Attitudes toward race and politics continue to show tensions between antiracist norms and racist stereotypes, even among new generations of White Americans raised in an era of consensus on antiracist social norms. I suggest that this “dissonance” stems from a process of “two-tracked socialization” and I demonstrate the persistence of such dissonant attitudes in two ways. First, in the aggregate, the youngest cohorts of White Americans do not greatly differ from older generations in their policy preferences on racial matters and beliefs about race, politics, and inequality. Second, stereotypes still influence policy preferences among younger cohorts. On the second point, I replicate Gilens's work on the racialization of welfare policy attitudes with more recent data and added attention to differences and similarities across birth cohorts.
Alvarez, R.M.
, &
Brehm, J.
(1997).
Are Americans ambivalent towards racial policies?American Journal of Political Science, 41,
345-374
.
2.
Alvarez, R.M.
, &
Brehm, J.
(2002). Hard choices, easy answers: Values, information, and American public opinionPrinceton
, NJ:
Princeton University Press
.
3.
Berinsky, A.J.
(1999).
The two faces of public opinion
. American Journal of Political Science, 43,
1209-1230
.
4.
Bledsoe, T.
,
Combs, M.
,
Sigelman, L.
, &
Welch, S.
(1996).
Trends in racial attitudes in Detroit, 1968-1992
. Urban Affairs Review, 31,
508-528
.
5.
Blinder, S.B.
(2004). Talking equality, seeing race: Reproduction of modern racism in an antiracist age. Unpublished doctoral dissertation,
University of Chicago
.
6.
Bobo, L.
(1983).
Whites' opposition to busing: Symbolic racism or realistic group conflict
. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45,
1196-1210
.
7.
Bobo, L.
(2000). Race and beliefs about affirmative action: Assessing the effects of interests, group threat, ideology, and racism. In
D. O. Sears
,
J. Sidanius
, &
L. Bobo
(Eds.), Racialized politics: The debate about racism in America (pp. 137-164).
Chicago: University of Chicago Press
.
8.
Bobo, L.
, &
Johnson, D.
(2004).
A taste for punishment: Black and White Americans' views on the death penalty and the war on drugs
. DuBois Review , 1,
151-180
.
9.
Bobo, L.
,
Kluegel, J.R.
, &
Smith, R.A.
(1997). Laissez-faire racism: The crystallization of a kinder, gentler antiblack ideology. In
S. A. Tuch
&
J. K. Martin
(Eds.), Racial attitudes in the 1990s: Continuity and change (pp. 15-44).
Westport, CT: Praeger
.
10.
Bonilla-Silva, E.
(2003). Racism without racists: Color-blind racism and the persistence of racial inequality in the United States.
Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield
.
11.
Bonilla-Silva, E.
, &
Forman, T.A.
(2000). “
I am not a racist but... . ” Mapping White college students' racial ideology in the USA
. Discourse & Society, 11,
50-85
.
12.
Chen, M.
, &
Bargh, J.A.
(1997).
Nonconscious behavioral confirmation processes: The self-fulfilling consequences of automatic stereotype activation
. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 33,
541-560
.
13.
Clawson, R.A.
, &
Trice, R.
(2000).
Poverty as we know it: Media portrayals of the poor
. Public Opinion Quarterly, 64,
53-64
.
14.
Cobb, M.D.
(2000, August-September).
Racial stereotypes and beliefs about crime and punishment
. Paper presented at the Annual Meetings of the American Political Science Association, Washington, DC.
15.
Converse, P.E.
(1976). The dynamics of party support: Cohort-analyzing party identification.
Beverly Hills, CA: Sage
.
16.
Correll, J.
,
Park, B.
,
Judd, C.M.
, &
Wittenbrink, B.
(2002).
The police officer's dilemma: Using ethnicity to disambiguate potentially threatening individuals
. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83,
1314-1329
.
17.
Crandall, C.
, &
Eshleman, A.
(2003).
A justification-suppression model of the expression and experience of prejudice
. Psychological Bulletin,129,
414-446
.
18.
Crosby, F.
,
Bromley, S.
, &
Saxe, L.
(1980).
Recent unobtrusive studies of Black and White discrimination and prejudice: A literature review
. Psychological Bulletin,87,
546-563
.
19.
Danigelis, N.L.
, &
Cutler, S.J.
(1991).
An inter-cohort comparison of changes in racial-attitudes
. Research on Aging, 13,
383-404
.
20.
Dawson, M.C.
, &
Popoff, R.
(2004).
Reparations: Justice and greed in Black and White
. DuBois Review, 1,
47-91
.
21.
Devine, P.G.
(1989).
Stereotypes and prejudice: Their automatic and controlled components
. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 56,
5-18
.
22.
Devine, P.G.
, &
Elliot, A.J.
(1995).
Are racial stereotypes really fading? The Princeton trilogy revisited
. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin , 21,
1139-1150
.
23.
Devine, P.G.
, &
Monteith, M.J.
(1999). Automaticity and control in stereotyping. In
S. Chaiken
&
Y. Trope
(Eds.), Dual-process theories in social psychology (pp. 339-360).
New York: Guilford
.
Dovidio, J.F.
,
Kawakami, K.
, &
Gaertner, S.L.
(2002).
Implicit and explicit prejudice and interracial interaction
. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82,
62-68
.
26.
Dovidio, J.F.
,
Kawakami, K.
,
Johnson, C.
,
Johnson, B.
, &
Howard, A.
(1997).
On the nature of prejudice: Automatic and controlled processes
. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 33,
510-540
.
27.
D'Souza, D.
(1995). The end of racism: Principles for a multiracial society.
New York: Free Press
.
28.
Dunton, B.C.
, &
Fazio, R.H.
(1997).
An individual difference measure of motivation to control prejudiced reactions
. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23,
316-326
.
29.
Dyck, J.J.
,
Hussey, L.
, &
Williams, L.F.
(2005, March).
The end of welfare as we know it? The effect of welfare reform on racial stereotypes and welfare attitudes
. Paper presented at the American Politics Workshop, Department of Government and Politics, University of Maryland, College Park.
30.
Entman, R.M.
, &
Rojecki, A.
(2000). The Black image in the White mind: Media and race in America.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press
.
31.
Fazio, R.H.
,
Jackson, J.R.
,
Dunton, B.C.W.
, &
Carol, J.
(1995).
Variability in automatic activation as an unobtrusive measure of racial attitudes: A bona fide pipeline?Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 33,
451-470
.
32.
Festinger, L.
(1957). A theory of cognitive dissonance.
Evanston, IL: Row
.
33.
Fiorina, M.P.
(1981). Retrospective voting in American national elections .
New Haven, CT: Yale University Press
.
34.
Fiorina, M.P.
(2002).
Parties and partisanship: A 40-year retrospective
. Political Behavior, 24,
93-115
.
35.
Firebaugh, G.
, &
Davis, K.E.
(1988).
Trends in antiblack prejudice, 1972-1984: Region and cohort effects
. American Journal of Sociology, 94,
251-272
.
36.
Gilens, M.
(1999). Why Americans hate welfare: Race, media, and the politics of antipoverty policy.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press
.
37.
Gilens, M.
,
Sniderman, P.M.
, &
Kuklinski, J.H.
(1998).
Affirmative action and the politics of realignment
. British Journal of Political Science, 28,
159-183
.
38.
Gilliam, F.D.
, &
Iyengar, S.
(2000).
Prime suspects: The influence of local television news on the viewing public
. American Journal of Political Science, 44,
560-573
.
Greenwald, A.G.
,
McGhee, D.E.
, &
Schwartz, J.L.K.
(1998).
Measuring individual differences in implicit cognition: The implicit association test
. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74,
1464-1480
.
41.
Hirschfeld, L.A.
(1996). Race in the making: Cognition, culture, and the child's construction of human kinds.
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
.
42.
Holt, T.C.
(2000). The problem of race in the 21st century.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
.
43.
Huber, G.A.
, &
Lapinski, J.S.
(2006).
The “race card” revisited: Assessing racial priming in policy contests
. American Journal of Political Science, 50,
421-440
.
44.
Hutchings, V.L.
, &
Valentino, N.A.
(2004).
The centrality of race in American politics
. Annual Review of Political Science, 7,
383-408
.
45.
Jackman, M.R.
(1994). The velvet glove: Paternalism and conflict in gender, class, and race relations.
Berkeley: University of California Press
.
46.
Jennings, M.K.
, &
Niemi, R.G.
(1974). The political character of adolescence: The influence of families and schools.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press
.
47.
Jennings, M.K.
, &
Niemi, R.G.
(1981). Generations and politics: A panel study of young adults and their parents.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press
.
48.
Kinder, D.R.
, &
Sanders, L.M.
(1996). Divided by color: Racial politics and democratic ideals.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press
.
49.
King, G.
(1989). Unifying political methodology: The likelihood theory of statistical inference. Cambridge, UK:
Cambridge University Press
.
50.
King, G.
,
Tomz, M.
, &
Wittenberg, J.
(2000).
Making the most of statistical analyses: Improving interpretation and presentation
. American Journal of Political Science, 44,
347-361
.
51.
Kluegel, J.R.
(1990).
Trends in Whites' explanations of the Black-White gap in socioeconomicstatus, 1977-1989
. American Sociological Review, 55,
512-525
.
Lepore, L.
, &
Brown, R.
(1997).
Category and stereotypes activation: Is prejudice inevitable?Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72,
275-287
.
54.
Lepore, L.
, &
Brown, R.
(2002).
The role of awareness: Divergent automatic stereotype activation and implicit judgment correction
. Social Cognition , 20,
321-351
.
55.
Maass, A.
,
Salvi, D.
,
Arcuri, L.
, &
Semin, G.R.
(1989).
Language use in intergroup contexts: The linguistic intergroup bias
. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 57,
981-993
.
56.
Mendelberg, T.
(2001). The race card: Campaign strategy, implicit messages, and the norm of equality.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press
.
57.
Mitchell, R.E.
, &
Mitchell, D.E.
(2005).
Student segregation and achievement tracking in year-round schools
. Teachers College Record, 107,
529-562
.
58.
Oakes, J.
(1995).
Two cities' tracking and within-school segregation
. Teachers College Record, 96,
681-690
.
59.
O'Muircheartaigh, C.
,
Krosnick, J.A.
, &
Helic, A.
(2001). Middle alternatives, acquiescence, and the quality of questionnaire data (Harris School Working Paper Series 01.3).
Chicago: University of Chicago, Irving B. Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies
.
60.
Orfield, G.
,
Eaton, S.E.
, &
Harvard Project on School Desegregation.
(1996). Dismantling desegregation: The quiet reversal of Brown v. Board of Education.
New York: New Press
.
61.
Peffley, M.
, &
Hurwitz, J.
(2002).
The racial components of “race-neutral” crime policy attitudes
. Political Psychology, 23,
59-75
.
62.
Peffley, M.
,
Hurwitz, J.
, &
Sniderman, P.M.
(1997).
Racial stereotypes and Whites' political views of Blacks in the context of welfare and crime
. American Journal of Political Science, 41,
30-60
.
63.
Plant, E.A.
, &
Devine, P.G.
(1998).
Internal and external motivation to respond without prejudice
. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75,
811-832
.
64.
Quillian, L.
(1996).
Group threat and regional change in attitudes toward African-Americans
. American Journal of Sociology, 102,
816-860
.
65.
Schuman, H.
,
Steeh, C.
,
Bobo, L.
, &
Krysan, M.
(1997). Racial attitudes in America: Trends and interpretations (Rev. ed.).
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
.
66.
Sears, D.O.
(1986).
College sophomores in the laboratory: Influences of a narrow database on social psychology's view of human nature
. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51,
515-530
.
67.
Sears, D.O.
,
Hetts, J.J.
,
Sidanius, J.
, &
Bobo, L.
(2000). Race in American politics. In
D. O. Sears
,
J. Sidanius
, &
L. Bobo
(Eds.), Racialized politics: The debate about racism in America (pp. 1-43).
Chicago : University of Chicago Press
.
68.
Sidanius, J.
, &
Pratto, F.
(1999). Social dominance: An intergroup theory of social hierarchy and oppression. Cambridge, UK:
Cambridge University Press
.
69.
Sniderman, P.M.
, &
Carmines, E.G.
(1997). Reaching beyond race.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
.
70.
Sniderman, P.M.
, &
Piazza, T.L.
(1993). The scar of race.
Cambridge, MA: Belknap
.
71.
Steeh, C.
, &
Schuman, H.
(1992).
Young White adults: Did racial attitudes change in the 1980s?American Journal of Sociology, 98,
340-367
.
72.
Tarman, C.
, &
Sears, D.O.
(2005).
The conceptualization and measurement of symbolic racism
. Journal of Politics, 67,
731-761
.
73.
Thernstrom, A.M.
, &
Thernstrom, S.
(2003). No excuses: Closing the racial gap in learning. NewYork: Simon & Schuster
.
74.
Tomz, M.
,
Wittenberg, J.
, &
King, G.
(2003). CLARIFY: Software for interpreting and presenting statistical results (Version 2.1).
Stanford, CA: Stanford University, University of Wisconsin, & Harvard University
.
75.
Tuch, S.A.
,
Sigelman, L.
, &
MacDonald, J.A.
(1999).
Trends: Race relations and American youth, 1976-1995
. Public Opinion Quarterly, 63,
109-148
.
76.
Walsh, K.C.
(2004). Talking about politics: Informal groups and social identity in American life.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press
.
77.
Wilson, T.C.
(1996).
Cohort and prejudice: Whites' attitudes toward Blacks, Hispanics, Jews, and Asians
. Public Opinion Quarterly , 60,
253-274
.
