Topic:
Prejudice
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new as of January 1, 2013
Racial Profiling
Immigration
General
African
Asian
Australian
Chinese
Hispanic
Indian
Islamic/Arab
Italian
Japanese
Jewish
Native AmericanSexual Orientation-based Prejudice
"Understanding Prejudice" - excellent site from Scott Plous and others that has grown rapidly in its short existence - lots of good resources and links to prejudice-related topics [added 7/23/03]
Another method for identifying implicit biases/stereotypes? - "Instead of scanning their brains, they tracked their hand movements. They flashed the photographs on a screen, and instructed the volunteers to move a mouse rapidly toward one of two adjectives—for example, “aggressive” and “caring”—in opposite corners of the screen. The psychologists tracked the computer mouse movements to see how quickly and directly they categorized each face by stereotypical traits. The idea here is that the hands have a mind of their own, in the sense that movements reflect the mind’s hesitation and conflict. The results were fascinating. An instantaneous stereotype would be a straight line from the starting point to one of the two adjectives—male, therefore aggressive, no hesitation. Nobody did that. Instead the movements appear as curves, suggesting some hesitation and deliberation in each judgment." [added 1/18/10]Measuring racial discrimination - This entire book is freely available online. [added 7/06/07]
Racial profiling by police in New York City - article about a report documenting unjustified stops by police that disproportionately targeted minorities [added 12/19/10]
Arizona's new immigration law - This article is from the Teaching Tolerance site which says that "Arizona legalizes racial profiling." Here is a story about a disturbing event that occurred a few days before the law was passed. [added 7/14/10]
Whom should we screen at airports? - "The U.S. government is refining its terror-screening policy to focus on specific terror threats and not travelers' nationalities. The new policy replaces a security requirement put in place after the attempted bombing of a jetliner en route to Detroit on Christmas Day that singled out people from 14 countries that have been home to terrorists." Which is better? [added 7/14/10]Detecting racial bias in police stops - This article describes a statistical technique for identifying potentially problematic police officers for racial profiling. [added 1/18/10]
Analysis of racial profiling in NYPD - [added 12/16/07]
Racial profiling report - A recent study from the U.S. Justice Department found "Black, Hispanic and white drivers are equally likely to be pulled over by police, but blacks and Hispanics are much more likely to be searched and arrested." [added 7/16/07]
Racial profiling - "In a paper called 'Racial Profiling,' published in 'Philosophy and Public Affairs' in 2004, Richard Zeckhauser and I offer some reflections on moral issues pertaining to the use of race in police tactics. This paper has attracted a considerable amount of criticism. The present paper has been prepared for a conference session on racial profiling and responds to two published papers critical of our arguments. The goal of this paper is to defend the central arguments in the earlier Risse and Zeckhauser paper." [added 12/31/06]
Informal racial profiling? - story of how passengers in the UK refused to board a plane until two Asian men possibly speaking Arabic were removed from the plane [added 12/26/06]
Increasing calls for racial profiling? - It seems since the apparent plot to blow up planes flying from the UK to the U.S. there has been an even greater call for racial profiling of those who appear to be Muslims or Arabs. Here are a few examples. I liked an analogy I recently read somewhere. Virtually all of the mass school shooters (e.g., Columbine) we have heard about in the last few years have been white males. So, should we screen all white males as they enter school every day in the U.S.? Should we require that they enter school through a separate door? I assume most people would consider this absurd because the shooters represent such a tiny fraction of all the white males attending school. But aren't the number of Muslims/Arabs who commit terrorist acts on airplanes a similarly tiny fraction of all Muslims/Arabs? Does this analogy work? [added 12/26/06]
"Racially biased policing: A principled response" - a (2005) report from the Police Executive Research Forum [added 1/14/06]
Racial profiling data collection - The Institute on Race and Justice at Northeastern University has created an informative site on racial profiling. Contents include reports on efforts to collect racial profiling data, reports on current events related to racial profiling, reports on initiatives aimed at reducing racial profiling, reports on related legislation and case law and more. [added 7/23/03]
"Arrest the Racism: Racial Profiling in America" - articles and resources on racial profiling from the ACLU [added 11/7/02]
10 myths about immigration - [added 6/5/11]
Immigrant women in the food industry - a report from the Southern Poverty Law Center [added 12/19/10]
Arizona's new immigration law - This article is from the Teaching Tolerance site which says that "Arizona legalizes racial profiling." Here is a story about a disturbing event that occurred a few days before the law was passed. [added 7/14/10]
Hate crimes report - Report from the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund details how an increase in hate crimes against immigrants is linked to the tone of the political debate. [added 7/11/09]
"Utah County GOP delegate links illegal immigration to Satan" [added 7/14/07]
Immigration debate in the classroom - more resources for teachers on this issue [added 7/6/06]Characteristics of "unauthorized migrant population in the U.S." - a report from the Pew Hispanic Center [added 7/6/06]
"Legal immigrants strongly oppose ... immigration proposals" - a recent poll from the Center for American Progress [added 7/6/06]Immigration Caricatures - images from the exhibit "Immigration and Caricature: Ethnic Images from the Appel Collection" [added 11/7/02]
Racist babies? - "New research indicates that by the time they are 9 months old, babies are better able to recognize faces and emotional expressions of people who belong to the group they interact with most, than they are those of people who belong to another race." [added 7/1/12]
"Illegal racial discrimnation in jury selection" - a 2010 report from the Equal Justice Initiative [added 7/1/12]"Race: Are we so different?" - An excellent new resource from the American Anthropological Association: "Looking through the eyes of history, science and lived experience, the RACE Project explains differences among people and reveals the reality – and unreality – of race. The story of race is complex and may challenge how we think about race and human variation, about the differences and similarities among people." So far, the site contains papers, an extensive bibliography, a few instructional materials, and more. [added 7/1/12]
Minority students receive harsher punishments in schools - report from U.S. Department of Education [added 7/1/12]
Robot prejudice - "Shown identical pictures of the robot, half the students were told the machine was called Armin (a typical German first name) and that it had been developed in Germany. The other students were told the robot was called Arman (a typical Turkish name; Turks are the largest minority group in Germany) and that it had been developed at a Turkish university. The students evaluating the supposedly German-built robot Armin, rated it as warmer, of superior design, as having more of a mind, said they felt psychologically closer to it, and expressed more of a willingness to live with it, as compared with the students who evaluated the supposedly Turkish-built Arman. So not only did the German students show a basic preferential bias toward the robot that had a German name and provenance, they also saw it as more human." [added 7/1/12]"Can you immunize yourself against prejudice?" - Blog entry about new research in which participants who were primed to be immunized against disease in some way were less likely to be racist. [added 1/29/12]
Why it's never about race - Sam Sommers follows up on an earlier blog entry on this topic by addressing the recent execution of Troy Davis in Georgia, USA. [added 1/29/12]
"Erasing Hate" - "For years, Bryon Widner thrived on hate as a violent skinhead – a razor-carrying "enforcer" who helped organize other racist gangs around the country. His hate was literally etched on his face in the form of tattoos with racist and violent themes. But with the help of the Southern Poverty Law Center – the nation's leading monitor of hate and extremist activity – Widner left the white power movement and endured nearly two years of excruciating laser treatments to remove the tell-tale tattoos so that he could start a new life with his wife and children. On Sunday night, his story will be told in "Erasing Hate," which airs at 9 p.m. EDT on MSNBC. The one-hour documentary recounts Widner's life within the white power movement, the decision that led him and his wife to leave it, and the procedures he received."
"Crime and community investments in racially distinct neighborhoods" - "In a recent study, 'Differential Benefits? Crime and Community Investments in Racially Distinct Neighborhoods,' Darlene Saporu, Charles Patton, Lauren Krivo and Ruth Peterson use data from the National Neighborhood Crime Study to investigate how residential loans vary in their influence on violent and property crime across racially and ethnically distinct communities in over 8,000 neighborhoods across 87 U.S. cities. The authors find that non-white and more disadvantaged neighborhoods experience more reductions in crime per investment dollars accrued than white and more advantaged areas." [added 8/20/11]
Beliefs in genetic human similarity affect likelihood of categorization - Researchers conducted some clever studies illustrating how one's belief in how genetically similar humans are is related to one's likelihood of categorization. Additionally, they asked the question, "If belief in genetic variation is correlated with people's tendency to categorise faces according to race, then what if people are educated about human genetic variation - might that change their proclivity for prejudice?" A subsequent study found just that -- an interesting possible route to reduce prejudice. [added 8/20/11]
"Why it's never about race" - Sam Sommers describes examples in which we often claim that although racism exists that is not what is happening in this case. [added 8/20/11]
Racial micro aggressions - "Some racism is so subtle that neither victim nor perpetrator may entirely understand what is going on—which may be especially toxic for people of color." [added 8/20/11]Are Whites racially oppressed? - [added 6/5/11]
Do NBA refs exhibit own race bias? - very interesting story about a study of NBA referees, how the NBA responded, and how the story and research evolved -- H/T to Harry Wallace [added 12/21/10]
Multiculturalism in Australia - a report on the controversy and policy around multiculturalism in Australia [added 12/19/10]
"Big racial gap in suspensions of middle school students" - a report from the Southern Poverty Law Center [added 10/23/10]
Stereotypes and peremptory challenges - "Rather than denying the existence of stereotyping or asking people to continually suppress a basic human instinct, there is a better way to help reduce demographic profiling in forbidden areas. The simple answer is to increase the time for voir dire and utilize jury questionnaires." [added 10/23/10]
"Victim race still central to death penalty" - "The odds of getting a death sentence for killing a white person is about three times higher than for killing an African American with the race of the defendant virtually irrelevant, according to a new study out of North Carolina that echoes earlier findings on capital punishment." [added 10/23/10]
Race salience and juries - This blog entry briefly describes some research from Sam Sommers and points to an article of his in which he points to some misconceptions in our understanding of race bias and juries. [added 10/23/10]"The political incorrectness of political correctness" - This interesting essay by Sam Sommers could prompt some good debate in your classroom. [added 7/14/10]
Differences in empathy or us-vs-them mentality - interesting essay on how broadly we extend our empathy to "others" - here's another on the same topic [added 3/7/10]
In UK, call to ban race and gender info in CVs - [added 2/7/10]
Basketball league for Whites only - [added 2/7/10]
Ease of processing affects prejudice? - "The researchers said their finding showed prejudice against migrants can partly be explained by the cognitive awkwardness of thinking about a person who lives in one place but hails from another." [added 2/7/10]
"Census figures challenge views of race and ethnicity" - [added 2/7/10]Nonverbal communication of race bias on TV - This study finds that "Subtle patterns of nonverbal behavior that appear on popular television programs influence racial bias among viewers....Black characters elicit especially negative nonverbal responses, such as facial expressions and body language, from other characters, and viewers exhibit more racial bias after exposure to such negative responses, according to the Science paper." [added 1/18/10]
A race-themed political cartoon - an interesting analysis of a race-themed political cartoon and how it can be used as a teaching tool [added 1/18/10]
Racial bias in Britain's workplaces - "A government sting operation targeting hundreds of employers across Britain has uncovered widespread racial discrimination against workers with African and Asian names." [added 1/18/10]
Judge refuses to issue marriage license to interracial couple - Why? "He came to the conclusion that most of black society does not readily accept offspring of such relationships, and neither does white society, he said." [added 1/18/10]Stereotypes and chefs - Do you watch the TV show Top Chef? Do you ever see any Black chefs, judges, etc.? Asian? [added 7/11/09]
"What is White Trash?" - [added 7/11/09]
Are all missing females white and attractive? - It might seem that way if you follow media accounts. Sam Sommers addresses this and related questions in his blog. Here is some similar analysis. [added 7/11/09]
"Obama is nudging views on race, a survey finds" - [added 7/11/09]
Racial microaggressions - The article describes what is meant by a microaggression. Here is a blog entry responding to the article. Here is a blog entry responding to the first blog entry. Interesting observations. [4/1/09]
Does inducing empathy towards minority groups reduce prejudice? - As usual, it depends. If the participant anticipates then interacting with a minority group member his dislike actually increases. If he anticipates interacting with an ingroup member then prejudice is reduced. [4/1/09]
Slight hesitations in intergroup conversation may heighten racial tension - description of an interesting study [4/1/09]
"Race bigotry falling in Britain" - [4/1/09]
A person of color on The Bachelor (TV show)? - Interesting blog entry about how no person of color is ever a "person in power" on the TV shows The Bachelor and The Bachelorette. [4/1/09]
Is Tony Blair more American than Barack Obama? - Interesting research study presented at the 2008 SPSP conference -- here is a New York Times article about it [3/30/09]
"After Obama victory, an outbreak of racial anger" - Here is another story about it. [3/30/09]
"The enduring challenge of concentrated poverty in America" - a report from the Brookings Institution [3/30/09]
Race in America series from Chicago Tribune - [3/30/09]
Colorblindness - Another good blog from Sam Sommers -- I can't tell you how many games of Guess Who? I played with my kids many years ago. [3/29/09]
A giant Confederate flag - The Sons of the Confederate Veterans plan to build and fly a large Confederate flag the length of a semi-trailer truck in Hillsborough County, Florida. [6/20/08]
"The Nazi Olympics: Berlin 1936" - an exhibit from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum [6/20/08]Deconstructing Pat Buchanan - interesting blog entry [6/20/08]
"Enough with the unusual names" - a satirical piece of the unique names given to minority children that many thought was serious [6/20/08]
Institutional racism in the U.S. - a report from the American Civil Liberties Union -- "Race and ethnicity in America: Turning a blind eye to injustice" [added 3/23/08]
"Deprivation and social exclusion in Australia" - a report from the Social Policy Research Centre [added 12/16/07]
Racism as subjectification - "This is the problem of subjectification - when people who are conceded to possess subject status are nevertheless treated as if they have no objective worth." [added 12/16/07]"Hate crimes rose 8% in 2006" - Here is an article from Hatewatch which claims the number is seriously undercounted. [added 12/15/07]
"Race, ethnicity, and the criminal justice system" - "A new research brief released recently by the American Sociological Association, in its series on How Race and Ethnicity Matter, highlights data and research on racial and ethnic disparities in crime and the criminal justice system in the United States. Focusing on studies that span several decades, the brief demonstrates how research from the social and behavioral sciences serves as a resource to understand the relationship between race and the criminal justice system." Other reports in the series can be found at this site. [added 12/9/07]
"Metropolitan segregation" - This is an article published 50 years ago in Scientific American about "white flight." [added 11/17/07]
Minority enrollments at U.S. colleges and universities - a 2007 report from the American Council on Education [added 11/17/07]
"The persuasive appeal of stigma" - "Stigmatized minorities may have an advantage in persuading majority group members during some face-to-face interactions due to the greater self-presentational demands such interactions elicit. In contrast to models which predict greater persuasive impact of members of ingroups, White participants were more convinced by persuasive appeals delivered by a Black interaction partner than by a White interaction partner." [added 9/30/07]
"Healing Katrina's racial wounds" - a recent article from Time magazine [added 9/30/07]
Elvis a racist? A bigot? - interesting blog about Elvis' "legacy with respect to race" [added 9/30/07]
"Voices of Civil Rights" - This site shares the firsthand accounts of many involved in the fight for civil rights. [added 8/05/07]
"Understanding race" - "Looking through the eyes of history, science and lived experience, the RACE Project explains differences among people and reveals the reality – and unreality – of race. The story of race is complex and may challenge how we think about race and human variation, about the differences and similarities among people." A project of the American Anthropological Association [added 7/8/07]
Resurgence of the KKK in America - a report from the Anti-Defamation League [added 7/7/07]
School segregation - "Lost learning, forgotten promises" from the Center for American Progress examines the consequences of school segregation, the consequences of integration, and the current status of both. [added 7/06/07]
"And justice for some" - "And justice for some: Differential treatment of youth of color in the justice system" is a recent report from the National Council on Crime and Delinquency. [added 7/06/07]
Facts about U.S. ethnic groups - Brief reports from the U.S. Census Bureau provides facts and figures about different ethnic groups. [added 12/31/06]
"African American and Latino families face high rates of hardship" - a report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities -- three "hardships" are considered: Overcrowding, hunger or the risk of hunger, and lack of medical care. [added 12/31/06]
The Wonderlic test, stereotype threat and the law - "The Wonderlic is a twelve-minute, fifty-question exam designed to assess aptitude for learning a job and adapting to solve problems." It is given to many college football players prior to the National Football League draft. Sometimes it is viewed as an IQ test of prospective professional football players. This paper looks at whether stereotype threat is in play when players take the test, and it examines some of the legal implications of this process. [added 12/31/06]
"A brief history of race and the Supreme Court" - [added 12/31/06]
The European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia - "The primary task of the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) is to provide the Community and its Member States with objective, reliable and comparable information and data on racism, xenophobia, islamophobia and anti-Semitism at the European level in order to help the EU and its Member States to establish measures or formulate courses actions against racism and xenophobia." The site contains reports such as "The right to offend and the right not to be offended," a series of views on hate speech and the freedom of speech. [added 12/26/06]
Cross-race relationships - an article and annotated bibliography that addresses actual relationships across races and not just contact between them, from The Center for the Development of Peace and Well-being [added 1/15/06]
"Keeping extremists out..." - "Keeping extremists out: The history of ideological exclusion, and the need for its revival" is a recent essay from the Heartland Institute. [added 1/13/06]
"Young singers spread racist hate" - a story about 13-year old twins who reportedly "are white nationalists and use their talents to preach a message of hate" [added 1/11/06]
Segregation and cancer risk - "Separate and unequal: Residential segregation and estimated cancer risks associated with ambient air toxics in U.S. metropolitan areas" is a recent report from The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. [added 1/11/06]
Indigenous Peoples Literature - extensive resources about indigenous peoples worldwide [added 1/9/06]Ph.D. diversity issues - "A new Woodrow Wilson report shows that, despite decades-long national efforts and some gains in enrollments, African Americans and Hispanics are still significantly underrepresented among recipients of Ph.D.s in the United States." [added 1/2/06]
Ruling on segregation in prison - interesting story about the U.S. Supreme Court overturning California's policy of segregrating prisoners by race (2005) [added 6/17/05]
Days of Infamy: December 7 and 9/11 - comparison of two infamous days in American history -- hear the voices of people immediately following each event, and more [added 12/1/04]
School segregation and integration
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2004-04-14-integration_x.htm
This is an article reporting on a study in which "242 members of the Class of 1980 from six racially diverse high schools across the country" were interviewed to see how integration has affected their lives years later. [added 6/9/04]"'Race' and IQ" - an article by Bem Allen [added 4/5/04]
Facts on different U.S. minorities - well organized sets of links to factual info on a few minorities in the U.S. from the U.S. Census Bureau [added 3/30/04]
"Brown@50: Fulfilling the promise" - resources related to the Brown v. Board of Education decision as part of a commemoration of its upcoming 50th anniversary, from Howard University School of Law [added 3/23/04]
"Race: The Power of an Illusion" - This is the companion website to PBS' recent TV series of the same name. It includes background readings on the origins and roles of race, a discussion guide, classroom activities (check out "For Teachers"), and other resources. [added 7/23/03]
"A Class Divided" - Frontline (PBS) recently rebroadcast its 1985 episode of the famous story of Jane Elliott, the 3rd grade teacher in rural Iowa, who in the late '60's began an exercise in her class in which she separated her white students into blue-eyed and brown-eyed kids to teach them lessons of discrimination. The entire episode can now be viewed online at this address. It begins with the fascinating original footage in Elliott's 3rd grade classroom and includes follow-up experiences since that time. The episode is broken into five segments online. I love when such material is made available online because I can pick certain clips to show in class or I can send students to view them outside of class. Nothing to put on reserve! [added 7/16/03]
"Changing America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-being by Race and Hispanic Origin" - "This chart book documents current differences in well-being by race and Hispanic origin and describes how such differences have evolved over the past several decades. The book is designed to further one of the goals of the President's Initiative on Race: To educate Americans about the facts surrounding the issue of race in America." [added 7/16/03]
Whiteness Studies - some interesting articles and resources related to Whiteness Studies. "Whiteness Studies attempts to trace the economic and political history behind the invention of "whiteness," to attack the privileges given to so-called "whites," and to analyze the cultural practices (in art, music, literature, and popular media) that create and perpetuate notions of 'whiteness.'" [added 11/7/02]
"Why do white people smell like wet dogs when they come out of the rain?"
- Y? is a very unique site designed to allow people to ask and answer questions regarding cultural and ethnic differences. [added 11/7/02]Segregation in U.S. Cities - Census Scope provides "charts, data, and rankings on segregation in cities and metropolitan areas" from the most recent U.S. census [added 8/30/02]
"Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care" - an online, book-length report (2002) from the Institute of Medicine [added 6/6/02]
Find Hidden Bias - the Southern Poverty Law Center has put together an extensive website (Tolerance.org) that includes this series of Implicit Association Tests revealing possible biases towards Arab Muslims, Asian Americans, body image and more - explore the entire site; a lot of interesting examples and material
The Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies - claims to be "the nation's only museum, library, and archive dedicated to collecting and interpreting materials reflecting our nation's multicultural heritage"
"History of Race in Science" - variety of resources related to topic - sponsored by Program in Science, Technology & Society at M.I.T.
Mortgage Lending Discrimination - from the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development
If you don't like Blacks, you don't like Obama's dog - Blog entry describes some interesting research that teased out racial animosity towards Barack Obama and how it affected attitudes towards other issues, including the President's dog. [added 7/1/12]
"Interracial poster sparks controversy in South Africa" - "The political ad created by the student wing of the Democratic Alliance party, shows a white man and a black woman embracing with the tagline 'In OUR future, you wouldn't look twice.'" [added 7/1/12]
The shooting of Trayvon Martin - How big is the Trayvon Martin story? It's got its own Wikipedia page. [added 6/29/12]
Affirmative action bake sale - "A Facebook post announcing plans by a UC Berkeley Republican group to sell baked goods priced according to race, gender and ethnicity - 'White/Caucasian' pastries for $2 and 'Black/African American' pastries for 75 cents, for example - has drawn outrage on campus....The campus Republicans, who expect to go forward with their 'Increase Diversity Bake Sale' on Tuesday, say the event is meant to mock an effort by the student government to drum up support for SB185, a bill to let the University of California and the California State University consider ethnicity in student admissions." [added 1/29/12]
Man should be given death penalty because Blacks are more dangerous - blog entry about a recent Texas death penalty case and the role of psychologists in the sentencing [added 1/29/12]
How much anti-White bias is there? - As part of a New York Times "Room for Debate" segment, Sam Sommers join several others in commenting on Sam and colleagues' recent research. As Sam notes, "Our recent research reveals that white and black Americans agree that bias against blacks was prevalent in the 1950’s and 1960’s. But while blacks see such racism as continuing, whites tend to see it as a problem that has been more or less “solved.” If anything, many whites now believe that it’s anti-white bias that’s on an upswing, to the point where it’s even more prevalent than anti-black bias — a sentiment not shared by blacks." These different viewpoints could provide a good starter for class discussion or a particular assignment. [added 8/20/11]
Rochester Black Freedom Struggle Online Project - a collection of oral histories, papers, and other exhibits primarily addressing the 1960's and 1970's in Rochester, NY [added 6/5/11]
Many more Blacks jailed (proportionately) in England and Wales than U.S. - That's a staggering thought. [added 12/19/10]
First Black elected to office in Russia - [added 10/23/10]
Variation of black/white doll test - CNN conducted a study on children from kindergarten through fourth grade examining their perceptions of lighter-skinned and darker-skinned children. "In the study, white children had an overwhelming bias toward white, and black children also had a bias toward white, but it was not nearly as strong as the bias shown by the white children." Find links to the actual study results and to video stories about it. [added 7/14/10]
Colorism and light-skinned Blacks - [added 3/7/10]
Ethnic cleansing in America? - "From the 1860s to the 1920s, towns across the U.S. violently expelled African American residents. Today, these communities remain virtually all white." [added 2/6/10]
Using the N-word and hate crimes - Very interesting article about the question of whether a white using the N-word toward a black is automatically the sign of racial animus. It begins with a very interesting court case on this subject. [added 1/18/10]
Chris Rock's new documentary "Good Hair" - This looks to be a fascinating take on Black women and their pursuit of straight hair. This essay provides some good insights about it. [added 1/18/10]
First Black Disney princess - Read about this story and others in the THIS WEEK IN RACE blog [added 7/11/09]
Racial disparities in emergency room length of stay - "Sick or injured African-American patients wait about an hour longer than patients of other races before being transferred to an inpatient hospital bed following emergency room visits, according to a new national study published in the journal Academic Emergency Medicine." [4/1/09]
"Barack wouldn't be president if he didn't marry a black woman" - And a couple other "things you're not allowed to say about the Obamas" - is it true? [4/1/09]
"The code of the street and African-American adolescent violence" - a report from the U.S. Department of Justice [4/1/09]
A fascinating case of possible juror bias - Sam Sommers, in his always interesting blog, Science of Small Talk, relates a fascinating tale: "In November of 2006, a Cape Cod jury returned a guilty verdict in the murder trial of Christopher McCowen. This was supposed to be the final chapter in a murder drama that had captured attention regionally and nationally. But within days of the verdict, three different jurors came forward with concerns about the jury's verdict as well as the process by which it was reached. These concerns would serve as the impetus for an extraordinarily rare legal hearing in which the jurors from the case were called back to the courthouse more than one year after the verdict. One-by-one, they would take the stand and answer questions about what had transpired in the jury room. Specifically, the hearing examined whether particular jurors had made racially biased statements during deliberations, and, if they had, whether such statements had influenced the trial's outcome."
At the end of the above blog entry click on "To be continued" to .... continue. Currently, there are three installments. A fourth and final one is promised. As you will read, Sam also appeared in court in this case as an expert witness. I love the first question he was asked as he describes it: "First question from Mr. O'Keefe during my cross-examination: "Doctor, do you mind if I ask you how old you are?" My reply: "Sure, as long as I can ask you the same question in return." That relates to my first question for Sam: Did you wear the glasses in court (as opposed to going sans glasses in your blog photo) to appear younger, more authoritative, or both?
Lots of possible uses for this well-told story in your course. [4/1/09]Does living in a more "prejudiced" area correspond to a Black's wages? - Interesting study that attempted to see if a correlation existed between the amount of prejudice in a region and the wage gap between Blacks and Whites [4/1/09]
"Black Americans in Congress" - More historical in nature, but you might find it interesting or useful [4/1/09]The Obama effect - Fascinating research: Blacks performed significantly worse on a test of 20 GRE questions prior to Obama's election. Blacks performed equally well on the test after the inauguration. Elimination of stereotype threat? The first link is to a New York Times article about the study. [4/1/09]
What does it mean to be "Black" today? - [4/1/09]
Civil Rights Digital Library - This site from the University of Georgia Libraries provides a lot of articles, images, and videos from the civil rights era of the 1950s and 1960s. [3/29/09]
The Bubba effect - What percent of Americans will vote against Barack Obama just because of his race? 2%? 6%? Here are two interesting takes on that question. The first is a blog that also addresses some other interesting topics. [3/29/09]
Too black or not black enough? - interesting blog entry about Obama's speech on race and related thoughts [added 4/25/08]
Kenya being redrawn by ethnicity - "Kenya used to be considered one of the most promising countries in Africa. Now it is in the throes of ethnically segregating itself. Ever since a deeply flawed election in December kicked off a wave of ethnic and political violence, hundreds of thousands of people have been violently driven from their homes and many are now resettling in ethnically homogenous zones. Luos have gone back to Luo land, Kikuyus to Kikuyu land, Kambas to Kamba land and Kisiis to Kisii land. Even some of the packed slums in the capital, Nairobi, have split along ethnic lines." [added 4/14/08]
Many U.S. Whites associate Blacks with apes - A series of studies found "Americans subconsciously associate blacks with apes." [added 4/14/08]
Watson's racist comments - Nobel Laureate James Watson apparently made some comments suggesting that those of African descent are less intellectually endowed. For example, "In the newspaper interview, he said there was no reason to think that races which had grown up in separate geographical locations should have evolved identically. He went on to say that although he hoped everyone was equal, 'people who have to deal with black employees find this not true.'" [added 12/9/07]
Observing discrimination taxing on the mind - Interesting study in which black and white participants observed a company's hiring decisions. When blacks observed subtle racism in the hiring process it later impaired their performance on a Stroop test, and more so than the observance of more blatant racism. Whites on the other hand were more impaired after observing the blatant racism. [added 12/9/07]
Jena 6 - I assume those of you in the U.S. have heard of the case of the Jena 6, the six black students in Jena, Louisiana accused of beating a white student. The first link takes you to a good, detailed overview of the incident and the subsequent controversy. If you want to show a brief news clip about such an event, you can search the video sections of news sites such as ABC or CNN. This link takes you to a number of Jena 6 video clips from such a search at ABC News. This link is to one of the many accompanying stories in which two nooses were found hanging from the back of a pickup truck. [added 11/17/07]
Prices paid for paintings by Whites and Black - Discrimination and inequalities can show up in all kinds of places. [added 7/14/07]
"Reducing the racial achievement gap: A social-psychological intervention" - This is a fascinating study from Cohen et al. in which a racial performance gap was significantly reduced through a 15-minute intervention at the beginning of a course. [added 7/6/07]
"I can instantly tell whether...blackdar" - an amusing article from the satirical online newspaper The Onion [added 12/31/06]
The effects of Brown vs. Board of Education - a research report from The Federal Reserve Board that "finds that dismissal of a court-ordered desegregation plan results in a gradual, moderate increase in racial segregation and an increase in black dropout rates and black private school attendance" [added 2/22/06]
Brazil's first black television channel - story (2005) from The Guardian [added 1/14/06]
"Looting" vs. "Finding" - By now, many of you, particularly in the U.S., have probably seen the photos and heard the debate about captions of "looting" applied to images of blacks in the Katrina aftermath and captions of "finding" or other less criminal description applied to whites. The first link above provides two sets of such images that have circulated quite widely. Includes some good possible rationale for the captions, including the rationale provided by the photographers. [added 1/9/06]"An empirical analysis of 'acting white'" - Research report by Roland G. Fryer, Jr. and Paul Torelli [added 1/2/06]
"Names, expectations and the Black-White test score gap" - Fascinating study comparing teacher expectations towards siblings whose names varied in the degree to which they were associated with low-socioeconomic status which was usually associated with race. For example, low-socioeconomic names by the author's measure included ones that had certain prefixes (e.g., lo, da), certain suffixes (e.g., isha or ious), included apostrophes (e.g., Da'Quan or Chlo'e), and scored at least 20 points in Scrabble (i.e., were long names with a number of unusual letters, e.g., Jazzmyn). [added 9/20/05]
"Slavery and the Making of America" - I enjoyed this recent (2005) show on PBS. Resources related to it, including slave narratives, can be found at this site. [added 6/17/05]
Race and Place - This project presents the history of racial segregation laws (Jim Crow laws) in Charlottesville, Virginia. [added 12/1/04]
The Legacy of Blackface - "In a two-part report for The Tavis Smiley Show, producer Roy Hurst explores the roots of blackface minstrelry, and how the legacy of the act still haunts some forms of black popular entertainment today." Includes audio and images -- from NPR. [added 7/1/04]
The civil rights work of Bob Moses - an extensive lesson plan and resources built around this episode from Now with Bill Moyers [added 4/06/04]
"'I Will be Heard!': Abolitionism in America" - an historical site with lots of material from the Cornell University Library [added 11/11/03]
"The Least of My Brothers" - This freely available online short course on research ethics from the Poynter Center for the Study of Ethics and American Institutions at Indiana University-Bloomington describes the famous PHS Syphilis Study at Tuskegee. "From 1932 to 1972, 399 poor black sharecroppers in Macon County, Alabama were denied treatment for syphilis and deceived by physicians of the United States Public Health Service. As part of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, designed to document the natural history of the disease, these men were told that they were being treated for 'bad blood.' In fact, government officials went to extreme lengths to ensure that they received no therapy from any source. As reported by the New York Times on 26 July 1972, the Tuskegee Syphilis Study was revealed as 'the longest nontherapeutic experiment on human beings in medical history.'" [added 7/16/03]
"A House Divided" - "A Teaching Guide on the History of Civil Rights in Louisiana" from the Southern Institute for Education and Research at Tulane University
"When the Future was Past" - a discussion guide on the Plessey decision by the U. S. Supreme Court that legalized segregation in 1896 (from the Southern Institute for Education and Research at Tulane University)
Historic Places of the Civil Rights Movement - travel to 41 different historic sites to learn about the role of each in the movement
"South Koreans struggle with race" - [added 1/18/10]
Attractive girl mimed Olympics ceremony song - You may have heard about this -- the young girl who sang a song as part of the Olympics was not deemed attractive enough to be on display, so a more attractive girl replaced her on stage and mimed the song. [added 10/11/08]
Dispelling myths about Asian-Americans - A research brief from the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA -- "In sum, the freshman trends examined in this report help to address several myths about the Asian American college student population. Th e examined trends do not support popular claims that Asian Americans are enjoying unprecedented, collective (or universal) academic success in U.S. higher education." [added 12/9/07]
Attitudes between citizens of neighboring Asian countries - A survey from the Pew Research Center - "There is a good deal of dislike, if not outright hostility, in how the publics of major Asian countries view their neighbors. The deepest divides exist between traditional rivals - roughly seven-in-ten Japanese express an unfavorable view of China and an equal number of Chinese dislike Japan. Similarly, most Indians have an unfavorable view of Pakistan and most Pakistanis hold negative views about India." [added 12/30/06]
Asian Pacific Americans on prime-time TV - "This pioneer study, Asian Pacific Americans in Prime Time: Lights, Camera and Little Action, systematically investigates the portrayal of APIAs on prime time television. Because series’ regulars characters are the most desirable roles for television actors and the types of characters that audiences identify and connect with most, this study analyzes the regular characters for each series, drawing on the networks’ own promotional web pages as well as actual recorded episodes. In addition to comparisons of characters by race and gender, this study takes a unique approach by comparing roles portrayed by monoracial versus multiracial APIA actors. This sampling procedure captures a variety of characters (APIA, ethnically ambiguous, and white) and allows for a more open interpretation of racial/ethnic categories in terms of representations of the APIA community on prime time television." [added 9/20/05]
The Fred Korematsu Story (Japanese internment) - "Fred Korematsu was probably never more American than when he resisted, and then challenged in court, the forced internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. Korematsu lost his landmark Supreme Court case in 1944, but never his indignation and resolve. OF CIVIL WRONGS AND RIGHTS is the untold history of the 40-year legal fight to vindicate Korematsu — one that finally turned a civil injustice into a civil rights victory." This site accompanies a P.O.V. show that aired in 2001. [added 8/30/05]
"We the people: Asians in the United States" - report from the Census Bureau [added 3/20/05]
Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission - a considerable number of good resources here, general and Australian-specific, under topics such as racial discrimination and sex discrimination [added 7/16/03]
"The Chinese in California: 1850-1925" - another good historical site from The Library of Congress' American Memory Project [added 7/21/03]
"Becoming American: The Chinese Experience" - a website accompanying the program from a PBS Bill Moyers' special -- read personal stories and eyewitness accounts [added 7/21/03]
Judge blocks naming street for Cesar Chavez - [added 8/20/11]
The increasing proportion of Latinos in the U.S. - This is a study which finds that "Latino children now constitute a majority or near majority of first graders in nine of the nation's largest cities." Here is a report which finds "Hispanics become more prevalent on college campuses." [4/1/09]
Immigration issue - Here's a lot of background information, polling data, etc. on the topic of immigration from the Public Agenda. [added 7/6/06]
Characteristics of "unauthorized migrant population in the U.S." - a report from the Pew Hispanic Center [added 7/6/06]
"Legal immigrants strongly oppose ... immigration proposals" - a recent poll from the Center for American Progress [added 7/6/06]
"Does inequality matter to individual welfare?" - interesting economic analysis of the relationship between inequality and happiness in Latin America [added 6/17/05]
Pew Hispanic Center - The Center provides a large number of reports, surveys and links related to Hispanic life and impact in the U.S. [added 3/2/05]
Hispanic Fact Pack (2004) - excellent supplement to Advertising Age with lots of information and examples of advertising, marketing and media for the Hispanic market [added 12/1/04]
India's first transgender TV host - "Her forthcoming show, called 'Yours, Rose,' will be a venue to debate all kinds of socially taboo topics." [added 3/23/08]
Widows in India flock to city to die - Sad story of how, "ostracized by society, thousands of India's widows flock to the holy city of Vrindavan waiting to die." [added 9/30/07]
India's lower castes and jobs - article about affirmative action efforts for those often shunned in India's society [added 9/30/07]
The Sikh turban - "The purpose of this essay is to examine how the turban has transformed from a sacred piece of attire for Sikhs to a target for discriminatory conduct and an object of marginalization after 9/11." [added 7/7/07]
India's "Untouchables" - report (1999) from the Human Rights Watch - "Broken People: Caste Violence Against India’s 'Untouchables'”
NYPD shows recruits radical Islam video - I recently linked to FBI training that included anti-Islam/Muslim propaganda. Here is some from the NYPD: "A movie about radical Islam was shown to nearly 1,500 NYPD recruits for up to a year of their training, The New York Times reported Tuesday. Police chiefs originally said the film, called The Third Jihad and promoting an image of American Muslims as radicalized, had been mistakenly screened 'a couple of times.' But documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Law show it had been shown "on a continuous loop" for up to a year of training." [added 7/1/12]
Florida Family Association attacks Muslim TV show - Here is the website of the organization that is one of the primary instigators of the withdrawal of some advertisers from the TV show All-American Muslim. The site states, "The show profiles only Muslims that appear to be ordinary folks while excluding many Islamic believers whose agenda poses a clear and present danger to liberties and traditional values that the majority of Americans cherish." See The Daily Showtake on it here. [added 1/29/12]
Have American Muslims become more alienated and extreme? - They have not according to a new report from the Pew Research Center. Related to that, this link takes you to an article reporting on a New York Times/CBS poll that found that more than 75% of Americans believe "that Muslims, Arab Americans and immigrants from the Middle East get unfairly singled out in the United States." [added 1/29/12]
"The roots of the Islamophobia network in America" - a detailed report from the Center for American Progress on how Islamophobia has been funded and disseminated in America [added 1/29/12]
Juan Williams fired from NPR for remarks on Muslims - Probably just about everyone in this country is aware of the recent firing of Juan Williams from his NPR position for comments he made recently on the TV show The O'Reilly Factor. Not surprisingly, a lot of the press about his comments only provides certain snippets. It is always worthwhile to read or hear the entire conversation. So, the first link above is to a transcript of the entire segment. Are Williams' words bigoted? Here is an essay on the topic by Glenn Greenwald. [added 12/19/10]
Reducing Islamophobia - This interesting essay examines how homophobia has been reduced in the U.S. (despite stories below) and attempts to suggest how these processes might apply to reducing Islamophobia. [added 12/19/10]
Merkel: Multicultural society has failed - That is the German Chancellor claiming that attempts to build a multicultural society in Germany have not worked. [added 12/18/10]
French pass ban on facial veils - "The French Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed a bill banning the burqa-style Islamic veil on public streets and other places, a measure that affects less than 2,000 women but that has been widely seen as a symbolic defense of French values." Is this a defense of values or an attack on a group? Is this pro-women or anti-women? [added 10/23/10]
Expressions of Anti-Islam hate and pushbacks against it - [added 10/23/10]
"Can implicit religious bias affect jury verdicts?" - "Homaidan Al-Turki, a Saudi Arabian citizen pursuing his doctoral degree in Colorado, was on trial in Colorado for assaulting his housekeeper. As the jury was sworn in, one juror indicated he might believe a Muslim would more likely break the law under certain circumstances. Al-Turki's lawyer asked if he could probe further, but the judge said no. During the trial, the prosecutor showed the jury a mannequin dressed in 'Muslim women’s clothing.' Allusions were made to Osama bin Laden, Ramadan, and 9/11. The jury convicted and Al-Turki was sentenced to 28 years in prison." [added 10/23/10]
Anti-mosque protests across the U.S. - It's not just at ground zero. [added 10/23/10]
Objections to Muslim Americans building places of worship - [added 7/14/10]
"Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hate crime" - a case study in London [added 7/13/10]
Americans prejudiced towards Muslims, Jews - "A poll about Americans' views on Islam concludes that the strongest predictor of prejudice against Muslims is whether a person holds similar feelings about Jews." [added 2/7/10]
Banning the full facial veil in France - "A fractured panel of French legislators endorsed the idea of a ban on full facial veils in government offices, public hospitals and mass transit, while the Parliament remains deeply divided over the effectiveness and constitutionality of such a law." [added 2/7/10]Students sent home for wearing "Islam is of the devil" shirts - Read the story and watch some fascinating video of 10- and 15-year old students explaining why they wore the shirts to school. [added 1/18/10]
"Muslims in America" - interesting report from Contexts Magazine [3/30/09]
Rachel Ray a terrorist? - "Dunkin' Donuts yanks Rachel Ray ad" in which "the domestic diva wears a scarf that looks like a keffiyeh, a traditional headdress worn by Arab men." [6/20/08]
Muslim integration - a series of seven papers addressing issues related to Muslim integration in Europe and the U.S., from the Center for Strategic and International Studies [added 12/9/07]
"The headscarf as threat?" - interesting article in which the author compares "how American and German judges conceptualize the harm the headscarf poses to society" [added 9/30/07]
"Knuckle-dragging savages from the 10th century?" - Here's an interesting case for consideration: Don Imus' recent comments drew an enormous amount of media attention and cost him his job. But how many of you have even heard of the comments recently made Fox's John Gibson? Why does one get enormous attention and the other get ignored? Talk amongst yourselves. [added 7/14/07]
"Arab attitudes towards U.S. more negative" - from a new Zogby poll [added 12/31/06]
Six Muslim clerics removed from plane - You probably heard about this one. Lots of good social psych elements involved. In fact, do you remember in grade school when the teacher would write "Happy Thanksgiving" or something on the board and then give you 30 minutes to come up with as many words out of those letters as you could? Well, give your students this story later in the semester and ask them to see how many concepts they can apply. [added 12/31/06]
Muslim civil rights in the U.S. in 2005 - A report from the Council on Islamic-American Relations describes "incidents and experiences of anti-Muslim violence, discrimination and harassment in 2005." [added 12/31/06]
Sydney (Australia) riots
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Cronulla_race_riots
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3491299.stm
two examples of prejudice-related violence from Australia [added 7/5/06]Arabs in the United States - a recent report from the U.S. Census Bureau entitled "We the people of Arab ancestry in the United States" [added 6/20/05]
A Muslim response to 9/11 - "The following web page is produced through the cooperation of over 50 professors of Islamic Studies and Middle Eastern Studies from the US and Canada. These scholars are members of the Study of Islam section at the American Academy of Religion, the largest international organization responsible for the academic study of religion." Lots of articles, statements and images. [added 12/1/04]
Campus Watch - An interesting and provocative website has just been posted by the Middle East Forum. It will be monitoring faculty and academic institutions to see how they handle Middle Eastern and Islamic issues. It plans to do so because there is a problem. The "problem," according to this website is that "American scholars of the Middle East, to varying degrees, reject the views of most Americans and the enduring policies of the U.S. government about the Middle East over a dozen administrations." One cause of this "bias" is that "academics seem generally to dislike their own country and think even less of American allies abroad." "Dossiers" of problematic faculty and institutions are posted on the website to "address the root of the problem: the professorate." [added 11/7/02]
The "Guido" stereotype on the TV show "Jersey Shore" - [added 3/7/10]
Japanese-American internment - Another exhibit, "Exploring the Japanese American internment through film and the Internet," exploring... well, you can read. [added 7/7/07]
"Suffering Under a Great Injustice" - Here you will find a large collection of Ansel Adams' photographs of Japanese-American internment at Manzanar - perhaps you can incorporate some of these images into a lecture or send students to analyze them in some manner [added 6/6/02]
"Japanese Americans and the U.S. Constitution" - excellent multimedia-rich site that explores the period of Japanese internment with images, music, text and first-person accounts - produced by Smithsonian, it contains over 800 artifacts that can be browsed
Preventing genocide - The U.S. Memorial Holocaust Museum has put together a good set of resources on genocide including a description of countries that are at risk today. [added 7/13/10]
Americans prejudiced towards Muslims, Jews - "A poll about Americans' views on Islam concludes that the strongest predictor of prejudice against Muslims is whether a person holds similar feelings about Jews." Here is the survey itself. [added 2/7/10]
"Facebook under fire for allowing Holocaust deniers" - [added 7/11/09]
Holocaust denial - a pamphlet from the Jewish Virtual Library describing this propaganda movement [4/1/09]
"Resisting Nazi propaganda in Southern California 1933-1945" - an extensive collection of materials from the California State University, Northridge Library [4/1/09]
Fight anti-Semitism with Facebook - That is the suggestion Israeli President Shimon Peres gave at a youth conference. [added 4/14/08]
"The silent stereotype" - interesting blog about a Anti-Defamation League survey of American attitudes towards Jews in America and related topics, and its relationship to the courtroom [added 12/9/07]
"America and the Holocaust" - a website accompanying the film "America and the Holocaust" which contains a lot of resources including a complete transcript and links to many of the primary resources [added 9/30/07]
Violent neo-Nazi group - A report from the Anti-Defamation League: "Volksfront, a virulently racist and anti-Semitic group comprised mostly of neo-Nazi skinheads, is growing in prominence in the United States and internationally, with chapters in Canada, Spain, Australia Germany and Portugal." [added 7/16/07]
A story of Jewish refugees fleeing war-torn Europe - An exhibit, "Flight and rescue," from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum that tells the story of 2100 Jewish refugees who escaped with the help of a Dutch businessman and a Japanese diplomat. [added 7/06/07]
Kristallnacht exhibition - From the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, this online exhibition "Kristallnacht: The November 1938 pogroms" describes the destruction and intimidation from that "night of broken glass." [added 12/29/06]
"Letters from Sala: A young woman's life in Nazi labor camps" - This exhibition of text, letters and images telling the story of a young girl (she was 16 when it began) who survived five years in seven different camps comes from the New York Public Library. [added 12/26/06]
"Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State" - site accompanying the recent (2005) PBS show [added 6/17/05]
Holocaust and genocide - good set of resources/links put together by Linda Woolf [added 6/17/05]
"Report on global anti-Semitism" - from the U.S. Department of State [added 3/20/05]
60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz - lots of good material related to Auschwitz from BBC News [added 3/20/05]
350 years of Jewish life in America - an exhibition from the Library of Congress [added 12/1/04]
The Holocaust Martyrs'... [added 6/9/04]
"Telling Their Stories: Oral History of the Holocaust" - "Read, watch and listen to interviews of Holocaust survivors conducted by high school students." [added 11/11/03]
Holocaust denial - well-designed site that chronicles and analyzes the libel trial of David Irving, "a British Holocaust denier," against "American professor Deborah Lipstadt and her British publisher, Penguin Books" - interesting look into deniers' motives and thinking [added 7/21/03]
The Holocaust - lots of resources and links related to the Holocaust [added 11/7/02]
"Voices of the Holocaust" - a new project from The British Library that includes audio and written recordings from survivors who live in Great Britain [added 3/6/02]
Holocaust teaching guide - hundreds of images, videos and other resources
Holocaust links - extensive set of links to Holocaust memorials, museums and other resources
Schindler's List Teaching Guide - from the Southern Institute for Education and Research at Tulane University
"Deathly Silence: Everyday People in the Holocaust" - instructional materials from the Southern Institute for Education and Research at Tulane University
Native American mascots in schools and sports - Sam Sommers provides some good commentary on related recent events and research on the question of whether the use of Native American mascots is harmful or helpful. [added 7/1/12]
Native Americans' portrayal in the media - The Reading Red Report is a "content analysis of general-audience newspapers in circulation areas with high percentages of Native Americans." [4/1/09]
"Indian country diaries" - a website to accompany PBS films on contemporary life of Native Americans [added 11/17/07]
Famous Native American speech - This speech, delivered by Wampsutta in 1970, apparently sparked the convening of the National Day of Mourning. Read about both here. [added 12/31/06]
Native American Stereotypes in the Media - examples of how Native Americans are sometimes portrayed in the media [added 11/7/02]
Gender wage gap by occupation - a 2012 report on 2011 data from the Institute for Women's Policy Research [added 7/1/12]
Afghan school girls poisoned - "More than 120 schoolgirls and three teachers have been poisoned in the second attack in as many months blamed on conservative radicals in the country's north, Afghan police and education officials said on Wednesday. The attack occurred in Takhar province where police said that radicals opposed to education of women and girls had used an unidentified toxic powder to contaminate the air in classrooms. Scores of students were left unconscious." [added 6/29/12]
Afghan girls pay for elders' misdeeds - [added 6/29/12]
Legal barriers to economic inclusion for women - "Women, Business and the Law 2012: Removing Barriers to Economic Inclusion finds that while 36 economies reduced legal differences between men and women, 103 out of 141 economies studied still impose legal differences on the basis of gender in at least one of the report’s key indicators. The report also identifies 41 law and regulatory reforms enacted between June 2009 and March 2011 that could enhance women’s economic opportunities." [added 1/29/12]
Corrective rape - "A 24-year-old who was stabbed to death in South Africa is the victim of "corrective rape," gay rights activists said Thursday, a crime where men attack lesbians in an attempt to reverse their sexual orientation." [added 8/20/11]
"Iceland: The world's most feminist country" - I think it would be interesting to ask students or anyone what they think would make a country "female-friendly." Or male-friendly. [added 7/14/10]
"Rescuing girls from sex slavery" - a very compelling story from India [added 7/13/10]
"Turkish girl, 16, buried alive for talking to boys" - [added 3/7/10]
"The look of young Hollywood" - "This month Vanity Fair magazine released their Young Hollywood issue, featuring celebrities that they proclaim are the new wave in Hollywood. However, a quick glance at the cover reveals that their selections seem to be particularly homogenous: all of the picks are attractive, thin, white, and female." [added 3/7/10]
In UK, call to ban race and gender info in CVs - [added 2/7/10]
Pay inequality in the workplace - Recent research in the UK on disparities between men and women in terms of pay [added 1/18/10]
Why are there so few female chess champions? - This is a clever study and an excellent example of stereotype threat. "Forty-two male-female pairs, matched for ability, played two chess games via the Internet. When players were unaware of the sex of opponent (control condition), females played approximately as well as males. When the gender stereotype was activated (experimental condition), women showed a drastic performance drop, but only when they were aware that they were playing against a male opponent. When they (falsely) believed to be playing against a woman, they performed as well as their male opponents. In addition, our findings suggest that women show lower chess-specific self-esteem and a weaker promotion focus, which are predictive of poorer chess performance." [added 1/18/10]
Discrimination in coffee shops - an example of a field study -- it finds that women have to wait an average of 20 second longer than men for their orders [added 12/16/07]
"Korea's 'best mom' chosen as face of new currency" - Interesting story -- "South Korea's central bank on Monday chose the face of Korean motherhood as the first woman to be featured on its banknotes, but women's rights groups say the selection only reinforces sexist stereotypes." [added 12/15/07]
Widows in India flock to city to die - Sad story of how, "ostracized by society, thousands of India's widows flock to the holy city of Vrindavan waiting to die." [added 9/30/07]
Women earn less than men - Here's the report from the American Association of University Women that has recently made the news in the U.S. It finds that "just one year out of college, women working full time already earn less than their male colleagues, even when they work in the same field. Ten years after graduation, the pay gap widens." [added 7/14/07]
Violence against girls - A report from the 51st U.N. Commission on the Status of Women -- it includes separate reports on violence against schoolgirls, violence against child domestic workers, and violence against girls in conflict with the law. [added 7/7/07]
"Women lose ground in the new Iraq" - [added 12/30/06]
Sterotype threat -- women and math -This press release describes some interesting recent research. Here are some materials related to the research. [added 12/31/06]
"No job for a woman" - an exhibition and resources on "the effects of war on women's lives during the 20th and 21st centuries" -- from the Imperial War Museum [added 12/26/06]
"Visible invisibility: Women of color in law firms" - report from the American Bar Association Commission on Women in the Profession [added 12/26/06]Barriers to women's advancement in the workplace - From Catalyst, here is the executive summary of "Different cultures, similar perceptions: Stereotyping of Western European business leaders," and the full report. [added 7/6/06]
"Female pols suffer from 'face-ism'" - "Successful female politicians face a number of obstacles that don't burden their male peers. One of these, a new University of Michigan study shows, is "face-ism"—a tendency to emphasize women's bodies rather than their faces." Press release of recent research conducted at the Univ. of Michigan -- scroll down page to find a link to an Excel spreadsheet of the data [added 1/11/06]
"Economic benefits of marriage under federal and Connecticut law" - "This study focuses specifically on the economic costs under federal and Connecticut law borne by same-sex couples who are not able to legally marry, compared to their married opposite-sex counterparts. A focus on economic issues quantitatively illustrates how same-sex couples are discriminated against by not being allowed to access the benefits, protections, and responsibilities only granted through equal access to civil marriage." [added 6/20/05]
Discrimination against women - From the United Nations, "The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly, is often described as an international bill of rights for women. Consisting of a preamble and 30 articles, it defines what constitutes discrimination against women and sets up an agenda for national action to end such discrimination." [added 6/20/05]Female Genital Mutilation (FGM): NOCIRC - The link is to NOCIRC, an "educational non-profit organization committed to securing the birthright of male, female, and intersex children and babies to keep their sex organs intact." [added 3/30/04]
Repression of Women in Afghanistan - "'We want to live as humans:' Repression of women and girls in Western Afghanistan" is a recent report from the Human Rights Watch. [added 2/4/03]
Sexual Orientation-based Prejudice
"Federal anti-gay hate crimes law gets first test in Kentucky" - [added 7/1/12]
"APA files two briefs in support of same-sex couples" - [added 7/1/12]
"Is homophobia disappearing?" - "Sociologist Mark McCormack says it is -- in the U.K., at least -- and that it's revolutionizing male friendships." [added 7/1/12]Promulgating false information about gays - Among a few of Tennessee state senator Stacey Campfield's comments about gays: "Most people realize that AIDS came from the homosexual community — it was one guy screwing a monkey, if I recall correctly, and then having sex with men. It was an airline pilot, if I recall.” “My understanding is that it is virtually — not completely, but virtually — impossible to contract AIDS through heterosexual sex…very rarely [transmitted].” [added 7/1/12]
Greater acceptance by Americans of gays and lesbians - survey says [added 1/29/12]
"Born this way" - "A photo/essay project for gay adults (of all genders) to submit childhood pictures and stories (roughly ages 2 to 12), reflecting memories and early beginnings of their innate LGBTQ selves. Nurture allows what nature endows. And it's their nature, their truth!" Lots of good examples. [added 1/29/12]
"Employers less likely to interview openly gay candidates" - "For the study, Tilcsik sent two fictitious but realistic resumes to more than 1,700 entry-level, white collar job openings -- positions such as managers, business and financial analysts, sales representatives, customer service representatives, and administrative assistants. The two resumes were very similar in terms of the applicant's qualifications, but one resume for each opening mentioned that the applicant had been part of a gay organization in college. The results showed that applicants without the gay signal had an 11.5 percent chance of being called for an interview. However, gay applicants had only a 7.2 percent chance. That difference amounts to a 40 percent higher chance of the heterosexual applicant getting a call." [added 1/29/12]
First openly gay NBA executive - Apparently the first executive in any sport to come out [added 1/29/12]Elmhurst College first in U.S. to ask prospective students if LGBT - The College is seeking diversity on campus. [added 1/29/12]
How many gays and lesbians are there? - This blog entry reviews a recent Gallup poll of Americans on this question. However, I would suggest there is an anchoring effect. The scale is skewed so much towards the higher responses that it is not surprising that participants apparently overestimated the number. [added 8/20/11]
U.S.: "Most say homosexuality should be accepted by society" - a report/survey from the Pew Research Center [added 8/20/11]
Can't discuss that some people are homosexuals - "A bill passed Friday by the Tennessee Senate would forbid public school teachers and students in grades kindergarten through eight from discussing the fact that some people are gay." [added 8/20/11
More prejudice when gay men reveal orientation early in interaction - When males (but not females) heard a male in an interview reveal that he is gay early in a set of questions rather than later in the set of questions the male participant "reported more frustration at having to meet the man, more negative expectations for how the meeting would go, and more negative prejudice towards gay people generally." The male participant did not express this prejudice if he had even a little time to get to know the person first. [added 8/20/11]
"Gay suicide risk in the U.S. by region" - [added 8/20/11]"First openly transgender man to play on a Division 1 basketball team" - [added 12/19/10]
School board member "wants gays dead" - An Arkansas school board member posts very offensive messages on his Facebook page. Here is a report describing reaction to his posts. Here is a video from Anderson Cooper's TV show in which he apparently gets the board member to resign. [added 12/19/10]
Gay teens attempt suicide because they know they are abnormal - so says Family Research Council President Tony Perkins [added 12/19/10]Follow-up: Lesbian students gets $35,000 settlement for canceled prom - [added 10/23/10]
"Mississippi prom canceled after lesbian date request" - The first link takes you to the initial story about the school district which called off its prom rather than allowing a girl to escort her same-sex date. Here is a story about the ruling by a judge that the teen's rights were violated, but that the prom was still canceled. [added 7/14/10]
Argentina gay marriage law - first Latin American country to approve same sex marriage [added 10/23/10]"Gay teen worried he might be Christian" - very amusing Onion article [added 2/7/10]
"Mexico City enacts first gay marriage law" - Mexico City "hopes to attract same-sex couples from around the world to wed" ... but... [added 2/7/10]
"Married Malawian gay couple face test" - ...not so much in Malawi. [added 2/7/10]
"Italy 'to open first prison for transgender inmates'" - [added 2/7/10]
Formal religion's response to same-sex unions/marriages and "reparative therapy" - A good essay from David Myers [added 1/19/10]
Africa and homosexuality - Is Africa being "plunged" into a "new era of hate crimes," and is the Christian right playing a role in that? This article focuses on Uganda's anti-homosexuality bill and similar activity in other African countries. [added 1/18/10]
The first gay marriage in Latin America - "Two Argentinians will this week become the first gay couple in Latin America to get married, following a three-year campaign that pitted politician against politician, overturned laws and angered millions of Catholics." [added 1/18/10]
In UK, heterosexual couple denied civil union - The couple applied in London for a civil union, but was turned down "because UK law bans opposite-sex civil partnerships." [added 1/18/10]
"Majority of workers still hide sexual orientation, gender identity at work" - report from the Human Rights Campaign [added 1/18/10]
"Psychologists repudiate gay-to-straight therapy" - [added 1/18/10]
Reducing homophobia through the "Alien-Nation" - This fascinating study uses a clever simulation in which half the participants "formed groups of four to five members and imagined landing on an alien planet that's populated by aliens who look exactly like humans, but who don't allow any public displays of affection, and live in same-sex housing and reproduce by artificial insemination.... A re-test of the participants' attitudes towards homosexuality showed that those in the Alien-Nation group were more able to take the perspective of homosexuals, than were the control participants, and this in turn was associated with more empathy towards people who are homosexual, a greater tendency to think of homosexuals and heterosexuals as all belonging to the same category (being human) and ultimately to more positive attitudes towards people who are homosexual. The Alien condition participants' attitudes also remained more positive compared with controls at one week follow-up." [added 1/18/10]
It has been fascinating to watch how rapidly, in some sense, the acceptance of gays and lesbians has grown worldwide, and at times from unexpected quarters. For example,
Lutherans allow gay and lesbian clergy - [added 1/18/10]
"Episcopal church moves to accept more gays and lesbians" - [added 1/18/10]
"Quakers 'to allow gay marriages'" - [added 1/18/10]
"Australia votes to recognise same-sex unions" - [added 1/18/10]
"India decriminalizes gay sex" - [added 1/18/10]
"Albania to 'approve gay marriage'" - Yes, Albania! "Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha has announced his party will propose a law legalising same-sex marriage. It is an unexpected move in a country that is still one of the most conservative in Europe and where homosexuality was illegal until 1995." [added 1/18/10]
On the other hand, there is still a great deal of prejudice. For example
New law makes homosexual behavior illegal - [added 1/18/10]
Two gay men kicked out of restaurant for kissing - [added 1/18/10]
Sex reassignment cases - The first transgender example: "Through reconstructive surgeries, electrolysis, laser procedures and voice lessons, Henry Joseph became Jennifer Elizabeth, known as Jenny. She is a practicing family physician in Nashua, New Hampshire." This link takes you to the story of Chastity Bono, daughter of Cher and Sonny Bono, who now goes by Chaz. [added 7/11/09]
Does exposing children to homosexuals put them in harm's way? - One judge said so. But that ruling was overturned by the Georgia State Supreme Court. "The Fayette County judge's prohibition 'assumes, without evidentiary support, that the children will suffer harm from any such contact,' Benham wrote. But there is no evidence that any member of the gay and lesbian community has engaged in inappropriate conduct in the presence of the children or that the children would be adversely affected by being exposed to members of that community, he said." [added 7/11/09]
"Simply knowing gay people helps, but isn't enough" - interesting blog entry from Beyond Homophobia [added 7/11/09]
The threat of gay marriage - View the anti-gay ad "The Gathering Storm" and read some analysis of it. [added 7/11/09]
"That's so gay" in the UK - story about how the phrase is used in the UK [added 7/11/09]Iraqi gay men face "lives of hell" - [added 7/11/09]
"Raped and killed for being a lesbian" - in South Africa [4/1/09]
Football (soccer) stars "to tackle homophobia with video" - If anyone in the UK ever sees this video I would love to hear about it. Or, if it ever appears online could you pass along the link? Thanks. [4/1/09]
Ban freshmen from sidewalks - amusing take on Proposition 8 (in California) at Princeton [4/1/09]
"U.S. balks at decriminalizing homosexuality" - "Alone among major Western nations, the United States has refused to sign a declaration presented Thursday at the United Nations calling for worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality. In all, 66 of the U.N.'s 192 member countries signed the nonbinding declaration - which backers called a historic step to push the General Assembly to deal more forthrightly with any-gay discrimination. More than 70 U.N. members outlaw homosexuality, and in several of them homosexual acts can be punished by execution." [4/1/09]
First openly transgender mayor in U.S. - [3/30/09]
The gay Bradley effect? - Follow a link above (under African) to some discussion of whether the (Black) Bradley effect would make an appearance in the 2008 U.S. presidential race. Here is some discussion of whether or not there was a gay Bradley effect in the California Proposition 8 vote. [3/30/09]
Australian govemment limits same-sex discrimination - [3/30/09]
APA to take lead on reducing discrimination against "gender-variant" - [added 10/11/08]
"Majority of voters could support openly gay presidential candidate" - [added 10/11/08]In 2008 news there has been some encouraging evidence around the world of some change in attitudes towards the LGBT community:
"Bahrain recognizes sex change" - "It took Zainab Rabie three years to become a man as the law would have it. After a long legal battle, the Arab island country of Bahrain finally recognized Rabie, 34, as a man. Rabie was born an intersexual, with anatomy that is characteristically both male and female." [added 8/18/08]
Thailand: School introduces toilets for transvestites - [added 8/18/08]
Norway grants marriage equality to same-sex couples - [added 8/18/08]
"Same-sex marriages performed in Greece" - "Defying governmental wrath, the mayor of a remote Greek island performed the country's first same-sex marriages on Tuesday, wedding two men and two women." [added 8/18/08]
California allows same-sex marriage - an interesting blog entry responding to the California decision [added 8/18/08]
The U.S. Supreme Court and same-sex sex - a good review of court cases related to the legality of private sexual behavior [added 8/18/08]
On the other hand, change is gradual:
U.K.: Heinz withdraws commercial with two men kissing - The first link is to an article about the story; here is the ad. [added 8/18/08]
U.K.: "One in five gay people suffer hate attacks" - a survey in the U.K. [added 8/18/08]
U.S.: The Lawrence King murder - [added 8/18/08]
Northern Ireland: Health chief calls homosexuality an illness - [added 8/18/08]
Paraguay: "Couple cleared of same-sex wedding charges" - "A couple jailed on suspicion of having a same-sex wedding were freed Monday after a doctor determined that the groom is a hermaphrodite." [added 8/18/08]
More research on the gay brain - [added 8/18/08]
"Mexico transgender couple ties the knot, pushes law" - [6/20/08]"That's so gay" in the UK - an interesting story about how the word "gay" is used by the young to insult others [added 4/25/08]
Gay and hetero couples equally committed - [added 4/14/08]
"Sexual orientation, disclosure, and earnings" - Why do "Gay/bisexual workers tend to earn less than other men?" [added 4/7/08]
India's first transgender TV host - "Her forthcoming show, called 'Yours, Rose,' will be a venue to debate all kinds of socially taboo topics." [added 3/23/08]
Banning transgender discrimination - Michigan governor "adds gender identity to a list of other prohibited grounds for discrimination that includes religion, race, color, national origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, height, weight, marital status, politics, disability or genetic information." [added 12/16/07]
"Film with same-sex parents splits school district" [added 11/17/07]
"Gay or straight? Watch his walk" - describes some interesting research I saw presented at SPSP 2007 [added 11/17/07]
"The science of gaydar" - Here's a very interesting article in The New Yorker describing some recent research identifying physical characteristics, such as the counterclockwise hair whorl and denser fingerprint ridges, that are more common in gay men than straight men. Here is a research article on the hair whorl. Here is an article looking at the genetic bases of homosexuality. [added 8/05/07]
"4/10 Americans have close friends or relatives who are gay" - survey from Pew Research Center -- "survey finds familiarity is closely linked to greater tolerance" [added 7/16/07]
"Living in the margins" - "Living in the margins: A national survey of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Asian and Pacific Islander Americans" is a report from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. [added 7/16/07]
Adoption/foster care by homosexual parents in U.S. - a report from the Urban Institute [added 7/14/07]
N.J. third state to offer civil unions [added 7/7/07]
Soy makes you gay! - Did you know?...Read all about it. [added 12/31/06]
"Military personnel are comfortable serving with gay colleagues" - A new poll suggests members of the U.S. armed forces are becoming more comfortable with even openly gay and lesbian colleagues. [added 12/31/06]
Banning of civil unions in Virginia - [added 12/31/06]"Area homosexual saves four from fire" - An amusing article from the satirical online newspaper The Onion [added 12/31/06]
"Homophobia at 'Hell House'" - "Homophobia at 'Hell House': Literally demonizing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth" from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute is a report that "estimates that this Halloween season, 1.6 million people, many of them children as young as 10 years old, will go to 'Hell Houses,' religious alternatives to traditional haunted houses that are designed to scare youth into a "sin-free life." Instead of spooking youth with ghosts and monsters, Hell House tour guides direct them through rooms where violent scenes of damnation for a variety of 'sins' are performed, including scenes where a teenage lesbian is brought to hell after committing suicide and a gay man dying of AIDS is taunted by a demon who screams that the man will be separated from God forever in hell." [added 12/31/06]
7/10 heterosexuals in U.S. know someone that is gay - a survey with some interesting results [added 12/31/06]
Male homosexuality tied to older brothers? - "A new study finds that homosexuality grows more likely with the greater number of biological older brothers-those sharing both father and mother-that a male has." [added 12/26/06]
Beyond Lisping - "The following article, written for a general audience, is about code switching, gay speech styles, and speech characteristics including lisping." [added 1/15/06]
Bullying - "From teasing to torment: New national report on school bullying" is a recent report from the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network. [added 1/13/06]
Same-sex marriage book - Very interesting story involving social psychologist David Myers' new book "What God has joined together? A Christian case for gay marriage," his college, Hope College, and a controversy at the school. Knowing Dave a little bit, I believe he brings the perfect character and temperament to step into such a minefield. I think his estimate of 10 years mentioned in the article is quite optimistic, but as one of the front people for making this argument he will definitely move the discussion forward in a productive manner. It will be interesting to follow the response to his book. [added 9/20/05]
"Gay men and lesbians in the U.S. military" - From the Urban Institute, this new report uses the 2000 census to attempt to estimate the number of homosexuals in the U.S. military and to identify other related information. [added 12/1/04]
Lesbian and gay history in America - This website accompanies the PBS program, "Out of the past: 400 years of lesbian and gay history in America" first aired in 2000. Includes a timeline and other resources. [added 7/1/04]
Gay rights - special report with a number of related stories from the UK [added 6/9/04]
"Answers to questions about sexual orientation and homosexuality" - The APA provides answers to a variety of questions. [added 3/30/04]
"Healthy Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Students Project" - Project from APA with the mission to "strengthen the capacity of the nation's schools to prevent the behavioral health risks of lesbian, gay, and bisexual students through knowledge development, dissemination, and application, working with and through national organizations of school stakeholders." [added 7/23/03]
"Gay Bears: The Hidden History of the Berkeley Campus" - a collection of information and images about the history of sexual minorities at the University of California, Berkeley [added 2/4/03]
"Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals 1933-1945" - a just-launched online exhibition from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum [added 12/06/02]
International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission - reports on discrimination and abuse worldwide - many such incidences are described here [added 8/28/02]
"Assault on Gay America" - PBS Frontline show on the life and death of Billy Jack Gaither
Disability/Disadvantaged-based Prejudice
Should a student's BMI appear on his/her report card? - a good question to throw out to your students [added 8/20/11]
Negative attitudes towards obesity spreading around the globe - "The researchers surveyed people in Mexico, Argentina, Paraguay, the U.S., and the U.K. Also included were American Samoa, Puerto Rico, and Tanzania -- cultures that have traditionally been thought of as fat-positive. People were asked if they agreed or disagreed with a series of statements about body size. Some statements were fat-negative ('Fat people are lazy'), others were fat-positive ('A big woman is a beautiful woman')." [added 8/20/11]
Are the unemployed being discriminated against? - [added 6/5/11]
Ouch! A disability website - "Ouch! is a website from the BBC that reflects the lives and experiences of disabled people. It has articles, blogs, a very busy messageboard and an award-winning downloadable radio show - The Ouch Podcast). It's aimed at those with a stakehold in disability: family, friends, professionals and, rather importantly, disabled people themselves - without whom all this would be a bit meaningless." [added 6/5/11]
20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act - The first link is to a lot of good resources from this government site on the Act and its history. Here and here are more stories and experiences about the Act. [added 10/23/10]
The killing of albinos in Africa - A very disturbing story of how many albinos in Africa are being killed for their body parts to be sold to witch doctors because of their supposed special powers -- and I feel strange writing the word "albinos" to describe this group -- should it be capitalized? Is that an acceptable term to describe the group? [added 1/18/10]
The stigma of obesity - [added 1/18/10]Military develops new program to fight stigma of seeking psychological help - "'You're tough, and you go into the hospital when you receive a physical wound,' said Dr. (Brig. Gen.) Loree K. Sutton, director, of the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury. 'That doesn't mean you're weak in some way. So why wouldn't you seek treatment when you've received a psychological wound?'" Here is a website created to provide resources and to promote the program. [added 7/11/09]
"Special-needs kids abused in schools" - [added 7/11/09]
Disability etiquette - "Tips on interacting with people with disabilities" from the United Spinal Association [3/30/09]
The stigma of mental illness - Article about a survey in Canada -- ""This year's report card shines a harsh, and frankly unflattering, light on the attitudes we Canadians have concerning mental health," said the group's president, Dr. Brian Day, in a release." [added 10/11/08]
Weight discrimination - "Weight discrimination, especially against women, is increasing in U.S. society and is almost as common as racial discrimination, two studies suggest." [6/20/08]
"Weight bias is as prevalent as racial discrimination" - [added 4/25/08]
Banning the feeding of the homeless - You heard me right. "The report details how local governments across the country are using a wide variety of ordinances, policies, and tactics to restrict groups that share food with poor and homeless people." [added 12/16/07]
Hiring obese applicants? - "Evidence of unequal treatment in hiring of obese applicants: A field experiment" is an interesting study conducted in Sweden. [added 7/16/07]
"Ghetto tax" - Study finds that those who live in low-income neighborhoods often pay considerably more for car insurance, groceries and more. [added 7/8/07]
"Ugly girl killed: Nation unshaken by not-so-tragic death" - An amusing article from the satirical online newspaper The Onion [added 12/30/06]
"Rich, poor, see poverty very differently" - a survey conducted by the Marguerite Casey Foundation of "attitudes of Americans, particularly low-income families' attitudes, before and after Hurricane Katrina." [added 1/11/06]
Discrimination against persons with disabilities - recent (2005) report from the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development [added 1/8/06]
"The disability rights and the independent living movement" - This library collection from the University of California Berkeley contains "primary sources exploring the social and political history of the disability movement from the 1960s to the present," including a large oral history component. [added 12/1/04]
Stereotype threat for the elderly - Sam Sommers summarizes some interesting, recent research that found that 70-year-olds only did worse than 20-year-olds on a memory test when they were told it was a memory test rather than a test of language processing and verbal ability. [added 1/29/12]
Health and stereotypes of aging - "Young and middle-aged adults who endorse negative stereotypes about older people display high rates of strokes, heart attacks and other serious heart problems later in life, compared with aging peers who view the elderly in generally positive ways." [added 7/11/09]
More on singlism and the pressure to get married - Not in this article, but notice all the effort to get Susan Boyle hooked up? [added 7/11/09]
Singlism - prejudice and discrimination against singles [6/20/08]
Ageism in America - This is a report from the International Longevity Center documenting and analyzing examples of discrimination based upon age. [added 7/6/06]
"Can you immunize yourself against prejudice?" - Blog entry about new research in which participants who were primed to be immunized against disease in some way were less likely to be racist. [added 1/29/12]
"Can friendship triumph over prejudice?" - "A wealth of research has shown that people typically feel more uncomfortable when dealing with someone from a different social group rather than someone from their own group. This can be for a range of reasons, including negative stereotypes, uncertainty about how they'll be evaluated or even fear that they'll be perceived as prejudiced. But little researched until now is the palliating effect of friendship on these kind of interactions. Now a US study led by Jonathan Cook has found that friendship removes the discomfort associated with interacting with someone of a different ethnicity, but fails to ameliorate all the anxieties associated with interacting with someone who has a different sexual orientation." [added 1/29/12]
Americans uncomfortable voting for president with certain religious affiliations - Republicans, Democrats, and Independents uncomfortable with an atheist, Mormon, or Muslim president. [added 1/29/12]
"Even made up stereotypes can hurt" - interesting study in which stereotype threat was demonstrated for the made-up learning styles of "concave" or "convex" information processing [added 1/29/12]
The Hillary Clinton effect - "An antidote to stereotype threat is to remind people of high achieving members of their in-group. For example, reminding Black Americans of President Obama's success has been shown to improve their subsequent IQ test performance. Psychologists think this 'Obama effect' occurs because the role-model's salient success takes away the burden people feel of having to represent their group. A new study by Cheryl Taylor and colleagues has built on this literature by showing that the stereotype-busting effect of a role-model only occurs if that role-model's success is perceived as due to their own innate ability and effort. If the role-model is considered to have been lucky then their stereotype-busting power is lost. Taylor's team call this the Hillary Clinton effect." [added 6/5/11]Is psychology biased against conservatives? - The link above is to an interesting take from Sam Sommers; here is a New York Times article about it. [added 6/5/11]
Reducing prejudice: Yes, we can! - "If you’re trying to end racism, it’s not enough to get people to understand that racism is still a problem. You also have to make them feel like they can do something about it, according to a new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science." [added 12/19/10]
"The Unsung pioneers in the study of prejudice" - interesting, brief history of some of those who preceded Gordon Allport [added 10/23/10]
"The rise of hate 2.0" - description of an increase of hate sites on the Web [added 7/11/09]
"Humanity-esteem and its social importance" - Fascinating research that relates one's humanity-esteem ("Overall, how favourable are you toward human beings in general?") and your likelihood to differentiate between groups, feel others are trustworthy, and more. Here's a couple scales that we are going to see a lot more of in the literature. [added 7/11/09]
Stereotype threat resource - This is an excellent site that thoroughly investigates questions such as "What is stereotype threat?", "What are the consequences of stereotype threat?", "What are the mechanisms behind stereotype threat?", and "What can be done to reduce stereotype threat?" A very comprehensive and up-to-date bibliography is included. [added 4/19/09]
Mix it up at lunch day - For the past few years the Southern Poverty Law Center has been fostering this program in which teens intentionally interact with students from "other" groups during lunch. Other programs have evolved from this as well. [added 8/18/08]
"Buried prejudice: The bigot in your brain" - good essay from Scientific American about the unconscious/automatic processes behind prejudice [6/20/08]
Humor can perpetuate stereotypes and discrimination - [added 12/16/07]
Reducing prejudice in children - "Psychologists Rebecca Bigler and Julie Milligan Hughes found white children who received history lessons about discrimination against famous African Americans had significantly more positive attitudes toward African Americans than those who received lessons with no mention of racism." [added 12/16/07]
Differences not deficits - a good report from the 2007 APS convention on how biases often lead us to label differences as deficits [added 9/30/07]
The Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse - "The Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse collects documents and information from civil rights cases in specific case categories across the United States." [added 12/31/06]
"Common ground helps reduce stereotyping" - recent article from the APS Observer on recent research [added 1/11/06]
Mixed communities - Report from The Brookings Institution describing efforts in the U.K. and the U.S. at creating housing which accommodates "a mix of incomes, ages, household types, and rental/ownership animates housing and planning policy." The report claims that in the U.S. " mixed-income strategies have transformed some of the nation's most troubled neighborhoods into healthy, functioning communities." [added 9/20/05]
Human Rights Watch - reports from this organization on abuses worldwide
Resources for the Teaching of Social Psychology is a part of the CROW Project, Course Resources on the Web. CROW was initially sponsored by the Associated Colleges of Illinois and generously supported by UPS. This site was created by Jon Mueller, Professor of Psychology at North Central College, Naperville, IL. Send comments to Jon.
