BLACK-AND-WHITE TOKENS IN ACADEMIA - A DIFFERENCE OF CHRONIC VERSUS ACUTE DISTINCTIVENESS

Token status effects, also called distinctiveness, include feelings of racial/gender awareness, representativeness, and accountability. In t his multimethod three-part research, it is argued that Black students in a predominantly White university feel chronically distinctive, wher eas White students may feel acutely distinctive when they are in the n umerical minority. However, this acute distinctiveness is situation sp ecific. First a pilot study confirmed that Black and White females dif fer in their reports of distinctiveness. Study 1 showed that Black stu dents feel chronically distinctive and that they are often ''solos'' i n classrooms. Study 2 tried to separate race and solo status effects o n distinctiveness by experimentally manipulating group solo status, Re sults indicate a main effect for solo status and also a main effect fo r race on feelings of distinctiveness across solo conditions. Applicat ions of this research for the token literature and for distinctiveness theory are discussed.