Attributing disadvantage to systemic bias predicts positive self-esteem.

Evidence

As opposed to Allport’s intrapersonal level of analysis, research over the past several decades has implicated macrolevel perceptions of structural and enduring elements of discriminatory practice. 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. — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1070

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to vault claims on prejudice psychology; system-blame findings qualify the self-blame picture Allport envisioned. — connects to: Self-esteem operates implicitly through self-serving judgment biases that also buttress the self. — Anthony G. Greenwald and Mahzarin R. Banaji, Implicit Social Cognition: Attitudes,…, 152; Affiliation and rejection behaviors function as second-order boosts to self-esteem. — Anthony G. Greenwald and Mahzarin R. Banaji, Implicit Social Cognition: Attitudes,…, 162; Similarity-attraction functions as an implicit shield for self-esteem — Anthony G. Greenwald and Mahzarin R. Banaji, Implicit Social Cognition: Attitudes,…, 165