White friends harm, Black friends help: Mediators of racial color-blindness and ethnocultural empathy

In this study, we investigated how color-blind racial beliefs and ethnocultural empathy were associated through the racial composition of close friendship groups in police recruits. Understanding the relationship between these constructs is important as it may shape the types of training and interventions for police officers to promote multicultural competency and effectiveness in the diverse communities that they serve. In a sample of police recruits in a Midwestern training academy (N = 261), mediational path analyses across two time points revealed a significant association between color-blind beliefs and empathy for racial/ethnic minorities through White friendships even after controlling for empathy ratings at Time 1. Specifically, greater racial unawareness was associated with greater close friendships with White people, which in turn predicted lower empathy for racial/ethnic minority group members. Findings also indicated a significant association between ethnocultural empathy and color-blind beliefs at Time 2 through Black and White friendships after controlling for racial color-blind beliefs at Time 1. Police recruits with greater ethnocultural empathy who had more close friendships with Black people subsequently had greater racial awareness (i.e., lower color-blind racial beliefs). On the other hand, police recruits with greater ethnocultural empathy also had fewer White friendships, and these friendships were associated with greater endorsement of color-blind racial beliefs. Exploratory multigroup analyses indicated that these findings were invariant across racial/ethnic minority recruits and White recruits. Limitations, directions for future research, and implications for training and intervention in police samples are discussed.U of I OnlyAuthor requested U of Illinois access only (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD syste