Is It Really Racism?: The Origins of White Americans' Opposition to Race-Targeted Policies

We address the role of racial antagonism in whites’ opposition to racially-targeted policies. The data come from four surveys selected for their unusually rich measurement of both policy preferences and other racial attitudes: the 1986 and 1992 National Election Studies, the 1994 General Social Survey, and the 1995 Los Angeles County Social Survey. They indicate that such opposition is more strongly rooted in racial antagonism than in non-racial conservatism, that whites tend to respond to quite different racial policies in similar fashion, that racial attitudes affect evaluations of black and ethnocentric white presidential candidates, and that their effects are just as strong among college graduates as among those with no college education. Second, we present evidence that symbolic racism is consistently more powerful than older forms of racial antagonism, and its greater strength does not diminish with controls on non-racial ideology, partisanship, and values. The origins of symbolic racism lie partly in both anti-black antagonism and non-racial conservative attitudes and values, and so mediates their effects on policy preferences, but it explains substantial additional variance by itself, suggesting that it does represent a new form of racism independent of older racial and political attitudes. The findings are each replicated several times with different measures, in different surveys conducted at different times. We also provide new evidence in response to earlier critiques of research on symbolic racism

An Investigation of the Response Rates in a Random Digit Dialed Telephone Survey of Southern California

The purpose of this paper is to analyze (1) the response rates of a study that surveyed white and minority populations in Southern California, (2) the effectiveness of follow-up calling on reducing non-response with associated processing times for different outcomes, (3) the differences, if any, in response rates between trained students and professional interviewers, and {4) the impact of new technology on non-response and sample processing in general. This particular project provides an ideal opportunity to shed new light on these questions because few large-scale studies of this type are performed in the region and because frequent follow-up attempts were made to households until either the interview was obtained or the study was halted

An Investigation of the Response Rates in a Random Digit Dialed Telephone Survey of Southern California

The purpose of this paper is to analyze (1) the response rates of a study that surveyed white and minority populations in Southern California, (2) the effectiveness of follow-up calling on reducing non-response with associated processing times for different outcomes, (3) the differences, if any, in response rates between trained students and professional interviewers, and {4) the impact of new technology on non-response and sample processing in general. This particular project provides an ideal opportunity to shed new light on these questions because few large-scale studies of this type are performed in the region and because frequent follow-up attempts were made to households until either the interview was obtained or the study was halted

Is it really racism? The origins of White Americans' opposition to race-targeted policies

status: publishe

Is It Really Racism? The Origins of White Americans' Opposition to Race-Targeted Policies

We address the role of racial antagonism in whites’ opposition to racially-targeted policies. The data come from four surveys selected for their unusually rich measurement of both policy preferences and other racial attitudes: the 1986 and 1992 National Election Studies, the 1994 General Social Survey, and the 1995 Los Angeles County Social Survey. They indicate that such opposition is more strongly rooted in racial antagonism than in non-racial conservatism, that whites tend to respond to quite different racial policies in similar fashion, that racial attitudes affect evaluations of black and ethnocentric white presidential candidates, and that their effects are just as strong among college graduates as among those with no college education. Second, we present evidence that symbolic racism is consistently more powerful than older forms of racial antagonism, and its greater strength does not diminish with controls on non-racial ideology, partisanship, and values. The origins of symbolic racism lie partly in both anti-black antagonism and non-racial conservative attitudes and values, and so mediates their effects on policy preferences, but it explains substantial additional variance by itself, suggesting that it does represent a new form of racism independent of older racial and political attitudes. The findings are each replicated several times with different measures, in different surveys conducted at different times. We also provide new evidence in response to earlier critiques of research on symbolic racism