Belief in the Permanence of Systemic Racism As a Barrier to Antiracist Activism

Systemic racism—the institutional and structural exclusion of and bias against people of color—negatively affects Black Americans. The present research seeks to address how beliefs about the permanence of systemic racism impact Black Americans' intentions to engage in collective action. In Study 1 we validate a scale measuring perceptions of the permanence of systemic racism (PSR). In Study 2, we found that the more that Black Americans perceive systemic racism to be permanent, the lower their intentions to engage in collective action. In Study 3, Black Americans attention to current events during a period when antiracist movement related to their beliefs in the permanence of systemic racism and their intentions to engage in collective action. In Study 4 we find that Black Americans who believe systemic racism is more permanent are more likely to perceive social justice actions and policies as ineffective and therefore indicate lesser intentions to support these efforts, suggesting that believing that systemic racism is permanent may undermine intentions to engage in anti-racist activities through undermining beliefs in their effectiveness.