Title of Project: / College Student Perceptions of the N-Word in the Post-Civil Rights Era
Responsible Investigator (Faculty Research Mentor if Student Research)
Name: / Rhonda E. Dugan; Dahna L. Rasmussen
HSPT Exam Taken 2/16/2011(Dugan) HSPT Exam Taken 9/26/2014 (Rasmussen) / E-Mail: / ;
Department or
Program: / Department of Sociology
Department Chair or Program Director
Name: / Edwin Sasaki, Interim Chair / E-Mail: /
Student Researcher
Name: / N/A / E-Mail:
Requested Level of Review:
☐Exemption from Full Review ☒Expedited ☐Standard
Describe how human subjects will be involved in the proposed research:
The research project will include college students of various racial and ethnic backgrounds who will participate in face-to-face audio recorded interviews regarding their understanding, interpretation, and use/nonuse of the N-word and its variants in the post-Civil Rights United States. A minimum of 20 college students (10 from CSUB and 10 Bakersfield College) will be recruited to participate in the study.
This Section for GRaSP Office Use
Responsible Investigator has affirmed accuracy and truth [check] Date Department Chair has acknowledged submission [check] Date Assigned Level of Review: Standard Expedited Exemption from Full Review
Create your IRB submission as a single document made up of: [a] this completed cover page, followed by [b] the text of your IRB protocol, and [c] all research materials such as surveys, interview guides, consent forms, and permission letters. Submit this document [faculty only via Firefox] to the GRASP Office via the link found here: http://www.csub.edu/grasp/IRBHSR/IRB%20html/ProtHumSub.htm
"Human Subjects Protocol" Instructions (revised June 2012)
Use the following underlined headings as an outline. Provide the information requested under each heading to describe your proposed research. The IRB conducts a cost/benefit analysis. The potential costs to subjects are weighed against the potential benefits of the research. Therefore, the content of the "Purpose" section is important.
I. Title (of the proposed research activity)
”College Student Perceptions of the N-Word in the Post-Civil Rights Era”
II. Professional Qualifications (to do the proposed research), including a description of any necessary
support services, facilities, and equipment. A vita (optional) should be limited to qualifications applicable to the proposed research.
Dr. Rhonda E. Dugan is an Associate Professor of Sociology at CSUB. She earned her doctorate in 2005 from the University of Illinois, Chicago. Dugan’s research/teaching areas of interest include race, gender, culture, and popular culture. Dugan’s most recent scholarship, a co-authored book chapter (with R. Stephen Warner and Elise Cohen Martel) titled “Islam is to Catholicism as Teflon is to Velcro” is published in Sustaining Faith Traditions: Race, Ethnicity, and Religion among the Latino and Asian American Second Generation, edited by Carolyn Chen and Russell Jeung (2012). Dahna Rasmussen graduated from CSUB with a BA and MA in Sociology in 2011 and 2013, respectively. Currently, she is an adjunct instructor in the CSUB sociology department. While an undergraduate/graduate student at CSUB, Rasmussen was a Hawks Honors Student, a McNair Scholar, a Student Research Scholar, and a recipient of the Graduate Student-Faculty Collaborative Initiative (Research/Scholarship). Her MA thesis, completed in spring 2013, was titled ““The N-Word: It Doesn’t Mean THAT Anymore…Or Does It?” Dugan and Rasmussen recently presented their ongoing research at the Pacific Sociological Association annual conference in Portland, OR in March 2014. The title of research presentation was “From Slur to Slang? Perceived Meaning and Use of the N-Word among Nonblack College Students.”
III. Sponsor if the research is grant-supported or contract research.
Not applicable
IV. Purpose of the proposed research, in the context of a summary of previous research, with an explicit statement of what is and is not known about the topic. Indicate what the proposed research could add, stated as benefits to be gained by the discipline and by the subjects.
Empirical studies have examined the use and perception of the N-word (“nigger”, “nigga”) among blacks in the United States (Motley & Henderson 2007; Rahman 2012; Spears 1998; Wiggins 2011), even among black college students (Dodson 2010; Rasmussen 2013). In general, these studies show that many blacks consider and use the word “nigga” as a term of endearment in their interactions with other blacks, yet consider “nigger” offensive especially when used by nonblacks. However, findings also show that there is a difference in the intent of the N-word, depending upon which version is spoken (“nigger” versus “nigga”) and the racial-ethnic background of the individual who says it. Interestingly, these existing findings have led us to consider whether nonblacks have the same interpretations of the N-Word as blacks. With a couple of exceptions (Hoffman, Wallach, Graham, and Sanchez 2009; Rasmussen & Dugan, in progress), there appears to be a paucity in this line of research in regard to the current perception and use of the N-Word among nonblacks, especially nonblack college students. Preliminary results from Rasmussen & Dugan (in progress) show that nonblack college students report using the N-word (i.e., nigga) with friends of various racial and ethnic backgrounds (including blacks) and family members as a term of endearment as blacks have reported in their use as stated in the existing research cited above. Therefore, the purpose of the current research study is to gain a more in-depth understanding from college students of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds on their use/nonuse and interpretation of the N-word (both “nigger” and “nigga”) through depth interviews. We find our research timely since there was much public debate in 2013 and 2014 regarding the use of the N-Word, particularly by nonblack celebrities such as chef
Paula Dean, comedienne Lisa Lampanelli, NFL cornerback Riley Cooper, and the entertainer Madonna. Ultimately, this research has sociological significance. Drawing from scholar W.E.B. DuBois, we contest that there is still a problem of the color line in the 21st century in the United States which contrasts with current ideological suggestions that the United States is “post-racial.” This perspective suggests, simply, that in the United States “race no longer matters” in the 21st century,
particularly now that Barack Obama is in his second term as the first black President of the United States. (See Garam and Brooks, 2010; Love and Tosolt 2010.) However, other research suggests that the U.S. is not post-racial; rather, the U.S. has operated under the ideology of colorblindness in the post-Civil Rights era, which, ultimately, has led to colorblind racism (Bonilla-Silva and Dietrich, 2011).
Therefore, using the debate surrounding post-racial ideology as a springboard, we find it intriguing to explore why both African Americans and nonblacks alike use an expletive, frequently as a term of endearment, that has sociohistorically been used (and continues to be used) as a way to demean, oppress, racialize, and objectify African Americans. Is it possible that college students we plan to interview perceive that the U.S. is “post-racial” which might explain their use of the N-word? Interestingly, there is little empirical research done on the proposed topic, so we perceive our findings to greatly contribute to sociological scholarship by filling a void in the areas of contemporary racial attitudes and racial ideology.
REFERENCES
Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo and David Dietrich. 2011. “The Sweet Enchantment of Color-Blind Racism
in Obamerica.” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
634: 190-206.
Dodson, Milo Laurenz. 2010. “African American College Students’ Conceptualizations and
Emotional Reactions to the N-Word: A Vignette Study.” Master’s Thesis, Department of
Educational Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Garam, Bernadette Kwee and Jeneve Brooks. 2010. “Students’ Perceptions of Race and Ethnic
Relations Post Obama’s Election: A Preliminary Analysis.” Race, Gender, and Class 17(3-4):
64-80.
Hoffman, August, Julie Wallach, Mark Graham, and Eduardo Sanchez. 2009. “Changing
Perceptions in the Justification of the Use of the N-Word through Community Service
Work Experiences: Offensive Comments or Terms of Endearment?” Journal of
Praxis in Multicultural Education 4(1):1-12.
Love, Bettina L. and Brandelyn Tosolt. 2010. “Reality or Rhetoric? Barack Obama and Post-Racial
America. Race, Gender, and Class 17(3-4): 19-37.
Motley, Carol and Kellina Craig-Henderson. 2007. “Epithet or Endearment?: Examining
Reactions Among Those of the African Diaspora to an Ethnic Epithet. Journal of
Black Studies 37(6):944-963.
Rahman, Jacquelyn. 2012. "The N Word: Its History and Use in the African American
Community." Journal of English Linguistics 40(2):137-171.
Rasmussen, Dahna. 2013. “The N-Word: It Doesn’t Mean THAT Anymore…Or Does It?”
Master’s Thesis, Department of Sociology, California State University, Bakersfield.
Rasmussen, Dahna and Rhonda E. Dugan. In Progress. “From Slur to Slang? Perceived Meaning
and Use of the N-Word among Nonblack College Students.”
Spears, Arthur K. 1998. “African-American Language Use: Ideology and So-Called
Obscenity”. Pp. 226-250 in African-American English: Structure, History, and Use,
edited by S. Mufwene, J. R. Rickford, G. Bailey, and J. Baugh. New York:
Routledge.
Wiggins, Keya. 2011. “African Americans’ Perceptions of the N-Word in the Context of
Racial Identity Attitudes.” Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Communication
Disorders and Counseling, School, and Educational Psychology, Indiana State
University.
V. Methods of the proposed research activity, including appropriateness of the design. Refer to the content of
Section 4 as needed for clarification.
Utilizing nonrandom availability and snowball sampling procedures, this qualitative project will use face to face in-depth interviewing as the primary mode of data collection. The unit of analysis is the individual level; moreover, the target population is college students of various racial and ethnic backgrounds who either attend Bakersfield College (BC) or California State University, Bakersfield (CSUB). The goal is to obtain a sample of a minimum sample size of 20 students, ideally ten from BC and ten from CSUB. Recruitment will include: visiting classrooms on both campuses to solicit participants, post flyers advertising the research study for potential participants, and referring to existing contact information that had been collected from Rasmussen’s prior MA thesis research about this study’s topic. In addition, we will ask a participant if s/he would refer our study to a person s/he feels would be interested in participating and have the person contact us. Each interview will be audio-taped (unless a participant requests not to be recorded) and transcribed for data analysis. On average, we project an interview to last between 60-90 minutes.
VI. Procedures to be used, focusing on the experiences of the subjects in the research.
We expect that participants will experience a minimum of risk, discomfort, and/or stress
due to the sensitive nature of the topic. Some questions may be personal and thought-provoking or possibly emotional in nature, and because of this, participants are free to withdraw at any time if should they become uncomfortable during the interview. Should participants need further assistance with residual emotional feelings after the interview, the phone number for either the Counseling Center (CSUB campus) or the Student Health Center (BC campus) will be provided on the informed consent document. Both researchers will be available to assist participants in making the initial contact with the appropriate office if needed or requested by the participant.
VII. Information Security with respect to collection, handling, storage, reporting, and destruction of research data and consent forms. Describe specific steps that will be taken to enhance confidentiality and protect the privacy of the participants.
All identifying information of research participants will remain confidential. Any report or presentation resulting from this research will use pseudonyms for participants who are either indirectly or directly quoted. All audiotapes and subsequent transcriptions from audiotaped interviews, as well as informed consent documents, will be kept in Dugan’s office where she and Rasmussen only will have access. The audio-tapes, as well as copies of informed consent documents will all be destroyed within one year after the completion of the study. The transcriptions of interviews (both paper copies and electronic copies) without identifiers, however,
will be kept for possible future research projects.
VIII. Subjects
a. Subject Selection Criteria for participation
Research subjects who are current college students at either BC or CSUB college students will be recruited for participation in the research study.
b. Subject Exclusion Criteria from participation and justification
Individuals who are not college students at either CSUB or BC will not be considered for participation in the study. Any college student under the age of 18 at either CSUB or BC will not be considered for participation in the study.
c. Vulnerable Populations justifying use of subjects such as children, pregnant women, ethnic minorities, prisoners, mentally disabled persons, economically or educationally disadvantaged persons, students in the classroom, or employees in their workplace.
Since our target population is college students, it is possible that a potential interviewee may perceive that their participation may affect their grade in any class and/or their status at their respective university. To alleviate this concern, we have noted on the informed consent document that a student’s participation in our research study will have no effect on any course they have taken or will take at their college/university.
d. Risks to Subjects including psychological harm and possible breaches of confidentiality. Explain precautions taken to minimize risk.
Potential risk to a participant during an interview is that s/he may experience emotional discomfort by reflecting upon past experiences of the use of “nigger”/”nigga” and/or that a participant has been referred to as either one or both terms. If an interviewee becomes emotionally uncomfortable, the interviewer will stop the interview and consult with the participant on how s/he is feeling. If the interviewee wished to stop the interview, the interviewer will do so immediately and refer the participant to contact information located on the informed consent document.
e. Managing Adverse Reactions physical or emotional, of subjects due to participation, and how they will be dealt with
Any participant who becomes emotionally uncomfortable and/or distressed during the interview will have the complete freedom to withdraw from the research study at any time. If a participant feels that s/he needs additional help with residual emotional feelings after completing the interview, the phone number for either the Counseling Center (CSUB campus, 661-654-3366) or the Student Health Center (Bakersfield College campus, 661- 395-4336) will be provided to her/him. The aforementioned contact information will also be included on the Informed Consent document.