Attributing disadvantage to structural causes rather than personal character protects self-esteem.

Evidence

What is now known as “institutional racism” more broadly implicates the effects of systemic bias that are not necessarily linked to a given person or even racial group ( Jones, 1997). In particular, system blaming and justification are two types of systems perception that have been investigated. System blame, the tendency to perceive structural inequalities as a source of individual and group disadvantage, has been associated with positive self-esteem in Blacks (Crocker, Luhtanen, Brodnax & Blaine, 1999). Targets of discrimination are more likely to believe that outcomes (positive or negative) are due more to structural determinants than personal character (Kleugel & Smith, 1986). Whether this perception is an ego-defensive projection or ideological perception, it is not one of the defenses proposed by Allport. — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 1070

The extropunitive path has developed into research and theory that proposes and finds relatively positive psychological well-being among Black Americans (see Twenge & Crocker, 2002). This research has further shown that the sociocognitive mechanisms that identify external sources of individual and collective disadvantage may have self-protective psychological effects (Crocker & Major, 1989). Research that has explored the intropunitive path more often finds that experiencing or perceiving prejudice has adverse psychological effects (see Branscombe, Schmitt, & Harvey, 1999). — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1055

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the observer/harasser framing elsewhere in this volume: the same system-blame that aids victims’ self-esteem is precisely what tit-for-tat retaliation models predict others will read as threat. — connects to: The girl’s humility produces her inferiority, not the reverse — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 834; Adolescent girls’ attributed faults express their passive dependent situation, not biology — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 902; Low expectations for girls produce their own inferiority complex — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1938 (+5 more)
• QUESTION: Could ask what boundary conditions determine whether perceived discrimination is self-protective versus adverse — the two literatures seem to conflict.
• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice: Fifty Years…, 1070; , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1055