**KIM WOODS** Multiculturalism in the News

Thesis Statement and Annotated Bibliography

Multicultural and Social Issues in Psychology/PSY620

10/15/2017

Thesis Statement and Annotated Bibliography

Thesis Statement: In August of 2017, a deadly “Unite the Right” rally to protest the removal of the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee exposed the unfortunate underbelly of American culture. The chaotic protest in Charlottesville, VA, opened the eyes of the nation, focusing a spotlight on the stark cultural differences between mainstream America and White Nationalists. The issue is a controversial one, inspiring a selection of complex bipolar attitudes toward a portion of American history that is demonstrably heinous and that is not as lost to history as many Americans would like to believe. The fact is this: White Nationalists view Confederate memorabilia, including the Confederate flag and statues, as part of a grand history that the rest of America would prefer to remain as a skeleton in the nation's closet. More to the point, White Nationalists, who idolize the morally reprehensible historical points of the Confederacy and all it stood for, are evidence of the kind of implicit bias, prejudice, and discrimination that rots America from the inside out. As a fringe group, White Nationalists and sympathizers have been making noise about Civil War-era relics with increasing volume – and the rally in Charlottesville is not even the beginning. Starting in May of 2017 with the Jefferson Davis Monument in New Orleans, it has become increasingly evident that mainstream America is eager to remove the scars left by slavery from our shared national history. There are over a dozen proposals to remove Confederate statues from cities, including from the Capital building in Washington, D.C. More profoundly, efforts to prevent those removals, such as the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act of 2017, which was explicitly created to prevent a Confederate statue from being removed, are also making waves in the news and adding to the increasing conflict. From a social psychological standpoint, the cultural diversity between mainstream America and White Nationalists is the root of this controversy; additionally, other concepts, such as deindividualization, ingroup overexclusion effect, and right wing attribution, are also factors that might explain the polarity of the issue.

Ariely, G. (2012). Globalization, immigration and national identity: How the level of globalization affects the relations between nationalism, constructive patriotism, and attitudes toward immigrants? Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, Volume 15, Issue 4, pp.539-557.

The article is one that seeks to understand the relationship – if any – between globalization in countries and the rates of patriotism, nationalism, and xenophobia. In general, the study does highlight the correspondence between globalization and higher rates of negative attitudes toward immigrants in those nations, which speaks directly to the way ingroup and outgroup attitudes are formed based on national origin. This might go a long way in informing social psychologists of why nationalism – White Nationalism specifically – is prevelant in a nation like America and why resistance to immigration or people of color is also so profound.

Sinclair, S., Lowery, B. S., Hardin, C., and Colangelo, A. (2005). Social tuning of automatic racial attitudes: The role of affiliative motivation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Volume 89, Issue 4, pp. 582-592.

This article makes the proposal that accounts for while fringe groups like White Nationalists even exist – and it has to do with affiliation. In addition to the automatic social tuning that takes place when a person meets another person, people with the same racial attitude form affiliations with each other that feed on racial stereotypes or prejudice, inducing a sort of shared reality, and allows those individuals to be manipulated in larger social groups to express ideas that are inline with the affiliation motivation.

Yogeeswaran, K. (2010). Will the “real” American please stand up? The effect of implicit national prototypes on discriminatory behavior and judgements. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 36, 1332-1345.

In this article, the author summarizes three different studies that explored discriminatory behavior and judgement against non-European decent Americans. The article begins by defining who is American and then continues to discuss discriminatory behavior against non-prototypical Americans. According to the article, people tend to use perception of others to determine social belonging rather than a categorized checklist. The article compares three different studies where Asian Americans apply for jobs within different companies. The main purpose of the article and studies performed was to determine if there is a tendency to grant American identity to whites rather than minorities and how Americans define who belongs in the country and who does not (Yogeeswaran, 2010).

Chae, D. (2017). The role of racial identity and implicit racial bias in self-reported racial discrimination: Implications for depression among African American men. Journal of Black Psychology, 1-24.

In this article the author explores the relationship between racial identity, racial discrimination, and implicit racial bias among African American males. According to the article, high levels of racial discrimination still occur regularly in domains such as employment, court cases, and housing primarily affecting African American males. Racial discrimination also creates inequalities in the judicial system and financial industry. According to the article, racial discrimination and implicit bias creates mental health implications for many African American males. The author outlines various research tools used to identify racial discrimination such as the Black-White Implicit Association Test and cross –sectional observation to test for the role of implicit racial bias in self-reported racial discrimination and mental health (Chae, 2017).

Esposito, K. (2015). Confederate immigration to Brazil: A cross-cultural approach to reconstruction and public history. Public History Review, 22, 23-37.

With the recent trends in the world though globalization, it is important for scholars not to limit their studies within the local dimensions but to expand it to foreign aspect so as to thoroughly analyze events. The author of this article takes a transnational perspective to explore the impact of confederate in an international perspective to analyze how it affected other nations other than America (Esposito, 2015). The author is of the view that despite cross culture collaboration and transnational historical studies being challenging, it is the most exceptional and comprehensive way of studying the past and connecting people to their history. The article argue the importance of putting historical events in a transnational approach just like the American civil wars have been studied in a transnational perspective. In the article, the author explores how the confederates migrated to Brazil during and after the civil wars (Esposito, 2015). The author is of the views that the study can help us understand the international impact of the War in the western hemisphere and how it affected other areas other than America. The study is important as it will enhance Civil War and Reconstruction historiography, as well as commemoration, heritage and memory studies.

Talbert, R. D. (2017). Culture and the Confederate flag: Attitudes toward a divisive symbol. Sociology Compass, 11(2).

The author of the article is of the view that Confederate flag remains a controversial symbol. The author in the article reviews research on attitudes toward the Confederate flag and its public display. The author outline the historical timeline of the united states south and the confederate while putting much effort to the politics that rocked the region so as to understand the divisiveness that the flag causes in America (Talbert, 2017). The author also looks at the importance of culture in the whole scenario as the flag was rooted in the culture. The work in its entirety focus on existing research on attitudes and legislative voting patterns focused on the confederate flag and provides a foundation and suggestions for future inquiry into the topic. The author concludes by recommending future research on the implication of Confederate flag support hopefully leading to the elimination of ideologies that spur racial violence.

Ficherman, D. (2013) Racial attacks on President Obama and the White Nationalist legacy. Western Journal of Black Studies. 37 (4), p. 236-248.

The author of the article describes the racist attacks made upon President Obama and the intensity of the attacks directed at him which have not subsided. His work also sheds light on why these attacks are inextricably linked to the White Nationalism. These attacks have either overtly or subtly challenged Obama’s identity in ways that are ultimately connected and have direct racial referential points and can be easily detected as racist in content. The author indicated this was a clear message delivered to African Americans about what 'stepping out' of their place might mean for real or imagined policy positions. Racists thoroughly opposed the thought of a Black man attempting to obtain arguably the most powerful position in the world.

Dentice, D. (2011) The Nationalist Party of America: Right-Wing Activism and Billy Roper's White Revolution. Social Movement Studies, 10 (1) p. 107–112

This author draws our attention to the intensely heated public debate about the economy, immigration, Hispanization of the USA, and nation’s first African-American president, mistrust by the nation and the extremist activity in the form of radical right-wing groups, assorted militia groups, and Internet-based social networking forums for self-identified white nationalists. Connections between white nationalism and current politics are addressed in this article shining light on the Billy Roper, an Arkansas native, white racial activist, and white nationalist political candidate who has been building a coalition of supporters who feel that mainstream politicians neither address their concerns and interests. He believes that the solution is mobilization of a viable third party such as the Nationalist Party of America.