scholarly journals Past Place, Present Prejudice: The Impact of Adolescent Racial Context on White Racial Attitudes

2020 ◽  
Vol 82 (2) ◽  
pp. 529-542 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seth K. Goldman ◽  
Daniel J. Hopkins
2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 649-668 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seth K Goldman ◽  
Daniel J Hopkins

Abstract Prior research finds that exposure to outgroup exemplars reduces prejudice, but it has focused on most-likely cases. We examine whether salient outgroup exemplars can reduce prejudice under more challenging conditions, such as when they are counter-stereotypical but not well-liked, and the audience is heterogeneous and holds strong priors. Specifically, we assess the impact of the Obama exemplar under the less auspicious conditions of the 2012 U.S. presidential campaign. Using panel data, we find that racial prejudice declined during the campaign, especially among Whites with the most exposure to Obama through political television. Liking Obama proved irrelevant to these effects, as did partisanship. Racial prejudice increased slightly after the campaign ended, but the effects remained largely intact weeks later.


2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (7) ◽  
pp. 611-631 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmitt Y. Riley ◽  
Clarissa Peterson

This article investigates the impact of Black congressional representation on the racial attitudes of Whites. Utilizing data from the 2010 and 2012 Cooperative Congressional Election Survey, we test whether Black political representation impacts Whites’ levels of racial resentment. The informational theory suggests Whites gain critical information as a result of their experience living under Black political leadership and that their experience should positively impact how they feel about Blacks once Whites see that their lives are not dramatically changed as a result of Black political representation. The findings of this article challenge the notion that having a Black political representative will be associated with a decrease in negative racial attitudes among Whites. Using racial resentment to measure White racial attitudes, we find that living under a Black congressional representative only has a marginal effect on racial attitudes. In contrast to the informational hypothesis, we find that Whites who reside in congressional districts represented by a Black person are not less racially resentful than Whites who live in districts that are not represented by a Black person.


2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gauthamie Poolokasingham ◽  
Lisa Spanierman ◽  
E. Janie Pinterits ◽  
Tim Engles

2001 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Johnson

Students of race and politics in the U.S. have long asserted a relationship between the racial composition and public policies of states. A related but distinct line of research demonstrates a strong connection between white attitudes about the perceived recipients of social welfare spending—blacks and members of other minority groups—and support for these programs. This article bridges these lines of scholarship by asking how racial diversity shapes aggregate attitudes about minorities in the American states and how these opinions in turn influence welfare spending. Using public opinion data from the General Social Survey ( 1974–96), I find that diversity has a direct influence on welfare policy in the states, as well as an indirect influence through shaping majority-group racial attitudes. Diversity and racial attitudes are found to have these effects even when controlling for factors traditionally used to explain variation in state spending levels, such as party competition, lower class mobilization, ideology, and state capacity.


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