Suchergebnisse

As countless critics of The Cosby Show (1984-1992) would have us believe, the Huxtable family, as portrayed and envisioned by educator and comedian Bill Cosby, is not the traditional representation of Black family life. For many critics, as well as some Cosby show defenders, the experience depicted by the fictional Huxtable family was the unique experience of too few African Americans at the time; the suggestion is that the family is very wealthy. Contrary to the moral majority, its critics and defenders, I am not from the upper or middle classes like the Huxtable family; however, I identified with The Cosby Show more than with its predecessors, like Good Times (1974-1979). African Americans are no different than any other American group, and therefore, as writer and novelist Wendy Alexia Rountree suggests in her article "'Faking the Funk': A Journey Towards Authentic Blackness," we "should be allowed to develop individual identities that are not considered in conflict with our ethnic group identity but as a legitimate part of it." Consequently, as someone who identifies with The Cosby Show; who is an autistic, working-class Black female from the projects of East Harlem with two Ivy League degrees; and for whom cowboy boots are her footwear of choice, I say, take Good Times and The Cosby Show if you must, but leave me my Black experience.

The current study tested the extent to which intergroup contact reduces social dominance orientation (SDO), producing secondary transfer effects. Participants were first-year undergraduate students randomly assigned to live with either a same-race roommate or a roommate of a different race in university housing. Participants completed a feeling thermometer and a measure of SDO at the beginning and end of the fall semester. Participants in interracial rooms reported lower levels of SDO and more positive attitudes toward secondary groups (i.e., racial/ethnic groups other than their roommates' group) than participants in same-race rooms at the end of the semester. Those in interracial rooms exhibited a significant change in SDO levels and attitudes across time, whereas those in same-race rooms exhibited no change. Furthermore, SDO fully mediated the effect of intergroup contact on attitudes toward secondary groups. These findings provide causal evidence of secondary transfer effects and indicate SDO as an underlying mechanism.