Selected Publications

Interest Convergence and the Maintenance of Racial Advantage: The Case of Diversity in Higher Education

One of the major tenets of Critical Race Theory, Bell’s (1980) interest convergence hypothesis postulates that policies promising improvements for Black Americans are enacted only to the extent they advance White Americans’ interests. We elaborate and update Bell’s (1980) argument by demonstrating that current diversity commitments in higher education are another example of interest convergence. First, we present empirical and theoretical evidence that ubiquitous approaches to diversity serve the psychological interests of White Americans more than those of Black Americans. Second, we advance a systemic framework for how social psychological processes intersect with normative ideologies in the law and in universities’ operations to facilitate the prioritization of White over Black interests. In so doing, our goal is to illuminate the primacy of White identity and power as fundamental to shaping American society’s collective embrace of diversity.

Jordan Starck, Kyneshawau Hurd, Michael Perez, Michael & Christopher Marshburn | Journal of Social Issues | 2024

Diversity Resistance Redux: The Nature and Implications of Dominant Group Threat for Diversity and Inclusion

Resistance to organizational diversity and inclusion initiatives is not new. The psychological literature has identified a host of threats that some dominant group members perceive when they encounter changing demographics or policies and practices to address the experiences and historical exclusion of non-dominant group members. These threats can fuel a variety of anti-diversity responses. At the same time, diversity initiatives have shifted over time from a focus on the experiences and representation of non-dominant groups to broader, more diffuse and less morally-related goals. These shifts may reflect an implicit capitulation to the preferences and comfort of dominant groups in decisions about the selection and design of diversity initiatives. These choices have consequences for the experiences of non-dominant groups.

Victoria C. Plaut, Celina A. Romano, Kyneshawau Hurd, Emily Goldstein | 2020 | Article

Diversity Entitlement: Does ‘Diversity Benefits’ ideology undermine inclusion?

In this Essay, we first review the intellectual history of “diversity-benefits” ideology in these key affirmative action cases, focusing on the recruitment of social science by litigants, amici, and the Court; focusing on how these legal actors used social science to construct a view of diversity as a benefit to all, including dominant groups. In contrast, we note that the impact of discrimination and lack of diversity on historically marginalized groups has been largely, though not entirely, absent from this social science literature. We then examine the interracial contact framework that pervades the diversity-benefits literature, arguing that this approach is psychologically one-sided in that it focuses more on the benefits Whites receive from diversity than on how non-dominant groups experience diversity. Moreover, because diversity-benefits ideology positions Whites as key beneficiaries, it could create a sense of entitlement to diversity. We explain that while it appeals to egalitarian sensibilities, it can simultaneously appeal to Whites’ psychological desires to maintain their position at the top of the social hierarchy. Finally, we discuss an experiment we conducted to examine how four rationales based on those in Bakke affect policy support. Preliminary results suggest that diversity-benefits language may lead Whites to support policies that center benefits to white students more than policies tailored for non-dominant racial groups.

Kyneshawau Hurd & Victoria Plaut | 2018 | Article

Do Color Blindness and Multiculturalism Remedy or Foster Discrimination and Racism?

This article offers insight from psychological science into whether models of diversity (e.g., color blindness and multiculturalism) remedy or foster discrimination and racism. First, we focus on implications of a color-blind model. Second, we examine circumstances under which a multicultural approach yields positive or negative implications for interracial interactions, organizational diversity efforts, and discrimination. The research reviewed coalesces to suggest that while multiculturalism generally has more positive implications for people of color, both models have the potential to further inequality.

Victoria C. Plaut, Kecia M. Thomas, Kyneshawau Hurd, Celina Romano | 2018 | Article

Works in progress

Implicit Social Dominance Orientation: Explaining the Diversity Principle Policy Gap

This paper introduces and validates a measure of Implicit Social Dominance Orientation (ISDO) and explores its predictive power and moderating effect on the principal policy gap between abstract diversity endorsement and policy support. Previous research has demonstrated that Social Dominance Orientation (SDO), a measure of one’s preference for group-based dominance and hierarchy, is highly correlated with and predictive of a host of attitudinal and policy preferences and behaviors. However, the measure relies on self-report of explicit desires and unlikely to capture aspects of decision-making for self-identified egalitarians who purport to support diversity. The present research demonstrates the implicit measure of SDO predicts opposition to policy support even for those who profess to value diversity and equality.

Kyneshawau Hurd | Dissertation Article | In-Prep

Diversity & Dominance in Venture Capital: Racial Disparities in Investment Agreement Control Terms

Control terms are provisions in VC contracts that give investors control over many activities of a founders’ company limiting what founders can do with the company without investors’ permission. While standard industry practice, the use of control terms might allow VCs to fulfill commitments to diversify their investment portfolios while exerting disproportionate control and influence over founders from non-dominant groups compared to Whites. If so, this would fall short of achieving the purported aims of increased diversity in investment – empowerment and equity for non-dominant groups who have historically been kept out of the industry. Whereby an investment in Black founders nonetheless keeps patterns of race-based hierarchy stable by limiting the level of power and ownership Black founders have compared to White founders when they receive VC investment. Control terms, then, in the context of VC investments and commitments to diversity, may operate as “dominance terms” – contractual terms that allow VC to maintain group-based dominance and control over Black founders even as they invest in them (as compared to Whites).  Analyzing over 1000 Series A investment contracts, this paper finds that Black founders have more non-standard protective provisions than White founders, even from companies with robust diversity commitments.

Kyneshawau Hurd | Job Talk Article | In-Prep

Disclosure Dissonance: Corporations Strategic Use of Disclosure & the Effect on Racial Justice

Disclosure Dissonance describes corporations’ simultaneous disclosure of diversity data, both compelled and voluntary, and their use of non-disclosure agreements (“NDAs”) to limit racial minorities disclosure of racial discrimination allegations against the company. The project seeks to expose how corporations’ practice of limiting disclosure about racial injustice through the use of tools in intellectual property law juxtaposed with their open disclosure of diversity data as a means of accountability to racial justice undermines their purported diversity goals and commitments. I argue that recent pushes in state and federal legislatures to prohibit the use of NDAs in claims arising from sex discrimination could and should be extended to racial discrimination claims as well.

Kyneshawau Hurd | In-Prep

Perceptions of Diversity: Intersectional Representation Influences Judgements of Diversity, Belonging & Fit.

Most organizations in the U.S. have some form of commitment to diversity and diversity initiatives designed to attract and support people from different social identity groups. While organizations believe they are portraying diversity, those representations may diverge from the perceptions of diversity held by underrepresented groups, especially those with multiple marginalized identities (like women of color). Previous research has shown that diversity judgments are influenced, in part, by group membership. That is, the presence or apparent absence of in-group members influences whether perceivers consider a group to be sufficiently diverse. We expand upon these findings to explore the contribution race and gender make to the perception of diversity. Specifically, we explore how intersectional representation influences the perception of group diversity for different race and gender combination groups and how this affects different groups’ desire to work for these organizations. Replicating previous research, we find that racial minority group members perceive more diversity when groups included racial in-group members rather than members of other racial minority groups. We also find that racial in-group representation was not sufficient for diversity for WOC, Black women in particular. Additionally, these perceptions influenced WOCs perception of perceived belonging and attractiveness of the organization. This divergence of diversity perception has clear implications for the success of DEI programs designed to attract and retain talent from underrepresented backgrounds.

Lyndsey Wallace, Kyneshawau Hurd, Victoria C. Plaut | In-Prep