The Life and Legacy of Dr. Kenneth B. Clark: The History of an African-American Psychologist

Throughout history stereotyping has been used to generalize a race class. Although when a race is being stereotyped it can be done in a positive way, in many cases it has also been done in order to keep a minority group inferior. In the article, “Thin Ice” by Claude M. Steele, Steele shows how African Americans who are stereotyped or have the mental image of being stereotyped negatively can affect their success in their academic success. In the other hand, in Jennifer Lee and Min Zhou’s “The Asian American Achievement Paradox” demonstrates when a stereotype is positive it can feed one’s ego and deliver better outcomes in a people’s academic achievements. Even though a large population of people can be stereotyped in a certain way through false concepts, it can affect the mindset of a single individual.

“The scars and stains of racism are still deeply embedded in the American society.” US Representative, John Lewis said this in his return to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial he spoke on 54 years ago, during the March on Washington. Racism has been around since the beginning of time, but it is not human nature. Racism is something that is taught, and given the amount of time that has passed since To Kill A Mockingbird and the March on Washington, one would think that racism wouldn’t be a serious issue any more. Although race relations have improved along with other social issues from the time of To Kill Mockingbird, racism and discrimination are major problems in today’s society.

Furthermore, stereotypes are used to increase an individual’s self-esteem and strengthen their social identity. Social identity theory contributes largely to the formation of stereotypes, as it states that a person’s social identity is formed from being part of a group. To justify one’s own group, they often pick out real or imaginary differences and flaws in other groups and compare those to their own group (Ford & Tonander, 1998). This led Ford

Stereotypes are socially constructed, over-generalized views regarding a particular group of persons with certain characteristics that are widely accepted, and usually expected, in a society. The dominant group of a certain society, which in this case is probably Caucasians and men, usually creates these social constructions. Claude M. Steele, a researcher from Stanford University, performed multiple research studies on the idea and psychological effects of stereotypes on its victims. In his studies, he coins the term “stereotype threat” as the “social-psychological predicament that can arise from widely-known negative stereotypes about one's group,” which implies that “the existence of such a stereotype means that anything one does or any of one's features that conform to it make the stereotype more plausible as a self-characterization in the eyes of others, and perhaps even in one's own eyes” (Steele 797).

This true story is based on two African American males who grew up with many similarities but landed a completely different outcome in life. One of the main similarities is their name, Wes Moore. Both Wes Moore’s grew up in a fatherless home, born in the same neighborhood of Baltimore during the 1970’s, and both were handcuffed before age 11. The same question remains. How did one end up as a scholar, veteran, White House Fellow, and business leader and the other one end up serving a life sentence for a robbery that ended in the murder of a police officer? The book reflects how developmental psychology is implemented by focusing on the physical, social, and cultural environments influence developments that occur over time.

Author Shankar Vedantam in his science article “How a Self-Fulfilling Stereotype Can Drag Down Performance” implies that if a person is subjected to stereotypes it can affect your performance. The author develops this idea by first introducing his theme with a question, then he tells of experiments others have made to support this idea, and finally he wraps it up by telling us that companies and schools are victim to stereotypes and needs to stop. The author’s purpose is to explain to us how stereotypes can affect our lives in order to call out to people so we can lower the rates of stereotyping. The author establishes a educated tone for people who are interested in research and global

In the new proactive book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander dives into the not so complicated racial issues that plague this country that we tend to ignore. In all of history, African Americans have had to constantly fight for their freedoms and the right to be considered a human being in this society. It’s very troubling looking back and seeing where we have failed people in this country. At the turn of the century, when people began to think that we had left our old ways behind, this book reminds us that we are wrong. Racism is still alive today in every way, just in different forms.

When Black children learn about the enormous contributions of Rev. King and other U.S. Civil Rights heroes, it bolsters their sense of self-worth. For children to also learn of the contributions of openly gay activist Bayard Rustin, who served as an advisor to Rev. King and key organizers in history it teaches pride, tolerance and understanding” (Davis).

The achievement gap is evident in the standardized test scores of racial minority students. When examining demographic information published by College Board Inc. and ACT Inc., it is evident that there exists a widening gap between the scores of African-American adolescents on the SAT, or the Scholastic Aptitude Test, and the ACT, or American College Test. Statistics from the 2013 SAT show African-American students earning scores of 431 in critical reading, 429 in mathematics, and 418 in writing (College Board, 2013). On the ACT in the 2013 year, the average composite score for African-American test takers was 18.2. In comparison to their racial and ethnic counterparts, African-Americans scored lower in every subject area than every other test taker. Frequently this gap in scores has been attributed to a number of factors including a student’s socioeconomic status, teacher qualifications, and school’s lack of access to academic resources. Instead, one should look to the theory of stereotype threat. In summation, stereotype threat is being at risk of confirming a negative stereotype threat about one’s group (Steele & Aronson, 1995). One may question: To what extent does stereotype threat lead to African-American adolescents underperforming in academic settings? Stereotype threat negatively affects African-American students in that it produces self-fulfilling prophecies causing African-American adolescents to underperform on college entrance exams.

Racism against African Americans and other ethnicities is still prevalent in our society. Salis (2015) mentions a recent poll of Caucasian and African Americans and found that sixty percent of those surveyed felt racial relationships ha vent improved and forty percent felt they were worse. In this paper, I will identify how a counselor can reduce the effects of racism and discrimination that has affected African Americans. Additionally, I will address what role a counselor plays in reducing the stigma of mental illness within the African American community. Furthermore, I will highlight the legal and ethical issues identified in the video

Francis Cecil Sumner was born on December 7, 1985 in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Too many Sumner was known as the ‘Father of Black Psychologist’ because he was the first black male to receive his doctoral in psychology. Sumner completed this degree at Clark University at Massachusetts in the year of 1920. A committed scholar regarding psychology, languages, and religion, Francis assisted with bettering education opportunities for African Americans for the reason that he was colored” (“Francis Cecil Sumner”). As a child Sumner attended elementary school and three different States Plainfield, New Jersey; Washington, D.C.; and Norfolk, Virginia. Sumner’s father was unappeased with the caliber of prep school offered to African youth in the restricted schools available to coloreds (Francis Sumner, Max Meenes). Sumner’s father who was self-educated decided to home-school his son from elementary up

A common identity contingency of white identity is their natural athletic ability is always being evaluated. It is a common stereotype that compared to blacks; white people have less natural athletic ability. In one experiment, they recruited black and white Princeton students. They told one group of students that this was a test that showed athletic ability. In the other group they let the students know that the test did not show athletic ability. In the stigmatizing group throughout the game, white students showed more frustration; which in return affected their ability and caused more errors than the other white students who experienced no racial stereotype threat. The black students in both groups showed no differences in their athletic ability; which of course made sense because there is no stereotype that suggests black people as a group are terrible at golf or are athletically inclined.

In America, people used to deal with racism daily in The Jim Crow South, the era of ‘Separate but equal.’ In the South, many people of African-American descent experienced racism seen never before. Since the 1960’s, Americans have tried, and tried again to fight for the rights of people, but it never seems like enough. People have long debated, and are still debating, about the issue of Jim Crow, and whether it still lives on today. The effects of The Jim Crow South today still negatively affecting African-Americans today in the south.

The presences of stereotypes are overwhelming and are developed by both the environment a subject is raised in and their family. Stereotypes, which are pervasive throughout different societies, become intertwined in the collective values of the society as justification for all forms of social, economic, and political inequality among groups (Devine and Elliot 2000;Kaplan 2004; Operario and Fiske 2004). As people become more exposed to stereotypes they start to become a permanent part of a person’s life, they begin to stereotype themselves almost always involuntarily.

Mamie P. and Kenneth B. Clark were social physiologists that dedicated their lives to the social reconstruction of equality of African Americans in America. As social psychologists, the Clarks were interested in the African American experience post World War II and the current acceptance of segregation among races. The Clark’s empirical research through scientific methods were to understand and explain how the thoughts, feelings, and behavior of segregated and desegregated African Americans were influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of caucasians. Their research informally began with their own experiences growing up in America.