Racialized Perceptions: a Comparative Study of Symbolic Racism in Europe

Symbolic racism is a concept that has been heavily publicized and studied in the American context. However, less is known about what factors may influence levels of symbolic racism outside of America, and more specifically, in Europe. Nevertheless, it expected that symbolic racism is present in European countries whose residents have a relationship with the African Diaspora and/or Great Migration of North Africans and Caribbean. Furthermore, symbolic racism is present where the state has laws implemented that prohibit actions of overt racism, old-fashion racism, and discrimination. Thus, this thesis examines symbolic racism in eight European countries: France, Italy, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Spain, Ireland, Belgium, and Germany. The inquiry begins constructing a six item additive scale of symbolic racism for each country using data from Eurobarometer 53 taken in 2000. A confirmatory factor analysis is utilized to insure that items used to conceptualize symbolic racism belong together. In addition, a Cronbach\u27s Alpha test was also conducted to insure reliability of scale. The findings suggest that the operationalization of symbolic racism used is appropriate. The analysis continues with an examination of background characteristics that help explain individuals\u27 levels of symbolic racism. The results of an ordinary least squares regression analysis for each country support some of the previous finding that age and political ideology can affect symbolic racism. Moreover, this research suggests that education not income is the most helpful explanatory variable in explaining individuals\u27 symbolic racism in Europe

Angry opposition to government redress: when the structurally advantaged perceive themselves as relatively deprived

We examined (structurally advantaged) non-Aborigines' willingness for political action against government redress to (structurally disadvantaged) Aborigines in Australia. We found non-Aborigines opposed to government redress to be high in symbolic racism and to perceive their ingroup as deprived relative to Aborigines. However, only perceived relative deprivation was associated with feelings of group-based anger. In addition, consistent with relative deprivation and emotion theory, it was group-based anger that fully mediated a willingness for political action against government redress. Thus, the specific group-based emotion of anger explained why symbolic racism and relative deprivation promoted a willingness for political action against government redress to a structurally disadvantaged out-group. Theoretical and political implications are discussed

The role of old-fashioned racism: disaggregating symbolic racism in the United States

Old-fashioned, biological, or Jim Crow racism is viewed by many in the political science and psychology literature to be largely a relic of the past. In the post-segregation era it has been replaced as a political force by symbolic racism, although its residual effect still operates within symbolic racism as negative racial affect. Symbolic racism is thought of as a coherent belief system that describes whites‘ attitudes not only in the United States, but in some European democracies as well. This conceptualization of symbolic racism ignores the differences in the historical legacy of racism across different regional and demographic contexts. Different contexts have produced different legacies of racism. This is especially true in the United States, where different regions have varying histories in terms of the intensity of the laws enforcing segregation. In states that had slaves and anti-miscegenation laws until forced to repeal them, old-fashioned racism is more likely operate under a cover of symbolic racism rather than reflect the way symbolic racism operates in the rest of the United States. To test this theory, the factor loadings of different old-fashioned racism and symbolic racism items will be analyzed across regions, gender, and gender within regions using data from the General Social Survey from 1994-2008. Generally in the symbolic racism literature, the South and gender are added as dummy variables in regression analyses of whites‘ racial attitudes. In addition to this typical strategy for analyzing the aggregate sample, separate regressions will be performed on the regions and sexes to see if there is any substantial difference. The separate effects of old-fashioned and symbolic racism on whites‘ attitudes regarding racial policy issues will also be analyzed across the enumerated dimensions. Symbolic racism does appear to be associated with old-fashion racism for many in the U.S., especially in the South. It may also have slightly different origins and influences on men and women. Possible strategies for determining these differences include focus groups, in-depth interviews, and the use of racial codes and cues signaling a higher threshold of the social acceptability of racist beliefs

A Stacked Deck: Racial Minorities and the New American Political Economy

The 1960s brought the promise of a new era of social justice for all Americans. Indeed, the overturning of official, state-sanctioned racial structures was a watershed in national life. During the 1970s and 1980s, however, the earlier momentum of the civil rights period dissipated as the end of the postwar economic expansion ushered in a crisis of American culture and polity. Symbolic racism emerged as a powerful political and ideological instrument to buttress resistance to racial and ethnic equality. During the 1980s, a Reagan administration antagonistic to the aspirations of minorities and the working classes in general was able to impose an array of policies (and a discourse) on the nation which polarized ethnic groups and classes even more rigidly. In Reaganism, one sees the congruence and power of symbolic racism and class-targeted economic policy, the capacity of elite forces to carry out economic restructuring at the cost of minority equality. What the post-civil rights period has largely done is to stack the American deck against African Americans and Hispanics

Modern Racism: A Cross-Cultural View of Racial and Ethnic Attitudes

The study and measurement of attitudes toward racial and ethnic groups are important parts of the field of cross-cultural psychology. The present study examined a theory of racial attitudes, that of symbolic racism, and several demographic variables. The sample population consisted of 575 Caucasians and 122 Far-East Asian college students. Results indicated that Symbolic Racism is a unique theoretical construct, that Caucasian students were less racially biased than their Asian peers, and that group differences in racial attitudes existed across religious affiliation, number of reported interracial friendships, and gender

Racism, gun ownership and gun control: Biased attitudes in US whites may influence policy decisions

Objective: Racism is related to policies preferences and behaviors that adversely affect blacks and appear related to a fear of blacks (e.g., increased policing, death penalty). This study examined whether racism is also related to gun ownership and opposition to gun controls in US whites. Method: The most recent data from the American National Election Study, a large representative US sample, was used to test relationships between racism, gun ownership, and opposition to gun control in US whites. Explanatory variables known to be related to gun ownership and gun control opposition (i.e., age, gender, education, income, conservatism, anti-government sentiment, southern vs. other states, political identification) were entered in logistic regression models, along with measures of racism, and the stereotype of blacks as violent. Outcome variables included; having a gun in the home, opposition to bans on handguns in the home, support for permits to carry concealed handguns. Results: After accounting for all explanatory variables, logistic regressions found that for each 1 point increase in symbolic racism there was a 50% increase in the odds of having a gun at home. After also accounting for having a gun in the home, there was still a 28% increase in support for permits to carry concealed handguns, for each one point increase in symbolic racism. The relationship between symbolic racism and opposition to banning handguns in the home (OR1.27 CI 1.03,1.58) was reduced to non-significant after accounting for having a gun in the home (OR1.17 CI.94,1.46), which likely represents self-interest in retaining property (guns). Conclusions: Symbolic racism was related to having a gun in the home and opposition to gun control policies in US whites. The findings help explain US whites' paradoxical attitudes towards gun ownership and gun control. Such attitudes may adversely influence US gun control policy debates and decisions

Black candidates who create positive feelings among voters can overcome implicit racist attitudes

With more explicit forms of racism having declined in recent decades, the implicit racial attitudes of how people feel about policies designed to help minorities, or ‘symbolic racism’, has begun to gain attention. But how do these forms of more implicit racism affect how minority political candidates are evaluated by voters? Using national election surveys carried out in 2012, David Redlawsk, Caroline Tolbert and Natasha Altema McNeely find that both positive and negative emotional responses to candidates running for office can help to condition the influence of underlying levels of racial resentment in shaping how voters evaluate them. More negative emotions, such as fear, make levels of symbolic racism worse, while more positive ones, such as hope, can help to overcome the effects of such racism

Symbolic and Competitive Racism on Campus

After a short hiatus, overt racism is on the rise again. Increases in reported racially motivated crime and violence have been noted all over the country. In the wider U.S. society, identifiable racial incidents have been estimated to have increased 55 percent from 1986 to 1987. According to the Community Relations Service (CRS), African Americans comprised two-thirds of the victims in the cases reported in 1987. Although this racial violence has taken various forms ranging from name-calling, vandalism, and cross-burning to actual physical assaults that result in casualties and death, these have not been isolated incidents but have their basis in the racism that underlines U.S. institutions. This resurgence is due, in no small part, to the increasing level of conservatism that has swept the country, making racial intolerance and conflict the order of the day

Factors Influencing Perceptual Distance

Previous research shows that social biases, such as pro-White racial bias, can influence a person\u27s decisions and behaviors (Correll et al. 2007; Mekawi & Bresin, 2015). Studies also suggest that social biases may influence basic functions like visual perception (Cesario & Navarrete, 2014); however, few studies have examined the relationship between visual perceptions and threat (Cesario, Placks, Hagiwara, Navarrete, & Higgins, 2010; Todd, Thiem, & Neel, 2016). The current research aims to investigate whether implicit pro-White preference can influence basic functions like visual perception. A secondary aim of this study is to examine the role of threat in this relationship. To test, White male and female participants (N= 29) were asked to complete distance estimates to either a Black or White male experimenter. It was hypothesized that participants would judge the distance to the Black confederate as closer compared to those who estimate the distance to a White confederate. The results marginally supported the idea that participants’ distance judgements were influenced by the experimenter’s race, such that the Black experimenter was viewed as closer when compared to the White experimenter. However, results showed that implicit racial attitudes did not influence distance estimations, but explicit bias did. Fully powered follow-up studies will be conducted to further examine these hypotheses and investigate whether a type one error was present

Multiculturalism, Colorblindness, and Prejudice: Examining How Diversity Ideologies Impact Intergroup Attitudes

The present research examined an underlying psychological process of the effect of diversity ideologies on prejudice among Whites. In one study, I tested whether colorblindness vs. multiculturalism affected perceptions of similarity vs. difference, outgroup perspective taking, and, in turn, prejudice. Using an experimental design, 341 total White participants from both an undergraduate (n = 151) and non-student adult sample (n = 190) were randomly assigned to a standard colorblind or multicultural condition. Participants then completed various measures of perceived similarities vs. differences (visual, interpersonal), outgroup perspective taking (egocentrism, perspective-taking scenario), and prejudice (explicit racial bias, symbolic racism). Results suggest the diversity ideology manipulation only had a significant effect on the outgroup perspective-taking scenario, but the direction of this effect was contrary to hypotheses and previous findings. Compared to colorblindness, multiculturalism significantly reduced participants’ likelihood of taking the perspective of a racial outgroup member, with additional mediation evidence suggesting this effect on reduced outgroup perspective taking, in turn, indirectly increased explicit racial bias and symbolic racism. Alternative explanations and additional research considerations are discussed