Symbolic racism theory reinterprets the principles-implementation gap as a new prejudice form

Evidence

It is argued that socialization to negative feelings toward blacks merges with other basic values to form psychological resistance to contemporary proposals beneficial to blacks as a group. Thus, the gap between principles and implementation is evidence of, or an aspect of, the emergence of a new form of prejudice. Older forms of antiblack sentiment (segregationist attitudes and beliefs) are being replaced by a new symbolic racism (opposition to school busing). The symbolic racism researchers assert that the amalgam of antiblack affect and traditional values is a new form of prejudice best understood from the perspective of a new “sociocultural theory” of prejudice. There are several reasons to question this account of the gap between principles and implementation and, more specifically, to note that, in a number of critical featues, symbolic racism does not depart from more traditional conceptions of prejudice. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3399

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the ‘symbolic racism’ concept: amalgam of antiblack affect and traditional values, displaced old segregationist attitudes.