ABSTRACT
Differences between black and white Americans in academic achievement have been intensively studied. This chapter presents a new explanation of the origin of the differences and reports an experimental model to illustrate them. However, the focus of this chapter is on another, more direct consequence of race prejudice: the emotional stress it creates for blacks, and its effects on academic performance. Research on test anxiety illustrates that stress has adverse effects on academic performance. The academic performance of both blacks and whites is affected by stress, but blacks are burdened with the added stress of race prejudice throughout their academic careers. The experimental material focused on race prejudice and was intended to arouse emotional stress. Race prejudice increases emotional stress, and that stress then reduces the students' motivation to learn and interferes with the cognitive processes involved in learning. Future research should focus on strategies for coping with race prejudice and stress.
