Talking Race Across Racial Divides

Event details

In a diverse and unequal world, race talk—discussions about race and racial inequality—is increasingly commonplace: online, in schools, and at work. But such talk can also be contentious. How do people present themselves during race talk, and to what effect? We address this question across four settings—on social media, in the classroom, on Zoom, and in the lab—focusing on White Americans’ and racially marginalized Americans’ emotional expression during race talk. We identify whether speakers’ race or political ideology is associated with emotional expression during race talk—and whether such expressions predict interpersonal affiliation. We find that speaker ideology reliably predicts emotional expression during race talk. We also find that emotional specificity matters, with divergent effects for expressions of anger and sadness. Mode of emotional communication also matters. For instance, race talk was more likely predict Black speakers’ verbal emotionality and White speakers’ nonverbal emotionality during cross-racial conversations. Finally, exploratory analyses suggest that emotional expression during race talk has interpersonal consequence. There is no one emotional signature of race talk—emotional expression depends on the person, the audience, and the context—but race talk matters.