Racism persists but has shifted from blatant to unconscious subtle forms

Evidence

On the subject of racism, political psychologists are in general agreement that racism still exists, but it has changed forms. Although some, like Bobo (Reading 19), believe that older theories such as realistic conflict theory are capable of explaining current racial attitudes in the United States and Europe, most believe that racism has gone “underground” and requires new theories and methods. The most influential approaches to the “new racism” include modern racism theory (McConahay, 1986), symbolic racism theory (Sears, 1988), ambivalent racism theory (Katz & Hass, 1988), subtle racism theory (Pettigrew & Meertens, 1995), racial resentment theory (Kinder & Sanders, 1996), and aversive racism theory (Dovidio & Gaertner, 1986, 1998). While there are important differences among these theoretical perspectives, all assume that old-fashioned, blatant racism is no longer the potent determinant of racial and political attitudes that it once was. Rather, the claim is that old-fashioned racism has been supplanted by a more subtle, insidious form of racial prejudice that is not always accessible to conscious awareness (see also, Ayres, 2001; Devine, 1989; Nosek, Banaji, & Greenwald, 2002). — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 143

Categorization

• XREF: Links directly to the reader’s existing interest in ‘Complaints About Immodesty Go Way Back’ — both are about how elite legitimating norms mutate in form while persisting in function. — connects to: Race quietly continues to structure membership even where racial talk is silenced. — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 290; Successful anti-racist movements trigger renewed, subtler forms of racial exclusion, not elimination — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 1915; Racism’s modes persist after being severed from their categories of meaning — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 1867 (+8 more)
• QUESTION: Worth chasing later: does the claim that racism ‘went underground’ hold up against the overt ethno-nationalist resurgence of the 2010s and 2020s? The reader could test the 2004-era consensus against more recent events.