Whites resist equality while constrained by antidiscrimination norms toward bounded change

Evidence

Any complete explanation of racial attitudes must attend to this backdrop of real social inequalities between the races, the presence of black political organization and activism, the existence of protective legislation, the disrepute accorded notions of biological racism, and the rhetoric of American democracy. The first of these considerations means that whites, on average, have a real stake in maintaining race relations as they are and no benefits to gain by implementing equal opportunity policies. Therefore, they remain ahead by resisting further change. The four latter considerations set limitations on the ways in which inequality can be culturally justified or defended. A belief system that tends to espouse only constrained or “bounded” racial change has resulted. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3358

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The ‘bounded racial change’ thesis is a dense synthesis: whites have structural incentive to resist, but cultural constraints limit how they can justify it, producing a distinctive ‘bounded’ belief system rather than open racism.
• XREF: connects to: Bourgeois tolerance functions as a mask preserving the status quo — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 342; Capital abandoned color-blind hiring under white worker pressure — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 1464; White racial ideology supports formal equality while opposing burdensome change — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology: Key Readings, 3436