Abstract
Decades after the cessation of African American lynchings, the public decry of the
Tuskegee Experiment, and the dawn of the civil rights movement, social life in the United States
continues to be characterized by significant racial discrimination and stratification. This divide
may potentially play a significant role in African Americans’ 1) formation of trust of individuals
of different racial and ethnic groups, which is integral to the formation of social capital and 2)
willingness to cooperate with governmental institutions, which have historically been composed
of individuals of other races at times promulgating discrimination. This study steps outside the
traditional boundaries of racial issues in the research literature to explore levels of trust toward
other ethnic groups and the institution of government within the African American community.
We determine that both individual and community level factors impact trust levels.
The use of multilevel modeling allowed us to test the influence of community as well as
individual characteristics in shaping levels of trust. This yields a more complete and accurate
model of the factors that account for the systematic differences in trust. As a result of this study,
we have a better understanding of trust levels between African-Americans and whites within the
community context. This study shows that trust is related to a myriad of factors: individual
characteristics, including income and education; belonging to racial groups, as in the case of
African Americans which traditionally have been racially stigmatized and discriminated against;
and the characteristics of the community as it pertains to ethnic make-up and heterogeneousity.
2
Convention