TRENDS: Racial Resentment and Public Opinion across the Racial Divide

2019 ◽  
Vol 72 (4) ◽  
pp. 767-784 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cindy D. Kam ◽  
Camille D. Burge
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Racial Inequality ◽  
Black Americans ◽  
White Americans ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Racial Resentment ◽  
Quantitative Examination ◽  
Racial Divide ◽  
Black Public Opinion

Research on racial resentment has been meticulously developed, tested, and analyzed with white Americans in mind—yet black Americans have also responded to this battery for the past three decades. To date, little to nothing is known about the implications of responses to the racial resentment battery among black Americans. A burgeoning literature on blacks’ intragroup attitudes suggests that over time, black Americans have increasingly attributed racial inequality to individual failings as opposed to structural forces. As such, unpacking blacks’ responses to the canonical racial resentment battery may provide further insight into the micro-foundations of black public opinion. Using survey data from 1986 to 2016, we engage in a systematic quantitative examination of the role of racial resentment in predicting black and white Americans’ opinions on racial policies, “race-coded” policies, and nonracialized policies. Along the way, we highlight the existence of wide heterogeneity among black respondents and call for further investigation that identifies similarities and differences in the foundations of white and black public opinion.

scholarly journals Christian America in Black and White: Racial Identity, Religious-National Group Boundaries, and Explanations for Racial Inequality

2018 ◽  
Vol 80 (3) ◽  
pp. 277-298 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel L Perry ◽  
Andrew L Whitehead
Keyword(s):  
Racial Inequality ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
Black Americans ◽  
White Americans ◽  
Racial Justice ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Group Boundaries ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Group Identities

Abstract Recent research suggests that, for white Americans, conflating national and religious group identities is strongly associated with racism, xenophobia, and Islamophobia, prompting some to argue that claims about Christianity being central to American identity are essentially about reinforcing white supremacy. Prior work has not considered, however, whether such beliefs may influence the racial views of nonwhite Americans differently from white Americans. Drawing on a representative sample of black and white Americans from the 2014 General Social Survey, and focusing on explanations for racial inequality as the outcome, we show that, contrary to white Americans, black Americans who view being a Christian as essential to being an American are actually more likely to attribute black–white inequality to structural issues and less to blacks’ individual shortcomings. Our findings suggest that, for black Americans, connecting being American to being Christian does not necessarily bolster white supremacy, but may instead evoke and sustain ideals of racial justice.

scholarly journals Christian America in Black and White: Racial Identity, Religious-National Group Boundaries, and Explanations for Racial Inequality

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Perry ◽  
Andrew L Whitehead
Keyword(s):  
Racial Inequality ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
Black Americans ◽  
White Americans ◽  
Racial Justice ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Group Boundaries ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Group Identities

Recent research suggests that, for white Americans, conflating national and religious group identities is strongly associated with racism, xenophobia, and Islamophobia, prompting some to argue that claims about Christianity being central to American identity are essentially about reinforcing white supremacy. Prior work has not considered, however, whether such beliefs may influence the racial views of nonwhite Americans differently from white Americans. Drawing on a representative sample of black and white Americans from the 2014 General Social Survey, and focusing on explanations for racial inequality as the outcome, we show that, contrary to white Americans, black Americans who view being a Christian as essential to being an American are actually more likely to attribute black–white inequality to structural issues and less to blacks’ individual shortcomings. Our findings suggest that, for black Americans, connecting being American to being Christian does not necessarily bolster white supremacy, but may instead evoke and sustain ideals of racial justice.

Beyond Black and White: Transforming African-American Politics, Manning Marable, Second Edition, London: Verso, 2009

2012 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 210-221
Author(s):  
Paul M. Heideman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
African American ◽  
American Politics ◽  
Racial Inequality ◽  
Black Americans ◽  
Black Politics ◽  
The United States ◽  
African American Politics ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Transformative Politics

AbstractThe new edition of Manning Marable’sBeyond Black and Whiteseeks to explain the course of black politics in the United States over the last thirty years. Marable argues that this history shows the failure of liberal and nationalist politics to address the problems facing black Americans. Though Marable attempts to chart a course beyond these ideologies, his alternative of ‘transformative politics’, shorn of the revolutionary Marxism that defined his earlier writings, is no more capable of confronting racial inequality than the strategies it seeks to replace.

scholarly journals The Way They Look: Phenotypic Prototypicality Shapes the Perceived Intergroup Attitudes of In- and Out-group Members

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonas R. Kunst ◽  
John Dovidio ◽  
April Bailey ◽  
Milan Obaidi
Keyword(s):  
Causal Effect ◽  
General Tendency ◽  
Intergroup Attitudes ◽  
White Americans ◽  
Interracial Interactions ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Personal Attitudes ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Extended Experiment

Even when people hold little prejudice themselves, expectations about how members of other groups perceive them may negatively influence interracial interactions. In four pre-registered experiments each using a full intergroup design with Black and White participants, we show that people infer negative meta-attitudes from out-group members’ whose appearance is phenotypically prototypical, which in turn leads to less favorable orientations towards intergroup contact, independent of personal attitudes. In Experiment 1, Black Americans but not White Americans, perceived phenotypically prototypical out-group members to hold less favorable meta-attitudes and this explained less favorable contact orientations. In Experiment 2, this pattern emerged for both groups of participants and was pronounced among stigma conscious individuals. Experiment 3 replicated and extended Experiment 2 with representative samples, further demonstrating that the effect of phenotypic prototypicality is pronounced among participants who report previous rejection by the out-group. In Experiment 4, direct evidence for the causal effect of the mediator meta-attitudes on orientations toward contact was obtained. In all studies, effects held controlling for participants’ general intergroup attitudes and experiences, demonstrating the unique role of attitudes at the meta-perceptual level in shaping intergroup relations. Participants also perceived phenotypically prototypical in-group members as having less favorable intergroup attitudes, suggesting a general tendency to infer meta-attitudes from phenotypic prototypicality. We discuss our results in light of previous research, highlight social implications, and suggest future directions.

scholarly journals Positive and negative intergroup contact predict Black and White Americans' judgments about police violence against Black Americans

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (11) ◽  
pp. 605-615 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lydia E. Hayward ◽  
Matthew J. Hornsey ◽  
Linda R. Tropp ◽  
Fiona Kate Barlow
Keyword(s):  
Intergroup Contact ◽  
Black Americans ◽  
White Americans ◽  
Police Violence ◽  
Black And White

scholarly journals Understanding the Role of Racism in Contemporary US Public Opinion

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 153-169
Author(s):  
Katherine Cramer
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Public Affairs ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Political Inequality ◽  
Public Discussion ◽  
Racial Resentment ◽  
Contemporary Context ◽  
The Way

In the contemporary context, it is inescapable that racism is a factor in US public opinion. When scholars take stock of the way we typically measure and conceptualize racism, we find reason to reconceptualize the racial resentment scale as a measure of perceptions of the reasons for political inequality. We also see reason to move beyond thinking of racism as an attitude, toward conceptualizing it as a perspective. In addition, we see reason to pay closer attention to the role of elites in creating and perpetuating a role for racism in the way people think about public affairs. The study of racism is evolving in parallel with the broader public discussion: toward a recognition of the complex and fundamental ways it is woven into US culture and political life.

scholarly journals When Race Matters and When It Doesn't: Racial Group Differences in Response to Racial Cues

2007 ◽  
Vol 101 (2) ◽  
pp. 339-354 ◽  
Author(s):  
ISMAIL K. WHITE
Keyword(s):  
African Americans ◽  
Racial Differences ◽  
Group Identification ◽  
White Americans ◽  
Verbal Cues ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Political Messages ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Racial Cues

Building on previous research on the effects of racial priming on the opinions of White Americans, this paper engages the question of how exposure to racial cues in political messages shapes the opinions of African Americans. I argue that explanations of racial priming that focus exclusively on White Americans are insufficient to explain how racial cues influence the opinions of Black Americans, as they fail to account for the activation of in-group attitudes and mis-specify the role of explicit racial cues. In two separate laboratory experiments, I test the effects of explicitly racial, implicitly racial, and nonracial verbal cues on both Black and White Americans' assessments of an ostensibly nonracial issue. The results point to important racial differences in the effectiveness of explicit and implicit racial verbal cues in activating racial thinking about an issue. Only frames that provide oblique references to race successfully activated racial out-group resentment for Whites. Among Blacks, explicit references to race most reliably elicited racial thinking by activating racial in-group identification, whereas the effect of implicit cues was moderated by the activation of negative representations of the in group. These findings not only demonstrate that racial attitude activation works differently for African Americans than for Whites but also challenge conventional wisdom that African Americans see all political issues through a racial lens.

Seeing Blue in Black and White: Race and Perceptions of Officer-Involved Shootings

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Hakeem Jefferson ◽  
Fabian G. Neuner ◽  
Josh Pasek
Keyword(s):  
Strong Evidence ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Black Americans ◽  
Motivated Reasoning ◽  
Racial Group ◽  
Information Environment ◽  
White Americans ◽  
Belief Updating ◽  
White Race ◽  
Black And White

Following racially charged events, individuals often diverge in perceptions of what happened and how justice should be served. Examining data gathered shortly after the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri alongside reactions to a novel officer-involved shooting, we unpack the processes by which racial divisions emerge. Even in a controlled information environment, white Americans preferred information that supported claims of a justified shooting. Conversely, Black Americans preferred information that implied that the officer behaved inappropriately. These differences stemmed from two distinct processes: we find some evidence for a form of race-based motivated reasoning and strong evidence for belief updating based on racially distinct priors. Differences in summary judgments were larger when individuals identified strongly with their racial group or when expectations about the typical behaviors of Black Americans and police diverged. The findings elucidate processes whereby individuals in different social groups come to accept differing narratives about contentious events.

scholarly journals Good Cop, Bad Cop: Race-Based Differences in Mental Representations of Police

2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (8) ◽  
pp. 1205-1218 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Paige Lloyd ◽  
Mattea Sim ◽  
Evans Smalley ◽  
Michael J. Bernstein ◽  
Kurt Hugenberg
Keyword(s):  
Police Officers ◽  
Mental Representations ◽  
Minority Group ◽  
Black Americans ◽  
Reverse Correlation ◽  
White Americans ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Citizen Interactions ◽  
Correlation Procedure

The current work investigates race-based biases in conceptualization of the facial appearance of police. We employ a reverse correlation procedure to demonstrate that Black Americans, relative to White Americans, conceptualize police officers’ faces as more negative, less positive, and more dominant. We further find that these differential representations have implications for interactions with police. When naïve participants (of various races) viewed images of police officers generated by Black Americans (relative to those generated by White Americans), they responded with greater anticipated anxiety and reported more fight-or-flight behavioral intentions. Across four studies, findings suggest Black and White Americans conceptualize police and police–citizen interactions fundamentally differently. These findings have important theoretical (e.g., using reverse correlation to document the mental representations held by minority group members) and practical implications (e.g., identifying race-based differences in representations of police that may affect community–police relations).

A TASTE FOR PUNISHMENT: Black and White Americans' Views on the Death Penalty and the War on Drugs

2004 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 151-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence D. Bobo ◽  
Devon Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Death Penalty ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Racial Bias ◽  
Significant Degree ◽  
Racial Prejudice ◽  
White Americans ◽  
Black And White

It is commonly accepted that Black and White Americans hold divergent views about the criminal justice system. Furthermore, many accept the view that U.S. public opinion is unflinchingly punitive where issues of criminal justice policy are concerned, with this punitiveness among White Americans deriving to a significant degree from anti-Black prejudice. Using a series of survey-based experiments and large, nationally representative samples of White and African American respondents, we subject the questions of Black-White polarization, unyielding punitiveness, and the influence of racial prejudice to close scrutiny. Our results, first, confirm large Black-White differences in opinion with Blacks consistently less punitive than Whites. These differences are substantially a result of beliefs about the extent of racial bias in the criminal justice system. Second, the framing experiments suggest that responses to the death penalty are very different than responses to drug-related crimes like crack or powder cocaine use, with the former exhibiting far less malleability than the latter. Third, racial prejudice is a consistently large influence on White public opinion and a weaker, but sometimes important influence among Blacks as well. Implications for discourse on race and crime are also discussed.

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