Mitigating Racial Inequity by Addressing Racism in the Criminal Justice System: A Behavior Analytic Approach

Gilmore et al. (2022) mapped racist talk onto Skinner’s three basic verbal units.

They asked: Can we call a racist joke a mand, a tact, or an intraverbal?

The paper stays at the white-board level—no new data, just a how-to guide for BCBAs.

Racist remarks can be sorted like any other verbal operant.

A demand to “speak English” is a mand—talk that gets the speaker something.

A slur tossed at a driver is a tact—talk controlled by what the speaker sees.

Gossip that repeats the slur later is an intraverbal—talk controlled by prior talk.

Fryling (2017) warned that mands, tacts, and intraverbals often blend together.

Rose agrees: most racist statements are mixes, but naming the main part still helps you plan change.

Scibak (2025) stretches the same lens to voting ads; Rose stretches it to courtrooms and cop talk.

Abbott (2013) reminds us to stop arguing about “real” definitions and look at what the verbal community rewards—exactly what Rose tells us to do with racist talk.

Next time you hear a racist comment at school, clinic, or probation office, label it first: mand, tact, or intraverbal.

Then change the payoff. Remove the reinforcer that keeps the remark alive.

This gives you a data-based path toward equity without debates or shame.