Articles

"Thin Ice: 'Stereotype Threat' and Black College Students," by Claude M. Steele, The Atlantic Monthly
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/99aug/9908stereotype.htm
Stereotype threat is "the threat of being viewed through the lens of a negative stereotype, or the fear of doing something that would inadvertently confirm that stereotype," such as the stereotype that women perform poorly in math. Steele explains that some students try to escape stereotype threat by disidentifying with the part of life in which the stereotype originates, such as race or ethnic identities. The article defines what an academic community can do to reduce or completely eliminate stereotype threat - increase the degree of racial trust, or the assurance of racial fairness in assessment.

For further reading on the same topic, another article by the same author, "A threat in the air. How stereotypes shape intellectual identity and performance." The following link is an abstract: http://www.stanford.edu/~mmorten/orgweb/summaries/mse/content/Steele.html