Antiracism and Nonracism Scale

Abstract

The Antiracism and Nonracism Scale, developed by LaCosse et al. in 2023, is a 10-item instrument designed to assess antiracist and nonracist beliefs. This measure emerged from a study focused on identifying and quantifying belief systems among White Americans actively involved in combating racial discrimination. The creation of this scale was driven by limitations in prior antiracism measures, which often failed to accurately capture genuine antiracist beliefs and frequently conflated multiple constructs within their items.

Initially, seven items were developed to measure antiracism, focusing on the belief that White individuals must actively participate in the fight against racism. Concurrently, seven nonracism items were created to gauge the belief that racial prejudice is inherently wrong. The scale was administered to a demographic of White undergraduate students within the United States. Through a rigorous process of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, a clear two-factor structure emerged, resulting in the retention of five items for each subscale: nonracism and antiracism. Comprehensive psychometric evaluations were conducted, and the scale demonstrated strong internal consistency, as well as robust convergent, predictive, and discriminant validity.

Keywords

Antiracism Beliefs, Nonracism Beliefs, Racial Discrimination, Racial Inequality, Social Change, Attitudes, Race and Ethnic Discrimination, Racial and Ethnic Attitudes, Social Change, Social Issues, Social and Interpersonal Measures, Antiracism.

Authors

• LaCosse, Jennifer

• Krusemark, Danielle

• Foltz, Jennifer

• Plant, E. Ashby

Purpose

The primary purpose of the Antiracism and Nonracism Scale is to precisely assess individuals’ beliefs regarding both antiracism and nonracism. This measure aims to differentiate between these two constructs, providing a nuanced understanding of how individuals perceive and engage with issues of racial equality and discrimination. It was specifically developed to address the shortcomings of previous measures that conflated these concepts or did not adequately capture the complexities of active antiracist beliefs.

Validity

The Antiracism and Nonracism Scale has demonstrated robust validity across several key aspects:

Convergent and Discriminant Validity: The antiracism subscale exhibited a positive correlation with the nonracism subscale, pro-Black attitudes, and the internal motivation to respond without prejudice scale (IMS; Plant & Devine, 1998). Conversely, it showed a negative correlation with anti-Black attitudes. These correlations were moderate in strength (rs < .58), suggesting that antiracism is a distinct construct, yet related to these concepts. Notably, antiracism was found to be unrelated to the external motivation to respond without prejudice scale (EMS; Plant & Devine, 1998) and fear of negative evaluation, which highlights its independence from social desirability concerns. Both antiracism and nonracism subscales were positively correlated with a measure of perceived discrimination in America, further supporting their relevance to understanding racial issues.

Predictive Validity: Individuals scoring high on the antiracism subscale were more likely to identify racial discrimination as a significant societal problem. Furthermore, they were more prone to report active engagement in social change initiatives aimed at mitigating such discrimination, demonstrating the scale’s ability to predict real-world behaviors and perceptions related to racial justice.

Reliability

The internal consistency of the Antiracism and Nonracism Scale was assessed using McDonald’s Omega (ω), indicating strong reliability for both subscales:

• For the Antiracism subscale, the internal consistency was ω = .86.

• For the Nonracism subscale, the internal consistency was ω = .82.

These values suggest that the items within each subscale consistently measure the same underlying construct.

Factor Analysis

The development of the Antiracism and Nonracism Scale involved thorough factor analysis to establish its underlying structure:

Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA):

• Antiracism Scale: Initial EFA results indicated that removing two items from the original set significantly increased the total variance explained from 54.25% to 66.67%. Consequently, only the five most robust items were retained for further analysis, forming the final Antiracism subscale.

• Nonracism Scale: Similarly, EFA for the nonracism scale revealed that removing two items improved the total variance explained from 46.97% to 57.06%. As a result, only the five strongest items were retained for the final Nonracism subscale.

• Combined Scales (10 items): An EFA conducted on all ten final items (five for each scale) indicated that two distinct factors accounted for 62.06% of the total variance, strongly supporting a two-factor structure.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA): Due to time constraints, only four of the final five items on the nonracism scale were administered in subsequent analyses, resulting in a 9-item version of the scale for this specific validation step. A confirmatory factor analysis comparing a two-factor model (with separate antiracism and nonracism items) against a one-factor model (treating all items as a single construct) demonstrated that the two-factor model provided a significantly better fit to the data. This robustly confirms the distinct nature of the antiracism and nonracism constructs as measured by the scale.

Instrument

• Test Type: Original

• Format: The items of the Antiracism and Nonracism Scale are rated on a 9-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (“strongly disagree”) to 9 (“strongly agree”). Higher scores on the scale indicate a greater level of the respective construct (antiracism or nonracism). The administration method used was electronic.

• Language Available: English

• Population Group: Human; Male; Female

• Age Group: Adulthood (18 years and older)

• Population Details: The measure was specifically administered to White undergraduate students located in the United States.

• Test Methodology: The development and validation of the scale employed a comprehensive set of psychometric methodologies, including Test Validity (Convergent Validity, Discriminant Validity, Predictive Validity), Test Reliability (Internal Consistency), and Factor Analysis (Confirmatory Factor Analysis, Exploratory Factor Analysis).

Authors

• LaCosse, Jennifer

  • Author ORCID Identifier: No data is Available

  • Affiliation: Bates College

  • Email address: [email protected]

• Krusemark, Danielle

  • Author ORCID Identifier: No data is Available

  • Affiliation: Florida State University

  • Email address: No data is Available

• Foltz, Jennifer

  • Author ORCID Identifier: No data is Available

  • Affiliation: Florida State University

  • Email address: No data is Available

• Plant, E. Ashby

  • Author ORCID Identifier: No data is Available

  • Affiliation: Florida State University

  • Email address: No data is Available

Correspondence Address: LaCosse, Jennifer: Bates College, Department of Psychology, Pettengill Hall, 2 Andrews Rd., Lewiston, Maine, United States, 04240

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

• Permissions: The Antiracism and Nonracism Scale is available for use in research and teaching purposes.

• Fee: No fee is associated with the use of this measure.

• Test Year: 2023

References

LaCosse, J., Krusemark, D., Foltz, J., & Plant, E. A. (2023). Antiracism: Development and validation of a measure designed to identify White Americans who proactively fight to end discrimination toward Black Americans. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 26(1), 180–202. doi.org/10.1177/13684302211048886

Items of the Antiracism and Nonracism Scale

The Antiracism and Nonracism Scale consists of 10 items in total, divided into two distinct factors: Antiracism and Nonracism. The specific items can be found in Table 1 on Page 186 of the source reference: LaCosse, J., Krusemark, D., Foltz, J., & Plant, E. A. (2023). Antiracism: Development and validation of a measure designed to identify White Americans who proactively fight to end discrimination toward Black Americans. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 26(1), 180–202. doi.org/10.1177/13684302211048886.

Antiracism Items

1. It is important for White people to actively try to promote equal treatment of Blacks and Whites.

2. It is important for White people to share their nonprejudiced beliefs with other White people.

3. White people should do more than just acknowledge that racism toward Black people exists.

4. White people need to speak out against racial discrimination.

5. White people should proactively (i.e., with words and actions) show that they are antidiscrimination.

Nonracism Items

1. I would never say anything overtly racist about a Black person.

2. I would never discriminate against a Black person based on race.

3. It is never acceptable to stereotype Black people based on their race.

4. I think White people and Black people should be treated equally in academic and employment settings.

5. In some situations, it is okay to discriminate against Black people based on race.ʳ

Note: Items are rated on a 9-point scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 9 (strongly agree). “r” refers to items that are reverse-coded.