based randomized samples, cultural norms within the African American community of limited alcohol use, low tolerance for intoxication, and conservative attitudes towards drinking may result in more negative social consequences from drinking from within their own racial group than is true for European Americans (Herd, 1994a). This important finding needs to be replicated in additional samples. Third, studies that involve primarily relatively small sample, community based randomized designs have been conducted showing that African Americans are more likely to encounter legal problems and other negative consequences from drinking than European Americans, even at similar levels of use (Mulia et al., 2009). Perhaps this occurs both because of extra tight controls over African American behavior by the dominant culture, and perhaps also because the same level of alcohol consumption is likely to lead to more impairment for some African Americans than for European Americans. To date, there is little empirical information on the process by which African Americans experience more legal problems and negative consequences from similar levels of consumption; further research in this area would prove helpful.
