Symbolic racism should outweigh both older racism and race-neutral values in shaping policy views

Evidence

Our reasoning yields several hypotheses. Following from the assumptions that African Americans are a potent political symbol and that the over-riding symbolism of racially targeted policies concerns race, (a) racial attitudes should be the single most important determinant of whites’ opposition to racial policies, while ostensibly race-neutral predispositions should have minor effects. Concerning the various forms of racism; (b) symbolic racism should have stronger political effects than the older forms of racism; (c) the origins of symbolic racism should lie in both antiblack affect and such nonracial attitudes as ideology and traditional social values, but (d) symbolic racism should nevertheless have substantial independent effect above and beyond these antecedents. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3619

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Symbolic racism scales may measure opposition to big government, not racial attitudes. — Christopher Tarman and David O. Sears, The Conceptualization and Measurement…, 28