Whites supported racial equality only while it cost them nothing personally

Evidence

At the same time, there was initially little reason for northern whites to believe that adherence to these principles would require any changes in their own position in society or that of their children. But as the issues shifted from largely southern problems of stateimposed segregation and voting hindrances, to economic and other redistributive issues of national scope (e.g., school busing, affirmative action, and the economic decline of urban areas), many whites no doubt came to sense a greater threat to their position in life. This sense of threat was probably amplified by the use of political slogans like Black Power (Aberbach & Walker, 1970) and the urban unrest of the late 1960s (Ashmore & Del Boca, 1976). Group conflict and ideological processes have thus contributed to the gap between support for racial principles and support for full implementation of such principles, that is, to the development of an ideology of bounded racial change. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3387

Categorization

• XREF: Directly parallels the principle-implementation gap documented in symbolic racism literature (Sears, Kinder); also echoes findings on white flight and the ‘costless virtue’ dynamic in anti-racist solidarity more broadly. — connects to: White Americans show little support for slavery reparations — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt: International…, 79; White elites supported only image-serving racial moderation to protect their business interests — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of…, 89
• DEEPTHINKING: The mechanism that converts abstract principle-support into resistance once redistribution is at stake — ‘costless virtue’ — is a clean and portable analytical lens applicable beyond race to any solidarity politics.