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I am not Black. I am Brown, and I realize that to many biased individuals, shade does not make a difference. People see a dark-skinned man and immediately jump to conclusions about his character. I did not get "the talk" from my parents, but I have had the chat with my children. We had a lot of talks since George Floyd was murdered. We talk about America’s history with race. We also talk about clothing.
The data is clear. There is racial bias in near every venue of daily life. Employers are biased when they hire employees, juvenile African American defendants are judged differently than white defendants, the list is long. These racial biases are highly influenced by clothing.
Slacker. Nerd. Jock. We often make snap judgments of people within five seconds of seeing them. The lion’s share of these perceptions is formed based on the clothes people are wearing. Psychological science has accumulated a large body of evidence showing just how strong the stereotypes are. What is worse is that stereotypes of people of color, also drive perceptions of their capabilities, their attitudes, and intellect, and behavior towards them. Clothing can catalyze racial bias.
The "hoodie" rose to national notoriety in the case of Travon Martin, the young Black man shot in Florida. Referred to as “swagger,” in cultural studies, people tend to link items such as branded sportswear to criminality. Feeding into this linkage, media coverage often portrays swagger wearing African American athletes as menacing, criminal, and dangerously different. Terms such as “prison garb” and “gangsta” are often used in the media in conjunction with African Americans, urban fashion, and criminal behavior.
Yes, clothing is also associated with positive stereotypes. Models wearing formal business attire are seen as more authoritative, competent, and business-like than models wearing semi-formal or informal clothing. Is the positive power of some clothing enough to short circuit the negative baggage associated with other types of clothing? Over the last few years, my research team has tested this question and we have some answers very relevant to the times.
In one study published just last year, participants rated pictures of African Americans in either stereotype congruent (e.g., baggy jeans) or stereotype incongruent (e.g., suit coat) clothing. Participants rated African American models in formal clothing significantly more positively and seemed to attenuate knee-jerk snap racism.
In a study just published in the Journal of Social Psychology, we went a step further. We wanted to see if signs of success would be associated with more positive evaluations of Black men. Participants rated the same group of Black student athletes dressed either in swagger, formal clothing, or wearing championship t-shirts. Again, the men in formal clothes were rated significantly higher on characteristics such as intelligence, trustworthiness, and warmth. Not surprisingly, a measure of the raters’ racism (measured using the Symbolic Racism Scale) also significantly affected ratings. Clothing and viewer prejudice affects impressions.
To many Black men and people of color, some of these findings are not surprising. Participants in both studies described above and many others are random. These are not members of extreme conservative groups, nor members recruited from hate groups. These are everyday people who walk amongst us. Such bias is pervasive and triggered by something as simple as a sweatshirt. More importantly, it is diffused by clothing as well.
What can we do?. It is easy to ask victims to change but should Black men not wear hoodies to avoid prejudice? Informing individuals that how they dress can evoke negative biases and stopping there, avoids addressing a bigger issue. What do we do about those who are being prejudicial? Directing individuals to change what they wear places the burden of mitigating stereotypes and associated prejudices on the wearer. Instead, we need to consider how we can change the perceptions of those who hold and use such stereotypes in harmful ways.
Having stereotypes is human but we need not be yoked to them. We need to recognize we have them. We need to examine how those stereotypes are formed. We need to consciously work against them. A lifetime of media intake may develop and further these stereotypes, but we must cease to be pawns and be accountable for our cognitions. Now more research is needed on addressing how to alter perceivers perceptions.
I want my children to be able to wear what they want without fear of it spurring bias. Addressing the formation of snap judgments of bias is the first step in the long battle towards eliminating the prejudice faced by people of color.
