Racial attitudes, not ideology or values, drive whites’ opposition to race-targeted policies

Evidence

The first goal of this study was to provide a systematic test of the hypothesis that racial attitudes make the pivotal contribution to whites’ opposition to race-targeted policies. The data seem to us quite clear: racial predispositions dominate all other factors in terms of individual correlations or regression coefficients, and in their capacity for explaining variance in policy preferences. Nonracial attitudes (such as political ideology, party identification, social welfare policy attitudes, and such traditional social values as individualism, morality, and authoritarianism) have been as thoroughly controlled for as possible, and they do not have strong effects; they are overshadowed by the effects of racism. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3735

Categorization

• XREF: Directly echoes the symbolic politics tradition; connects to Sears and Kinder’s racial resentment literature and the broader debate with Sniderman & Piazza cited below. — connects to: Whether racism or conservatism drives white policy opposition determines who must change — Christopher Tarman and David O. Sears, The Conceptualization and Measurement…, 34; White racial ideology supports formal equality while opposing burdensome change — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology: Key Readings, 3436; Perceived white Christian persecution drives opposition to voter access — Philip S. Gorski and Samuel L. Perry, The Flag and the Cross: White Christian…, 48 (+1 more)