The relationship between racial attitudes and racial anxiety in a diverse academic setting: is it black and white?

In past years, the face of America\u27s workplaces and academic settings has become increasingly diverse, making it important to investigate modern racial attitudes and their relationship with interracial interactions. While there has been extensive study of the racial attitudes of Whites, those of Blacks are less frequently examined, especially in relation to interracial anxiety. One-hundred-forty-one White and 95 Black undergraduate students participated in this correlational study, in which they completed separate measures of racial attitudes and interracial anxiety. Results indicated a significant negative correlation between the variables for both Blacks (r = -.552,p \u3c .01) and Whites (r = -.574,p \u3c .01). As hypothesized, this demonstrated that individuals who endorse certain, negative racial attitudes would likely experience more anxiety in an interracial interaction. Findings may have important implications for improving interracial interactions in the workplace and an academic setting