In social justice studies, internalized racism is a form of internalized oppression, defined by sociologist Karen D. Pyke as the "internalization of racial oppression by the racially subordinated." In her study The Psychology of Racism, Robin Nicole Johnson emphasizes that internalized racism involves both "conscious and unconscious acceptance of a racial hierarchy in which a presumed superior race are consistently ranked above other races. These definitions encompass a wide range of instances, including, but not limited to, belief in negative stereotypes, adaptations to cultural standards, and thinking that supports the status quo (i.e. denying that racism exists).
Internalized racism as a phenomenon is a direct product of a racial classification system, and is found across different racial groups and regions around the world where race exists as a social construct. In these places, internalized racism can have adverse effects on those who experience it. For example, high internalized racism scores have been linked to poor health outcomes among Caribbean black women, higher propensity for violence among African American young males, and increased domestic violence among Native American populations in the US.
Responses to internalized racism have been varied. Many of the approaches focus on dispelling false narratives learned from racial oppression. An example of opposition to internalized racism is the "Black is beautiful" cultural movement in the US, which sought to "directly attack [the] ideology" that blackness was ugly.
Terminology and categorization
Scholarship addressing internalized racism has existed long before the emergence of the terminology itself. In 1903, African American civil rights activist W. E. B. Du Bois wrote about the existence of "double-consciousness", or "this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity," to explain American racial minorities' self-perception as heavily influenced by the white majority's perception of them.Du Bois, W. E. B. 1903. The Souls of the Black Folk: Essays and Sketches. Chicago: A.C. McClurg. p. 3.
Sociologists Karen and Tran Dang wrote: "Due to the discomfort, confusion, and embarrassment the subject raises, an intellectual taboo surrounds the study of internalized racism. A major concern is that because internalized racism reveals dynamics by which oppression is reproduced, it will lead to blaming the victims and move attention away from the racist institutions and practices that privilege whites at the expense of people of color. Internalized racism also causes discomfort because it suggests that the effects of racism are deeper and broader than many would like to admit. As a result, it remains one of the least explained features of racism."
Although some definitions of internalized racism only include when racial stereotypes are internalized by the racial marginalized groups, internalized racism has been used to discuss much more than this. The creators of the Appropriated Racial Oppression Scale (AROS) note that perhaps a more accurate phrase would be "appropriated racial oppression", because this distances the usage away from potentially "victim blaming" implications that the internalization of racist ideals and attitudes is due to some failure of the oppressed. Additionally, the term "appropriation" indicates that internalized racism is learned from context, and therefore a product of socialization in a racialized society.
Alternatively, Bianchi, Zea, Belgrave, and Echeverry propose that internalized racism is a "state of racial self-conceptualization", conforming to racial oppression, as opposed to dissonance, resistance or the internalization of a positive racial identity.
Internalized racism has also been referred to as indoctrination and mental colonization. These phrases draw attention to the historical context of colonialism being used to create and maintain a system of white superiority.
Internalized racism is also explored in the Nigrescence model, introduced by William E. Cross in 1971. It explains how internalized racism in African Americans involves the belief that white cultural values are superior than their own. Cross writes, "The driving force behind this need requires Afro-Americans to seek approval from whites in all activities, to use white expectations as the yardstick for determining what is good, desirable or necessary." This conviction can be corrected when black individuals self-determine their identities apart from the influence of their white counterparts.
Dimensions Scholars have picked different dimensions to categorize internalized racism. Psychologists David and Okazaki proposed that examples of internalized racism could be divided into the following: "internalized inferiority, feelings of shame and embarrassment, physical characteristics, within-group discrimination, and minimization or acceptance of oppression." Alternatively, Campón and Carter use this list: "appropriations of negative stereotypes, thinking that maintains status quo (denying racism), adaptation to white cultural standards, devaluation of own group, and emotional reactions." These categories influence how scholars organize their measurements of internalized racism. Scholar Monica M. Trieu situates internalized racism within histories of European and U.S. colonial expansion, arguing that colonial domination produced a colonial mentality in which white supremacy became normalized and is “transnational; in [which it] can and does travel with migrants and transcend nation-state borders” (Trieu, 2019, p. 4). This can be applied to South Asians, who under British colonialism (1633–1947), never emerged as belonging to white structure (Trieu, 2019, p.4). Trieu further elaborates that these hierarchies persist through racialization processes that frame Asian diasporic communities as “perpetual foreigners,” reinforcing barriers to land ownership, labour market discrimination, educational inequalities, and negative media representation (Trieu, 2019, p. 5). Under these structural conditions, South Asians may adopt strategies such as “disidentification” and “defensive othering,” distancing themselves from stigmatized identities in order to deflect assumptions of foreignness” (Trieu, 2019, p. 7).
Measures Academics have attempted to create reliable measures of internalized racism, in order to test its correlation to health outcomes and other variables of interest. Some examples of existing scales are the Nadanolitization (NAD) and Internalized Racial Oppression Scales (used for African Americans), the Colonial Mentality scale (used for Filipinos), and the Mochichua Tepehuani Scale (used for Chicano/Latino populations). The Appropriated Racial Oppression Scale (AROS) is designed as measure for all racial minorities. In the AROS, Campón and Carter use items such as "There have been times when I have been embarrassed to be a member of my race", "I would like for my children to have light skin", and "People take racial jokes too seriously" to assess an individual's level of internalized racism.
Manifestations To explore the dimensions of internalized racism mentioned above, here are some of the ways in which scholars have observed the effects of internalized racism.
Self-image/beauty standards An empirical example of internalized racism is Kenneth and Mamie Clark's doll experiment, which was done in America in 1939 and 1940 at a time when black and white children were segregated. It involved an African-American child being presented with two dolls that were identical apart from skin and hair color, one doll being white with yellow hair and the other being brown with black hair. The child was asked which doll they would prefer to play with and why. All children in the study expressed a clear preference for the white doll.
In 2006 Kiri Davis recreated the experiment with 21 African-American preschool children for her documentary A Girl Like Me. Davis found that 15 of the children chose white dolls over black dolls, giving similar reasons as the original study subjects that associated white with "pretty" or "good" and black with "ugly" or "bad".
There is also an industry behind skin whitening products, which can be found from India to China to the United States. Because lighter skin is associated with desirable characteristics, people purchase such products in order to become lighter skinned. A similar industry exists behind hair straightening products such as chemical relaxers, hair irons and hot combs. This is because straight hair is considered by some who accept Western standards of beauty to be better than coiled, curly or kinky hair textures.
Warnings such as "don't go in the sun" directed at children to avoid darkening their skin or the praising of light skinned babies are widely cited as a form of internalized colorism — the transmission of colorist values within families and communities. Scholars have described colorism as rooted in societies that promote proximity to whiteness as a beauty standard, occurring both within and across ethnic groups.
Stereotype threat Stereotype threat is a phenomenon studied in psychology in which members of a stigmatized group risk conforming to negative stereotypes through internalization of their validity. In a 2018 study from Taylor, Garcia, Shelton and Yantis, note that both stereotype threat and a "black sheep effect" are products of internalized racism. Through being reminded of negative stereotypes associated with their race, participants responded with increased uncertainty, lower performance on tasks, and emotional reactions of anger and shame. They also sought to distance themselves from ingroup, stereotype confirming members, so as to avoid being targeted with negative generalizations.
Stereotype threat from internalized racism goes beyond the individual. Those who experience internalized racism may end up projecting internalized negative attitudes onto others in their racial group. For example, teachers of color in the United States risk seeing their students through the lens of internalized racism. Because a teacher's expectations for a student's success can have empirical impacts on their educational outcomes, this puts students of color at an increased risk for impaired educational development.
Todd Platts and Kim Hoosier professors of sociology at Piedmont Virginia Community College examined ways to reduce stereotype threats in the classroom. These ways include task reframing, by implementing a change in the grading system, that will keep students anonymous by assigning students a number or a codename, to eliminate known or unknown biases that the instructor might have, positive affirmation, recognizing positive traits students possess to enhance self-worth and ambitions, constructive feedback, by providing feedback in areas that students are struggling in and how they can improve the in those areas. Platts and Hoosier also stated that stereotype threat needs to be faced head on, needs to be discussed early in the semester, along with expectations of the students and the time should be spent reviewing material, that way students known that it is achievable to pass the class.
Intra/Interracial discrimination