Psychological Perspectives on Perceptions of Black Victimhood in the United States

Abstract

In the United States, White people often accuse Black people of playing the “race card.” This phrase is used to chastise Black people for using their history of victimization as an excuse to avoid personal accountability.Within the connotation of this phrase are assumptions about Black victimization. One assumption is that Black identity, and in turn Black victimhood, is a social resource that Black people will use strategically for their own benefit. Second, this phrase carries an assumption that being a victim by way of one’s Black identity is a desirable, beneficial social status. These assumptions of victimhood as desirable and strategic underline many academic (namely social psychological) and political constructions of victimhood. However, articulations of victimhood in social and political psychology do not often consider the history of systemic racism; nor, histories of White violence against Black people. Black people in the United States have been victimized by White physical and structural violence since the early origins of the country. Although