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Perceptions of Racism in Hurricane Katrina: A Liberation Psychology Analysis
Author(s) -
Adams Glenn,
O’Brien Laurie T.,
Nelson Jessica C.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
analyses of social issues and public policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.479
H-Index - 31
eISSN - 1530-2415
pISSN - 1529-7489
DOI - 10.1111/j.1530-2415.2006.00112.x
Subject(s) - racism , white (mutation) , hurricane katrina , perception , criminology , social psychology , sociology , identity (music) , gender studies , legitimacy , psychology , political science , politics , geography , law , natural disaster , physics , acoustics , biochemistry , chemistry , neuroscience , meteorology , gene
Poll data showed that African Americans perceived more racism in the response to Hurricane Katrina than did White Americans. In this article, we consider claims about racism in Katrina‐related events in light of (a) our program of experimental research on group differences in perception of racism and (b) the meta‐theoretical perspective of Liberation Psychology (LP). First, this analysis suggests that White Americans may perceive less racism in the Katrina disaster because they are less likely than African Americans to know about historically documented acts of past racism (e.g., following the Mississippi flood of 1927). Second, group differences may arise because African Americans and White Americans face divergent motivations regarding perception of racism. Whereas African Americans may have motivations to be vigilant for the possibility of racism, White Americans may be motivated to deny racism because it constitutes a threat to social identity and to the legitimacy of the status quo.