Symbolic racism may produce little moral uneasiness for those who hold it

Evidence

Myrdal and Allport were primarily concerned about the conflict between the general principle that “all men [sic] are created equal” and oldfashioned racism. Today the latter is nearly non-existent, so that source of conflict is rare. Do the “new racisms” produce a more contemporary form of inner conflict with the consensual support for group equality? That was the view taken nearly two decades ago by McConahay (1986), although not tested empirically. On the other hand, it is possible that the new racisms are not widely perceived as conflicting with equal treatment. That is, there may be little conflict between believing in equal opportunity for all groups and believing that Blacks, because of their own lack of effort, are simply not performing at a level that would allow them to take advantage of it. Therefore, there may be little moral uneasiness in symbolic racism. — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 2186

Categorization

• QUESTION: The key empirical claim — that symbolic racists feel no inner conflict — is raised but flagged as untested, worth chasing for the actual data.