Race Composition and White Hostility: A Research Note on the Problem of Control inDesegregated SchoolsAuthor(s): Douglas LongshoreSource: Social Forces, Vol. 61, No. 1 (Sep., 1982), pp. 73-78Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2578075 .

Accessed: 14/06/2014 09:48

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

Oxford University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Social Forces.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.20 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 09:48:18 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Race Composition and White Hostility: A Research Note on the Problem of Control in Desegregated Schools*

DOUGLAS LONGS H ORE, University of California, Los Angeles

Research in desegregated schools has indicated that student intergroup hostility is related to the racial composition of the enrollment, but the form and meaning of that relationship are not yet clear. Some studies have found a positive linear relationship between students' intergroup hostility and percent of other-race students in the school. But other studies have found a nonlinear, inverted-U relationship between those variables. In either case, the interpretation that is usually offered for such findings is that control of one's turf is a salient concern for students in desegregated schools and that racial proportions are a key resource for maintaining control. To explain the positive relationship, observers have argued that students' intergroup hostility is linearly related to the proportion of other- race students because students are more hostile when their control of the school is weaker. On the other hand, to explain the inverted-U relation- ship, it has been argued that intergroup hostility is highest in racially balanced schools, i.e., schools where neither group is clearly in control. When students of one race are greatly outnumbered, their hostility toward other-race students is said to be lower, not higher, because control of the school is not in dispute.

It is important to note, though, that school racial composition is often related to other contextual variables, e.g., school socioeconomic sta- tus (SES) and region, and that these variables can be taken as proxies for constructs other than control. For example, region (South-non-South) can be taken to represent the strength of normative support for racial prejudice and discrimination (stronger in the South). If variables such as these can account for the relationship between school racial composition and inter- group hostility (whatever the form of that relationship) then empirical support for the "control threat" interpretation would be undermined.

This research note focuses on the relationship between school racial *A more detailed report of this study is available from the author on request. This research was funded under Grant #80-0183 from the National Institute of Education. The data were originally collected under HEW Contract #300-77-0327. c 1982 The University of North Carolina Press. 0037-7732/82/010073-78$00.60

73

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.20 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 09:48:18 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

74 I Social Forces Volume 61:1, September 1982

composition and white students' hostility toward blacks, in a nationwide sample of 89 desegregated elementary schools. The purposes of the re- search are (1) to test for nonlinearity in the relationship between school racial composition and white racial hostility, and (2) to examine that rela- tionship after other, relevant contextual variables have been partialed out.

Research Design

This research is a secondary analysis of data collected in 1978-79 as part of an evaluation of the Emergency School Aid Act. The evaluation covered 123 desegregated elementary schools and included data on these 6 con- textual variables:

* school racial composition, taken here as percent of black students in the enrollment;

* school SES, a composite of school means for students' verbal and math achievement, parents' educational level, and eligibility for free or re- duced-price lunch services;

* school size, measured as the total school enrollment; * ruralism, measured as the total district enrollment; * region: a dummy variable for South-non-South; and * sub-region: a dummy variable for deep South-upper South.

The data set also included three measures of white students' hos- tility toward blacks:

* attitudes toward desegregation: a 6-item scale measuring whites' will- ingness to attend desegregated schools and their perceptions of the value of a desegregated education;

* friendliness toward blacks, as perceived by blacks: a 2-item scale asking black students to assess how easy it is to make friends with white stu- dents in the school; and

* attitudes toward contact with blacks: a 3-item scale asking white stu- dents to predict their friends' reactions to contact with blacks in volun- tary social interaction.

Since the questionnaire by which students' responses were obtained was designed to assess intergroup relations at the school level, items on the questionnaire did not specifically call for students' attitudes and behav- ior toward whites, blacks, Hispanics, or other groups. The items simply asked about attitudes and behavior toward "students of a different race or ethnic group than you" and toward "students of the same race or ethnic group as you." However, in 89 of the 123 schools, whites and blacks com- prised at least 90 percent of the enrollment, and each group greatly out- numbered any others that (in some cases) were also present. For these 89

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.20 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 09:48:18 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Classroom Hostility I 75

schools, it is reasonable to assume that (1) whites' intergroup experiences at school are essentially experiences with blacks, and (2) whites' responses to questionnaire items pertain specifically to blacks, and vice versa. Ac- cordingly, these 89 schools provide the data for this research. Scores on the hostility measures were aggregated to the school level, and higher scores indicate greater hostility.

Findings

A simple regression analysis (not shown) indicated that school racial com- position is significantly and linearly related to whites' attitudes toward contact with blacks and is significantly and nonlinearly related to whites' attitudes toward desegregation and friendliness toward blacks. Each non- linear relationship follows the inverted-U form, i.e., first increases and then decreases.

Since other contextual variables could account for these findings, the key task was to enter them in the analysis, thus isolating the unique contribution made by school racial composition. Correlations among the contextual variables (Table 1) were not high enough to suggest the danger of multicollinearity, but there is an obvious linear dependence between region and sub-region. Thus, these two variables were combined into a single predictor, South, with three values: (0) non-South, (1) upper South, and (2) deep South.

The multiple regressions (Table 2) indicated that school racial com- position itself does not contribute to the prediction of whites' attitudes toward contact but does contribute significantly to the prediction of whites' attitudes toward desegregation and friendliness toward blacks. The unique relationship between school racial composition and these latter two vari- ables remains nonlinear, in the inverted-U form, and hostility appears highest in schools between 40 to 60 percent black. (The quadratic term for white friendliness is only marginally significant, but it does clarify the relationship between school racial composition and friendliness, as indi- cated by the improved R2.)

To test for possible interactions between the contextual variables, these regressions were repeated within subsets of schools. (For this pur- pose, school SES, school size, and ruralism were dichotomized at their means.) The results indicated that school racial composition is a stronger predictor of white hostility in low-SES schools than in high-SES schools, in large than in small schools, in rural than in urban schools, in southern than in nonsouthern schools, and in deep-South than in upper-South schools. The significant relationships were consistently nonlinear in the inverted-U form.

School racial composition was not a useful predictor of whites' atti-

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.20 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 09:48:18 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

76 / Social Forces Volume 61:1, September 1982

0 ) 4' -4 -- -

:3 ' c - -0 LI ) - - oo c'4 4-J 4J 00 - O C C'4 C) - %D '.O C

0 c - m mCC _-C C) --7 C) ._ C _ J n J C)

tn 0)

O3 CC - - CC4 0 LI) --7 C- CC - 03 0i C'.4 03 CC C-4 03i --7

.0 oo - - 1)- -D C) C) l_ _) i>

0

Cl _ _-r O_ O3 _ - O- OO C- C3 0) 03 - r- U-% LU C'4 CC J 4-J 0 ) C) CCC C-4 C-4 C) C-4 _-U C)

< tn L) </ Ln

co cn D CJ C0 4 C00 C7 L

llJ C CJ) 00 - 1-- C) e C) -

J 4> 3 0 - LI!

Cl) CC~

0 H 0 0 C-. uC o r-_ 03 < ON -zi cCi cC '.0 CC Cen LI)

- .- C) - C)

o -D

.0 -0 0

J0 < :3 C14 CC -i- 4-

o ?n

z

C._D IC -0

Z) no 0

CC)4 -

z _n 0) M

< CC~

Z 0 '^ 0)

< CO N 3cr; L

LLJ 0) :3~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~0 CC.0 C 0

LI) -t'. C

0 0 U C -C -D 0

o i: -,:C

LU C/O. -1

o o

9 ..- C

Co u oE

LUJ 0)0 0'- 0 U

E - N ) 0

<~~~C. ._ 0 .- U))

M U -

-0. _ C 0)-t- - - 3) .

0 0 0 V V V

cc C00 0 L 0C -0 0) C 00..U

ULJ CD C^0

. U 0 L .) 4J

N a VO a- -

DV

C U 0 3 U 0 0-

35o ) .)_._ 0) J : . o)

-C *_ ol O *- 0OCU _C co u u 0) '- 0 u .-Mo

F 1 ) < 1) cc <) <1) <1) 1 < ; LL X: ) _

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.20 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 09:48:18 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Classroom Hostility I 77

c) llJ

m

Cc . -:s -:: - O ;10 -U

-:: D 4J N N -, Lf -. 0 0 . O O u cn I'D OC -U U% 0 0 0c a: D

(n (a V a- U) LU) 0 0I C-U 0 la) ) 40u LU . . H cOU

c I I o

z ,4-

cl CSr _s "s Os

F- (N I- O 0 0 C) '0 C14 ~~-:U C) 0 ' .

?l 0crl o 0o - 0 0 <sC co 0 C z z 0

U) 0

CL ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ -C o~~~~~~~~ 0 C C) 0 s - C14 cs 4 C - O O . r

0 < U LU .

r Cl C 0 II -

% - C0U- D O D

O

< _)

ui

U

<j ((I-C I 0) F a:QQ

O .L- - o -C

O L. CC oc ) ? COU crI 0)0 -O 0 00

z 0 U) uLJ

U) uLJ

C14 0~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~* .N

-:' .V

_ : - O -' - C S CO 0 -5 0 0 * -U H_ 0 C-U U 0 C-U OC 1O U ) LU. . , LL. o (N

C I o

_L 4J ,

ic- .4 I .U U) -:

Ca C( ODC) C5- UE C 0 l_ - %'. 0 C- '. LL - C1 xD O OC O <4 0 cr e O PS O O - oo X

0 U)~~~~~~~~~~~~~-> U) C0 U)

LU U) DU.

cc O 0 OD (n 4 C4 CD _- c , _ ._ C: =) "

LU ((0 CU U)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 0 U4).-0 GLI ,_ ._ ._U U 4 ((LU-U -- O* ) -000 cc U 4-J O a, () N c 0 O . 4 - 1> O O D

(D (- ui 0 0)- 4- . L. 4J O O - C 0

U .

-

(U LU 00

00

CUCv L U L " LC- U)U U L . . . O

O 0O E O O 0 O C - E -- (U CL CL CL > 0 0 0 O O 0 4U 0 (U C U 0- . I-. Q u o u o M , LL. 4U . - ) - a-

co u u u O u M I C1 C : F_ () /) (/) /) (/) cc 1- cc Z

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.20 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 09:48:18 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

78 I Social Forces Volume 61:1, September 1982

tudes toward contact with blacks in any of these contexts, once other contextual variables were partialed out. Perhaps whites in schools with a higher percentage of blacks recognize that it is difficult to avoid contact with blacks and are therefore not more likely to disapprove of friends whom they see associating with blacks. The fact that school racial composi- tion is correlated with school SES and with South appears, in this case, to account for the significant bivariate relationship between school racial com- position and whites' attitudes toward contact.

Conclusions

The emergence of consistently significant relationships between school racial composition and two measures of white hostility suggests that racial composition is in fact a salient contextual characteristic of desegregated schools. These relationships held up under controls for contextual vari- ables that can be taken to represent constructs other than the control threat to whites, namely, the status threat posed by blacks (school SES), the strength of traditional racial norms (ruralism, region, and sub-region), and the likelihood that a school will develop racially separate friendship net- works (school size). Thus, the findings suggest that white hostility is in part a response specifically to the control threat posed by school racial composition and that the threat is most salient in schools where neither group dominates. This pattern is more striking in low-SES schools, large schools, rural schools, southern schools, and deep-South schools. In sub- stantive terms, the control threat appears to have more impact on white hostility in schools where blacks also pose a stronger status threat (school SES), schools where traditional racial norms are stronger (ruralism, region, and sub-region), and schools where friendship networks are more likely to be racially separate (school size).

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.20 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 09:48:18 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions