Citation

Dunlap M, Shueh TAF, Burrell C, Beaubrun PJ. J. Ethn. Cult. Divers. Soc. Work 2018; 27(2): 193-213.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/15313204.2017.1344946

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Belief in color-blind ideology among 200 social service providers and its associations with their evaluations of a fictionalized minority family were examined. Perceptions of the family in the first scenes of the movie Crooklyn included the mother's competency, abusiveness, supportiveness, and irresponsibility, as well as her children's respectfulness, obedience, lack of control, and aggressiveness. Color-blind ideology was operationalized as participants' reported degree of belief that differences should be ignored when encountering others. Significant associations were found between degree of belief in ignoring differences and perceptions of the children as aggressive and out of control. Therefore, as the tendency to believe in ignoring differences increased, the tendency to see the Crooklyn children as aggressive and out of control also increased. Imposing color-blind ideologies when evaluating minority children may be associated with increasingly negative perceptions, and therefore may not be in the children's best interest. Implications for improving social service provision also are discussed.

Language: en

Keywords

Black youth; color blindness; diversity; minority children; misperceptions of; multiculturalism; perceptions of; projective techniques; racial; racism; Spike Lee; stereotyping