Seeing Behavior as Black, Brown, or White: Teachers' Racial/Ethnic Bias in Perceptions of Routine Classroom Misbehavior.

This article investigates whether teachers perceive Black and Latino boys as more blameworthy than White boys for identical routine classroom misbehavior, using the concept of "perceived blameworthiness." Employing a national video experiment with 1,339 U.S. middle and high school teachers who viewed identical misbehavior by boys of different racial/ethnic backgrounds, the study finds that Black boys are significantly more likely to be perceived as blameworthy than White boys, while Latino boys show a similar but statistically nonsignificant pattern. Additionally, Latinx teachers rate Black boys as more blameworthy than White teachers do, whereas Black teachers do not differ significantly from White teachers in their evaluations. These findings highlight teacher racial bias as a contributing factor to racial disparities in school discipline and suggest implications for educational policy and teacher training aimed at reducing such biases.