Shocking Racial Attitudes: Black G.I.s in Europe

David Schindler,Mark Westcott

doi:10.1093/restud/rdaa039

David Schindler, Mark Westcott

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1093/restud/rdaa039

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Abstract

AbstractCan attitudes towards minorities, an important cultural trait, be changed? We show that the presence of African American soldiers in the UK during World War II reduced anti-minority prejudice, a result of the positive interactions which took place between soldiers and the local population. The change has been persistent: in locations in which more African American soldiers were posted there are fewer members of and voters for the UK’s leading far-right party, less implicit bias against blacks and fewer individuals professing racial prejudice, all measured around 2010. Our results point towards intergenerational transmission from parents to children as the most likely explanation.

Highlights

Are prejudicial attitudes towards minority groups a constant of the human condition? They are certainly widespread, and a recent empirical literature has shown that anti-minority prejudice persists over the very long run, a consequence of intergenerational transmission of preferences (Voigtländer and Voth, 2012; Acharya, Blackwell, and Sen, 2016)
In this paper we show that the temporary presence of African American G.I.s1 in the United Kingdom during World War II persistently reduced anti-minority prejudice amongst the British population
The results reveal that the effect of black troops on British National Party (BNP) membership is about double as large in rural areas than in urban areas, with standardised coefficients of −0.031 compared to −0.015

Summary

Introduction

Are prejudicial attitudes towards minority groups a constant of the human condition? They are certainly widespread, and a recent empirical literature has shown that anti-minority prejudice persists over the very long run, a consequence of intergenerational transmission of preferences (Voigtländer and Voth, 2012; Acharya, Blackwell, and Sen, 2016). In this paper we show that the temporary presence of African American G.I.s1 in the United Kingdom during World War II persistently reduced anti-minority prejudice amongst the British population. Around 150,000 of these troops were black, serving in segregated units with non-combat support duties such as transport and supply.. Around 150,000 of these troops were black, serving in segregated units with non-combat support duties such as transport and supply.2 Both black and white G.I.s came into contact with the local population whilst off base: “Got any gum chum?” reportedly became a popular refrain amongst British children and troops of all types were frequently to be found in pubs, dance halls and restaurants (Millgate, 2010). Despite pervasive racist attitudes before the war, we show evidence from surveys that these interactions were positive experiences for both the local population and for black G.I.s

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