Colorblind and multicultural diversity strategies may create identity management
pressure, leading minorities to assert or distance from their racial identity. In two
experiments (N = 307, 279), Asian participants in the US completed racial identification
measures, contemplated employment at a company expressing a multicultural, ...
Colorblind and multicultural diversity strategies may create identity management
pressure, leading minorities to assert or distance from their racial identity. In two
experiments (N = 307, 279), Asian participants in the US completed racial identification
measures, contemplated employment at a company expressing a multicultural, colorblind, or
control strategy, and completed measures assessing ingroup similarity and comfort in the
company. In the colorblind condition, those strongly identified with their racial ingroup
downplayed similarity to the ingroup and expressed less comfort relative to multicultural and
control conditions. Those weakly identified reported more similarity (but inconsistently) and
more comfort in the colorblind relative to multicultural and control conditions. Thus,
diversity strategies convey different meanings to strongly and weakly identified Asians, with
the former responding to colorblindness with identity distancing and the latter with identity
assertion. Multiculturalism does not alter the typical pattern expected, with strongly identified
asserting their identity more than weakly identified.
