Racial Prejudice and Spending on Drug Rehabilitation: The Role of Attitudes Toward Blacks and Latinos

We enhance understanding of the prejudice-induced “color coding” phenomenon among whites by determining whether racial and ethnic prejudices are associated with a previously unexplored policy outcome, spending on drug rehabilitation. We examine attitudes toward both blacks and Latinos; the latter is a group largely ignored in previous research. We assess the impact of several types of racial/ethnic views, including those that manifest modern/indirect prejudice (e.g., stereotypes about violence, individualistic causal attributions) and those that reflect social-distance-based traditional prejudice (opposition to residential proximity and to interracial marriage). These relationships are examined using data from the General Social Survey. Bivariate results support the linkage between both traditional and modern prejudice and rehabilitation spending. Logistic regression analyses also indicate that support for rehabilitation is racialized: Attributing race differences in socioeconomic outcomes to “structural” factors, namely discrimination and lack of chance for education, is associated with believing rehabilitation spending is inadequate, controlling for the effects of other racial/ethnic attitudes and background factors. The relationship between this measure of modern prejudice and the outcome is consistent with color coding. The implications of the findings are discussed, and suggestions for future research that further examine the scope of color coding are offered

How tracking structures attitudes towards ethnic out-groups and interethnic interactions in the classroom: an ethnographic study in Belgium

The influence of the ethnic composition of schools on interethnic relations and attitudes has been studied extensively and has received ample interest from policy makers. However, less attention has been paid to the structures and processes inside schools that organize interethnic relations and attitudes. In Flanders (Belgium), secondary education is organized by grouping students in different tracks, which are hierarchically ordered and prepare students for different futures. Tracking in Flanders is intended to group students according to their abilities but together with this, students are grouped according to their ethnic and socioeconomic background. In the present study, the interethnic relations and attitudes in each track will be explored, based on ethnographic observations and semi-structured interviews in three multi-ethnic secondary schools in one city. Our findings suggest that different patterns occur across three groups of tracks: the most appreciated fields of study in academic, the intermediary (less appreciated fields of study in academic and technical tracks) and vocational tracks. According to the relative sizes of ethnic groups and track specific characteristics, interethnic relations were characterized respectively by ethnic segregation, positive experiences of interethnic contact or ethnic conflict/tensions. The ethnic composition of classrooms seemed to matter for students' ethnic in-group identifications and evaluations and perceived out-group threats

An indirect paper-and-pencil measure of prejudice: A German version of the Racial Argument Scale

Heitland K, Bohner G. An indirect paper-and-pencil measure of prejudice: A German version of the Racial Argument Scale. Current Psychology. 2011;30(1):1-21