White elites supported only image-serving racial moderation to protect their business interests

Evidence

For their own reasons, both halves of the new coalition supported a progressive politics centered on economic growth, civic pride, and—to the surprise of outside observers—a moderate pace of racial change. Black Atlantans pressed for desegregation for obvious reasons. Affluent whites, meanwhile, acquiesced to limited changes in hopes of presenting a positive public image for themselves, their city, and, most important, their business interests. — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 89

Categorization

• XREF: Core to the reader’s thesis: segregation-era elites backed cosmetic progress for public-image and profit reasons, setting up how ‘color-blind’ conservatism later claimed economic justifications. — connects to: White philanthropists recognized only Black leaders could move Black communities — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 144; Business elites backed racial moderation primarily to protect profits — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of…, 88; Whites supported racial equality only while it cost them nothing personally — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3387 (+9 more)

Broader Connections

• Business elites backed racial moderation primarily to protect profits #expands (0.96) — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 88
• White racial ideology supports formal equality while opposing burdensome change #qualifies (0.90) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3436
• Whites support racial equality in principle but resist the policies implementing it #qualifies (0.90) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3332
• Whites supported racial equality only while it cost them nothing personally #expands (0.88) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3387
• Whites’ support for racial equality principles shrank once implementation threatened their own position #qualifies (0.86)
• White racial ideology supports basic rights but opposes change that burdens whites #expands (0.85) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3436
• Racial ideas were deployed to deflect economic class resentment away from elites #corroborates (0.84) — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 711
• Oppression of racialized others primarily serves the wealthy, not ordinary white people #corroborates (0.82) — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 1410
• Racial consciousness supplied fictive status to white workers while excluding Blacks #expands (0.78)
• Majority white support for racial job equality emerged only after the 1940s #qualifies (0.75)
• White support for racial equality rose while Allport-style prejudice supposedly eroded #qualifies (0.75) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 658