Study: Minority women: Racism harder than sexism

Teaser:

Researchers at the University of Toronto suggest that racism may affect some female minority groups more deeply than sexism. In the study, participants of Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Taiwanese and Japanese descent were assigned one of three hypothetical situations: Sixty participants were assigned to write about a past experience of rejection because of racism, sexism or their personalities. The women assigned to contemplate racism were more likely than those assigned to contemplate sexism to believe that they had been rejected by others because of "something about them" or because of "who they are."

Editorial:

From UPI:

Racism may affect some female minority groups more deeply than sexism, University of Toronto researchers suggest.

Lead author and doctoral student Jessica Remedios, psychologist Alison Chasteen and recent honors bachelor of science graduate Jeffrey Paek say in one study Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Taiwanese and Japanese descent were assigned one of three hypothetical situations.

Sixty participants were assigned to write about a past experience of rejection because of racism, sexism or their personalities.

The women assigned to contemplate racism were more likely than those assigned to contemplate sexism to believe that they had been rejected by others because of "something about them" or because of "who they are."

"This suggests that to these women, racism feels like a personal rejection whereas sexism feels more like the result of others' ignorance," Remedios says in a statement. "We found that Asian women take racism more personally and find it more depressing than sexism."

The findings are published in Group Processes and Intergroup Relations.

Jessica D. Remedios, Alison L. Chasteen, and Jeffrey D. Paek. Not all prejudices are experienced equally: Comparing experiences of racism and sexism in female minorities. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations June 17, 2011 1368430211411594, first published on June 17, 2011doi:10.1177/1368430211411594 [fee]

Abstract

Research exploring the perspectives of stigmatized people has examined general processes related to experiencing prejudice. Past work, however, has invoked the assumption that prejudices against different group memberships are experienced in a similar manner. Across three studies we directly compare experiences of racism and sexism among female minorities and show, in contrast, that people respond to different forms of prejudice in distinct ways. In Study 1 we examined the attributions invoked by Asian women to explain prejudice and discovered that participants made stronger internal attributions to explain racism than sexism. In Study 2 we investigated emotional reactions to prejudice and found that Asian women report experiencing more depression following a race-based rejection than a gender-based rejection. In Study 3 we observed that Asian women reported perceiving more racism than sexism in their environments. Implications for advancing theories of prejudice experiences are discussed.

Source:

UPI

URL:

http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2011/07/13/Minority-women-Racism-harder-than-sexism/UPI-92681310612345/

Date:

July 19, 2011

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