
with being the only African American student in my class.
Although Mark has never lived in Du Bois and has a predominately
White peer network, he also sees the importance of having a space on
campus that is oriented toward the needs of Black students. Contrary to
the need for a save haven, however, Mark points to the opportunity for
Blacks from majority-White backgrounds to get to know and socialize
with other Blacks at college:
And the argument is that, well, for the first time in their
lives they have the opportunity to be around other people who look like
them, you know, and probably the only time, on a regular basis, you
know?
Although Peter went to an elite boarding school, he shares how tiring
it is to navigate college as a Black student:
… One difference between Black and White people that
I see is that Black people have the burden of Blackness. You
know what I'm saying? And, the need to feel like you gotta
represent … I don't know exactly. But, I know I got high
blood pressure. You know what I mean?… There's just a lot
of external pressure that goes on with Blackness.
Clearly, the ‘burden’ of Blackness is a powerful theme
resonating throughout Black students' commentaries. The Du Bois
House, students argue, helps them to cope with their minority status,
providing a comfort zone for feeling safe and understood. This
perception of ‘self-segregation’ as a response to White
hostility is vastly different from that of White students belief that
it represents and/or fosters anti-White sentiment among Black
students.
THE ACCURACY OF BLACKS'
COLLEGE-SPECIFIC METASTEREOTYPES
Though somewhat exaggerated, Black students' college-specific
metastereotype that White students perceive them as unqualified for the
University of Pennsylvania, is largely consistent with Whites'
stated perceptions. The bottom panel of Table
4 shows that over half (fourteen of twenty-six) of White
respondents do support the prevalence of the affirmative action
stereotype. It was the White male students who made the most powerful
statements regarding this issue, reaching consensus regarding the
intellectual and academic inferiority of their Black peers.9
As Sigelman and Tuch argue in their paper, it
is possible that White students may have understated their feelings on
this particular issue as well as on other issues for fear of being
labeled as racist by the interviewer or focus group moderator.
Moreover, because we relied on open-ended questions to get at these
issues, it is possible that we did not capture all of the
students' beliefs about any single issue.
White women
were more likely to state that they had overheard other Whites equating
Black enrollment with affirmative action, whereas Colin explains how
frustrated he was to be in a class with a large percentage of Black
students. He believes that his Black classmates came from less rigorous
educational environments and are generally not as smart as he is. The
class he is referring to was taught by a Black male professor and dealt
specifically with issues of racial and ethnic relations. Colin was one
of the few White students enrolled in the class.
Black people with lower scores and lower GPA's are
taken over White people with higher qualifications, and that does cause
concern for me… I'm not against affirmative action entirely
because I do feel that there are inherent disadvantages… I
believe that the school sort of oversteps its boundaries…. The
one class I took on race and ethnic relations, which was predominantly
Black students… I honestly felt that some of those people,
certain people in that class were not qualified to be at this school
… and I think that's because they had poor argumentative
skills and I just thought wow, a lot of the people in the class were
terribly inarticulate, expressed their thoughts poorly. I was thinking
to myself, honestly, these people are not on the same level as me
intellectually… There were probably ten White people to thirty
Black people.
Tony asserts that he, too, believes Black students are not on the
same level as Whites. He states:
I would guess that just sort of saying that perhaps the
majority of Black students at UPENN are from a lower income, lower
educational background.
And, while Tim argues that he is not against affirmative action
programs in all cases, he is not in favor of race-based initiatives.
… I think that like there is definitely like
inequalities in like the educational system … there's so
many factors that go into like, that determine like how you do
academically that I think you can't tell just based on like
merit… I mean therefore I support affirmative action but not,
like I support it more like affirmative action based on
economics…
Lastly, Chris says programs like affirmative action put Black people
in jobs they are not really qualified for. In his commentary, he refers
to his friend's term, “the psuedo-educated Black
male,” as a way of capturing his feelings about Blacks who have
not earned their positions in corporate America:
I think there's definitely something to that
[affirmative action]. A friend of mine has a word that he
uses… He's says when he's in a situation where he
meets a well-dressed Black man, he'll say: Oh, it was one of those
“pseudo-educated Black males.” … I think it's
something like a Black male who dresses the part and tries to be
‘White’ and be in a certain situation, beyond a certain
social status… So, I think, I don't really use that term
myself, but when he said that, it made me—I took notes at that
time … it was some kind of thing where this guy was serving him
and was dressed up or whatever. And, [mimics White friend]:
He didn't know what he was talking about. These guys, they come
across like they know what they're doing… But, when you
scratch the surface, then they fall apart. I could see where he was
coming from … I can imagine him being in a situation like
that.
The White women in our sample are more inclined to talk about
“what they've heard” regarding Black students'
qualifications. Lisa says she has been privy to hearsay about Black
students' qualifications. As a member of the track team, she is
aware of the stereotype that some Black students got into the
University of Pennsylvania not because of their academic strengths, but
because of their superior athletic capabilities.
Most of the Black people I talk with are athletes …
there are stereotypes about athletes, [the] stereotype is,
“They're here because they're athletes,” or
“Oh you got in because you're an athlete,” or
“They just want to fill a quota”… lots of athletes
that I know are Black, if anyone thinks of a reason, it's because
they're an athlete.
Mary, a junior, shares a direct statement about Black students and
affirmative action from one of her friends:
I think one of the stereotypes of Black students is that
they don't deserve to be here, they're here due to
Affirmative Action… I had one friend who said, in reference to a
Black student, “Oh there's affirmative
action”…
While these results suggest that Black students'
college-specific metastereotypes related to affirmative action and,
more generally, Black intellectual inferiority are confirmed by a
majority of White respondents, they should be interpreted cautiously.
This sample is by no means representative of all White or Black
University of Pennsylvania students. At the same time, however, it is
evident that these respondents expressed their views with considerable
ease; White students, and particularly White men, were very open about
their disapproval of affirmative action, and used it to symbolize
[what they perceived as] Black inferiority. This tendency
suggests that, Black students' concerns are justified, since even
a small minority of Whites with such beliefs can adversely affect the
campus racial climate.
Black ‘Self-Segregation’
White students tend to blame the existence of Du Bois College House
for the lack of interracial student interaction. Located at the edge of
campus, Du Bois is far from the goings-on of the Quad and other more
centrally located residences that are also predominantly White. The
House is one of the smaller residences on campus, with living space for
about 200 students. In addition, White respondents say they are wary of
cross-racial interaction because they perceive Blacks as believing that
all White students are racist. The bottom panel of Table 4 shows that three-quarters of White
respondents (twenty-two of twenty-nine) believe most Whites view Blacks
as ‘separatists' with no interest in socializing or living
with Whites. However, thirteen of the twenty-nine Black respondents
subscribed to this metastereotype. While Black respondents remarked
that the Du Bois House was a valued residential and social space, they
did not agree that the House cut Black students off from the rest of
campus. Moreover, they cited White students’ lack of knowledge
about Black people and anti-Black hostility as key reasons for living
in Du Bois.
Colin, a junior at the time of the interview, argued that Du Bois
should not be a housing option for Black students because it decreases
the likelihood that they would choose to live in other residences.
College, Colin believes, is supposed to be about
‘diversity’ and interacting with people from different
backgrounds. Colin's freshman dorm was overwhelmingly White, not
unlike the student body of his high school. He admitted that he does
not have any Black friends, nor has he gone out of his way to get
acquainted with a single Black student; his primary friendship circle
is all White.
… I think that just completely goes against, if UPENN
really wants to strive to be diverse and wants to attract all different
kinds of people, then why would they essentially give them a place
where they can segregate themselves? … I don't think UPENN
should make that a viable option… there were no Black people in
my hall freshman year. And I think that's a shame… The
diversity in my hall was about the same as my high school, it was
overwhelmingly White and there were a couple of Asians…. I
believe that Black students self-segregate themselves …
and I do believe that Black students actively segregate themselves and
White students do not do the same thing.
Later in his interview, Colin said that Du Bois House promotes
‘latent racism’. Colin has never been inside Du Bois
because he thinks that Whites are not welcome there. He does not want
to experience any discomfort associated with being White in a majority
Black space.
… I just don't, like I would be uncomfortable,
for instance, hanging out in the Du Bois House. I think that's a
form of latent racism… It's there, but it's not
expressed… I don't know. I think that truthfully a very,
very pro-Black environment alienates White people, it certainly
alienates me… I just think that it's an uncomfortable
racial climate in that sense, but it's very minor. I don't
day-to-day ever feel uncomfortable being White.
Laurie, a sophomore, also thinks that her Whiteness bars her from
entering Du Bois. She grew up in a suburb of Denver, Colorado, with no
Black neighbors. Laurie attended a nearby public high school where
about 20% of the student body was Black, but she has never had any
Black friends.
Laurie: … I don't know like sometimes I am
afraid to go [to Du Bois] for some reason just because I feel
like I wouldn't be accepted just because I am not
Black.
Interviewer: And that matters there?
Laurie: I don't know I have never been there.
Emily, a freshman at the time of her interview, lived in the Quad.
She had never been to the Du Bois House either, nor is she sure how she
feels about its existence on campus. Emily attended an elite parochial
high school, though she and her family are religious Jews.
I guess I have mixed feelings about [Du Bois]
because I am not Black. So, I don't exactly know… I
wouldn't know if there is a certain comfort in having that there
for them or if it would be hard for them because I guess Blacks are a
minority here… But I think it is a shame that it makes the rest
of the campus not as diverse.
Like Colin and Emily, George faults Du Bois for not making his
college experience more racially diverse. The dormitory, he says, is
crucial to how students' make friends at the University of
Pennsylvania; if his friend Devon hadn't lived near him in the
Quad freshman year, George believes he would not have any Black
friends. The Quad is actually a collection of centrally located
residences halls where over 1,000 students—mostly
freshman—live. Each class year is about 2,400 students. With the
exception of Devon, George's friends are all White and Jewish.
I really think [Du Bois] is the worst thing
that's happened to race relations at UPENN because all the Black
people live there and you're friends with the people you live
with. That's pretty much the way it works out. Almost all my
friends live in the Quad—easily 95 percent of them lived in the
Quad freshman year.
Moreover, George assumes that the students who elect to live in Du
Bois are from majority Black environments and thus feel uncomfortable
around White people. His friend Devon is especially well-versed in
White ways because he lived in places and attended schools where Whites
were the majority. George is from an affluent suburb not far from the
university. And, although he did have a few Black friends in high
school, George explained that they were all from economically
privileged backgrounds like his own, and Devon's.
[Devon] he came from a much more White background
than most of the Black kids … the majority of the Black kids
here, come from predominantly Black backgrounds. [Devon]
comes from [White] boarding school… I mean I think
that those who come from more White backgrounds are more comfortable
around White people.
But, George also admits that being Black in a predominately White
place may involve ‘compromising’ a bit of your racial
identity in order to fit in. Black students who live in the Quad tend
to ‘act more White’ than those who live in Du Bois.
According to George, being Black at the University of Pennsylvania is
very different than being White at the University of Pennsylvania. With
few exceptions, George perceives Black University of Pennsylvania
students as coming from majority Black, urban areas—they speak
slang and dress in fashions characteristic of urban America. White
students are generally preppy in clothing style, speak
‘proper’ English, and are not as into the Hip Hop music
scene.
What does it mean to be Black at UPENN? If you're a
Black guy living in, if you're a Black person living in the Quad
it means compromise… I think Black people who are in
that scene, who live in the Quad, have to compromise a little bit of
their identity in order to fit in…. they give up some of their
Black identity to fit in … there's a very distinct
difference in mannerisms between Black people who live in Du Bois
… and the Black people who are here from the Quad. [For
example], I say hi to them, they shake my hand fifteen different
ways, they have an afro pick sticking out of their head, they're
wearing baggy FUBU jeans and a sweatshirt. They're into Common,
they're into Mos Def, lots of good hip-hop… And, you know,
they use Black slang, you know? The [Black] kids I meet in
the Quad, they dress fairly conservatively and they're not
listening to hip-hop … it's not so much part of their
identity. They speak like White people, they act like White
people… I mean it's basically just if their skin
wasn't dark, you'd think they were White, you
know?
George's perception of ‘most’ Black students at the
University of Pennsylvania is inaccurate. Although our data are not
representative of the entire Black University of Pennsylvania student
population, the Black students in our sample have had sustained
interracial contact throughout their lives. Over two-thirds of Black
respondents attended high schools that were predominately White and
lived in integrated neighborhoods. The average Black student resided in
an area that was nearly 40% White and about 50% Black with smaller
Latino and Asian percentages (see the bottom panel of Table 1). Moreover, the findings here suggest that
Whites believe the onus of promoting integration and diversity on
campus is on Black students, rather than perceiving it as a two-way
process. White students repeatedly fault the Du Bois House for making
the university a less ‘diverse’ place, but are oblivious to
the existence and overabundance of White spaces that they've
created and maintained for themselves.
THE INTERNALIZATION OF NEGATIVE RACIAL
STEREOTYPES
To this point, we have detailed Black students metastereotypes and
the degree to which they are consistent with White students'
stereotypes of Blacks, both in general and at college. In the final
portion of our analysis, we move beyond metastereotypes and examine
Black students' perceptions of themselves and their place at the
University of Pennsylvania, in an effort to further understand how race
impacts Black student's collegiate experience. Whether and how
Black students internalize Whites' negative racial stereotypes of
Blacks further reveals how race rules their everyday lives
(Dyson 1996). As members of an historically
oppressed group, Blacks in the contemporary U.S. are not immune to the
pervasive images of Black inferiority. Despite their best efforts, many
Blacks internalize these negative societal images while striving to
succeed in a society that consistently devalues both their individual
and their collective worth. Thus, Du Bois' metaphorical
‘veil’ providing Blacks with ‘second sight’ is
also a ‘curse,’ forcing Blacks to contemplate their place
in society—always through the eyes of Whites. A vast literature
deals explicitly with the psychological scars inflicted on the Black
psyche by racism, including ‘the mark of the oppressor’ (Du
Bois 1970, 1989,
1995; Fanon 1963,
1967; Freire 1993;
Kardiner and Ovesey, 1951).
In general, the Black students in our study do not think of
themselves in stereotypic terms. Tabulations of the extent to which
Black respondents have internalized negative stereotypes of Blacks,
summarized in Table 5, reveals that over 40%
(thirteen of of twenty-nine) of Black respondents believe that they are
both financially better off than Whites and well-versed in the ways of
Whites. As students attending an Ivy League institution, they are
worlds away from the welfare dependent, criminally-prone Blacks that
Whites hold in disdain—they have “beaten the odds.”
Several Black students were surprised by the number of same-race peers
from affluent backgrounds. As Matt notes:
The Internalization of Stereotypes: Black Stereotypes about Black
University of Pennsylvania Students
I had never been exposed to bourgie Black
people—rich Black people, I guess. Bourgie…
Because I mean, I knew they existed, I just never met them. You
know?
Julie was also surprised by Black students' affluence at the
University of Pennsylvania, and sees herself as less affluent than her
same-race friends.
A lot of my friends … like their parents can afford
to pay their tuition, you know… They may have a little financial
aid but they don't get as much as like I get, you
know?
Despite having money, eighteen of the twenty-nine Black respondents
believe that being Black puts them at a disadvantage at the University
of Pennsylvania. They believe that they have to study more and work
harder to overcome the stigma associated with being Black. And, unlike
many of their White peers they do not have the ‘connections'
to corporate America or the ‘legacy’ status many White
students have. Responsibly ‘representing the race’ is
critically important: Black students feel constant pressure to dispel
Whites’ beliefs about Black inferiority and are always striving
to present a positive image.
To the extent that the Blacks in our sample do internalize negative
stereotypes, it is more likely to be a problem for the men than it is
for the women we studied. The Black men we interviewed spoke at length
about how stereotypic notions of Black masculinity make them
‘exceptional,’ since Black men in particular are not
expected to make it into the elite echelons of White society. Joe
explains his feelings about being a Black man at the University of
Pennsylvania. At the time of his interview, he had a 3.7 grade point
average and had just received acceptance letters from several top-tier
medical schools.
… I feel like I have to be, I don't know, just
feel like—especially 'cause there's not that many Black
people here, I just feel like I have to be a leader … like,
‘okay, there's a Black man, doing his thing’…
I guess that's why I over extend myself like everybody, maybe
because I'm, supposedly doing well, and like everybody wants me
to… I basically contradict the entire stereotype of a Black
male… I am intelligent, motivated, I got to an Ivy League school,
I going to go medical school at an Ivy League school… I think I
can in some way serve as a blueprint for other Black people to propel
themselves in society. I can show people what I have done and they can
use the same tactics or strategies to do something good with their
lives.
Mark is also cognizant that his presence as a Black male student at
the University of Pennsylvania debunks societal stereotypes of Black
men in America, and believes that the lack of interracial contact
fosters White racism on campus.
I think that for the majority of [White] students
the construction of the urban African American probably is more
prevalent in their lives based on media depictions of African Americans
in urban situations…. because the majority of White UPENN
students don't necessarily have interaction on a day-to-day basis
with Black people so they don't really have a construction of what
acting Black, or what a Black UPENN student acting Black is. They just
have this overall overarching conception of what acting Black in
America is, you know, which is more prevalent in their lives because of
the media…. Like certain types of clothing, like FUBU or
whatever … like ha[ving] a certain speech pattern, you
know?… I think most of the Black kids that go here went to prep
schools and their parents have money so, for the most part, have been
considered like exceptions to the whole construction of what most Black
people are perceived as… They don't fit what you would
consider to be the archetypal Black American individual, you know,
lazy, uneducated, socio-economically deprived, etc.
Scott, a junior, from a middle-class family and a predominantly Black
suburb in the Northeast, expressed similar sentiments:
… Most Black males are either dead or in jail by the
time they're 21. Like, I'm supposedly real lucky. But, I
think there's like a more … like, I'm real lucky due
to the fact that I'm 21 and I haven't been doing drugs or I
haven't been doing jail time… But, there's a lot more
people out there just doin' there thing and are 21 and
they're not succumbing to the doing drug-type-thing. You
know?
Moreover, Black students often invoke Du Bois' assertion that
“all the better classes of the Negroes should recognize their
duty toward the masses” [Du Bois 1996 [1899], p. 396]. Mike equates
being Black at the University of Pennsylvania as being a “diamond
in the ruff,” going so far as to make a direct parallel to Du
Bois' notion of the Talented Tenth and Black student
presence at the University of Pennsylvania.
… Being Black at Middle City means you probably are
a diamond in the ruff—It's somewhat being looked at
as that made it out of your community, like all the Black people who
came here … they made it. The diamond like—Du Bois used to
like to say the Talented 10th… I look at it as a lot
of White students look at you that way. I mean, even some other Black
students. We all realize the majority of us [aren't]
here. There should be a lot more, but there aren't.
Black students also emphasized the greater importance of their
accomplishments relative to those of White students. As Mark
explains:
… I think any person who's here is an exemplary
individual on their own. I mean, obviously to get into a school like
this, you have to be, you know, top of your class, and have high SATs,
hardworking, involved in everything. It's like there's all
these crazy criteria… But, at the same time, I think
[Blacks] in this country, in general, have a harder time
interacting and attaining … if you're a minority and
you're able to be that exemplary and be at level with the top
White students, it makes you that much more special, if you will, than
that White student [because] it was that much harder for you
to get here because you had this additional handicap of being a
minority.
Finally, legacy, old money, and extensive corporate networks make it
easier to be White at the University of Pennsylvania. Brian states:
[If you're White] you can make like, you
know, a 2.5 or a 3.0. If you don't get hired by, you know, this
company because of your GPA, in all likelihood your daddy or mom will
have some connection that, you know, find a company for you down the
road. Whereas a Black student … you at least have that notion
that you weren't supposed to like be here.
Sara's take on White privilege at the University of Pennsylvania
is similar to Brian's.
You can donate a building to help your kid get into to
UPENN. I think when people talk about legacy … it's more
because their parents went to UPENN because they had the resources to
make sure their kids grew up like they did—so their kids were
able to get into UPENN and … you know, your dad gave you the
same experience that he had, so you could get into UPENN.
And, at the time of his interview, Mark questioned his younger
brother's being denied acceptance to the University of
Pennsylvania, despite having ‘legacy’ status (Mark's
father earned an MBA from the university's prestigious business
school and Mark was accepted as a transfer student). Mark receives
minimal financial aid and is from a predominately White, affluent
nearby suburb.
… My father went to Wharton for graduate school. I
didn't apply here for undergrad, but I did get in as a transfer
student. But, my little brother just applied this year, as an
undergrad, and didn't get in, so I don't know how much that
legacy pull—if there was any real effects on the admission
decision… For some reason, I was the standard that UPENN wanted,
but my little brother wasn't. So, I don't know that's
just kind of an added thing, in terms of things to think
about.
It appears, then, that the Black students we spoke with do not
internalize traditional images of Black inferiority and social
pathology as part of their own, individual self-definition. This is not
to say, however, that they completely disregard and/or discount
negative images of the stereotypic Black American; rather, they see
themselves as separate from those Blacks who Whites view negatively.
They are not poor, they have educated parents, and they have done
consistently well in school; therefore, these students believe that
they have rightfully earned a place at this elite Ivy League
university. At the same time, however, they are cognizant that many of
their White peers do not view them any differently than they view
Blacks in general The specter of affirmative action heightens the
attention paid to societal images of intellectual inferiority by these
Black students.
CONCLUSION
The goal of this analysis was to explore how racial stereotypes
impact the collegiate experiences of Black undergraduate students at an
elite, predominantly White institution. We were especially interested
in metastereotypes—what Black students believe White
students think about them as members of the larger Black community
(Sigelman and Tuch, 1997). Studying Black
students' metastereotypes is, we believe, important for two
reasons. First, metastereotypes represent a measurable indicator of the
double-consciousness detailed by Du Bois, and provide valuable
insights into the continued relevance of this concept nearly a century
later. Furthermore, our analysis sheds light on the experience of
double-consciousness in the day-to-day lives of Blacks in the college
context. Second, and equally important, by considering the racial
attitudes of both Blacks and Whites, we gain leverage on the barriers
to improving intergroup relations—both in general and on the
elite college campus.
*[Our findings suggest that, consistent with Sigelman and Tuch
(1997), Black undergraduates at the
University do possess some clear and largely negative metastereotypes
concerning how White students generally think about the Blacks, both in
general and on their campus. This is especially true for those Blacks
who have had substantial contact with Whites prior to entering
college.] Black students accurately articulate White's views
of them as less intelligent, academically unprepared for the rigors of
college and, therefore, undeserving of “special treatment.”
For Whites then, these negative images are at the heart of a key campus
“problem”: namely, White hostility to affirmative action
and the assumption that Blacks are not qualified to be at the
University. For Black students, the perceived pervasiveness of these
attitudes results in an acute desire to “prove themselves”
to their White classmates.
Furthermore, it appears that Blacks' metastereotypes negatively
impact their academic performance. Despite working “extra
hard” to defy the myth of Black intellectual inferiority, Black
respondents' grades are about four tenths of one point lower than
their White peers'.10
Although we do
not have official grade reports for the students in our sample, we
believe that these self-reports make good proxies for actual grades. In
their nationally representative longitudinal sample of 4,000 students
at 28 selective colleges and universities, Massey, Charles, and
colleagues linked official grade reports with students self-reports,
finding a .98 correlation. Moreover, the average standard error
irrespective of racial/ethnic group was less than a quarter of a
grade point (Massey et al., 2003, pp.
20–45).
This pattern is consistent with other studies of
Black-White differences in collegiate academic achievement, most
recently that of Massey et al. (
2003), and
with Steele's theory of stereotype threat. There is also evidence
of an additional burden for Black students: to some extent at least,
the Black students we spoke with have internalized the negative
societal images of their group. This is evident in Black
respondents' views of themselves as “not like other/most
Blacks.” The internalization of negative group stereotypes
provides an additional source of pressure that is likely to have
negative consequences for Blacks' academic performance. They
believe they must serve as ‘shining examples’ of the best
their race has to offer and, therefore, must work hard to live up to
their responsibility for “uplifting the race.” Thus,
“representing” the larger Black collective is important to
the Black University of Pennsylvania students in our sample, creating
great pressure to dispel White beliefs about Black intellectual
inferiority.
It should be noted here that our sample is not representative of all
Black or all White students at the University of Pennsylvania; however,
even if only a minority of White students have attitudes toward Blacks
consistent with those expressed by our White respondents, this can have
a substantial, adverse impact on the overall campus racial climate.
White respondents discussed their perceptions of Blacks with
considerable ease, showing no reluctance or difficulty in articulating
their disapproval of affirmative action, feelings of intellectual
superiority, or their fear of Black men on or near campus. Again, Black
students at this Ivy League Institution are well aware of the negative
images Whites have of them, and high levels of contact with Whites
prior to college do not necessarily make this experience any easier for
them. If anything, many of the Black respondents said they are weary of
interacting in an environment that consistently devalues their
abilities and their worth. Sara countered the prevailing image held by
White students at the University of Pennsylvania when she stated:
… I think that a lot of the kids that come from inner
city areas or who have been around Black people all their
lives—those are the kids who don't make it as well at UPENN.
Because I think they lack—they've lacked the opportunity to
interact with White people at UPENN. I feel like you have to be able to
do that to survive.
*[For Whites, on the other hand, it appears that it is their
limited exposure to Blacks that contributes heavily to their reliance
on stereotypes as their primary source of information about Blacks,
both in general and at the University]. Whites, on the other hand,
their limited exposure to Blacks appears to contribute heavily to
[…]. Coming to the University of Pennsylvania does not
“diversify” White students' peer networks; they remain
in an overwhelmingly White environment that does not force them to
question their racial views in any way. Whites continued lack of
meaningful contact with Blacks, combined with persisting stereotypes of
Black intellectual inferiority and hostility toward affirmative action
contribute to the failure of the contact hypothesis. Specifically,
Whites do not believe that Blacks are their intellectual (or social)
equals—Blacks did not get into the University of Pennsylvania on
their academic merits, but rather benefited from “special
treatment.” Consequently, White students do not perceive Blacks
as their equals, and equal status is essential for interracial contact
to be beneficial.
These dynamics have consequences for intergroup relations on campus
and, ironically, feed into racial misunderstandings. Black students
respond to what they perceive to be a hostile environment by seeking
out “safe space” in the form of Du Bois College House
and/or predominantly Black peer groups. Unable to empathize with
Blacks' feelings of marginality, White students perceive this
response as reflective of anti-White sentiments, and/or blame Black
students' preference for self-segregation as responsible for the
lack of racial diversity in their lives. To the extent that these
beliefs are widespread, they may perpetuate and/or increase
perceptions of social distance, widening an already deep racial chasm,
stymieing further progress toward a reduction in negative racial
stereotyping by Whites, and serving to justify Blacks mistrust of them.
Thus, with the “threat” constantly in the air, Black
students are under considerable pressure to perform well academically
(Steele 1992, 1998). This immediate situational pressure,
combined with the internalization of negative societal stereotypes,
conspires to impede Black academic achievement. This vicious cycle
contributes to the perpetuation of the myth of Black intellectual
inferiority, “proving” to White students and faculty that
Black students are not qualified for the rigors of an elite
postsecondary education.
APPENDIX
Description of Black Interview Respondents
Description of White Interview Respondents
