Modern Racism Research Articles

The Gendered Political Consequences of Racialized Sexual Threats

Narratives of racialized sexual violence—specifically, where a dominant-group woman faces harm by a man outside the dominant group—have long been a staple of American political communication. Past scholarship has examined how these threats prime racial resentment among White Americans; less is known about their gendered effects. I present an original survey experiment comparing racialized sexual threats with racialized threats that are not gendered or sexual. Both evoke racial resentment. Compared with solely racial threats, however, racialized sexual threats also make benevolent sexism salient for a range of democratic outcomes. Moreover, I find distinct effects by respondent race and gender, as men and women of different racial identities are situated differently vis a vis racialized sexual threats. To demonstrate that the gendered/sexualized impact of these appeals extends to real-world campaigns, I conclude with an analysis of candidate support in the 1988 presidential election. The 1988 race saw one of the most notorious examples of racialized sexual threat in modern American politics in the “Willie Horton” ad, aired on behalf of the Bush campaign. Even with the limited measures available in that year, I find that sexism played an important role in shaping Americans’ political views.

Anti-Black Political Violence and the Historical Legacy of the Great Replacement Conspiracy

Racial violence is central to the American polity. We argue that support for violence, specifically anti-Black violence, has a long historical arc in American politics dating back to chattel slavery. In this paper, we argue that the racial violence associated with the “great replacement” conspiracy is much more pervasive among the white American public because of the historical legacy of anti-Black violent sentiment. To investigate the prevalence of this idea, we conducted a preregistered simple priming experiment aimed to tap into top-of-mind ideas about racial demographic change. Our experimental design spans multiple data sources, including two probability samples, over the course of a year. We ultimately find that simply priming attitudes about racial demographic change through a single open-ended question consistently leads to increased support for political violence, increasing racial resentment, and expressed anti-Black views. Our approach allows us to test this question through variant methodological means, all of which confirm strong associations Americans have between racial demographic change, anti-Blackness, and violence. Our findings demonstrate that Black threat is an important driver of democratic backsliding in the realm of political violence that requires further attention.

Race, Religion, and Death: How Racial Attitudes Contextualize the Relationship Between Religion and Support for Capital Punishment

AbstractHow do racial attitudes affect the relationship between religion and support for capital punishment? Past research has clearly established important links between religion, racial attitudes, and capital punishment. Yet, it remains unclear how racial attitudes affect this relationship. We examine this question using a large sample of respondents from the General Social Survey from 1994 to 2018. We find evidence of a strong moderating effect where the relationship between religion and support for capital punishment varies considerably contingent on racial resentment. At high levels of racial resentment, support for capital punishment is uniformly high across all religious traditions while there are large disparities at low levels of racial resentment. Thus, strongly held, prejudicial racial attitudes overshadow the association between religion and support for capital punishment. Future research should more seriously consider the racial dynamics embedded religion and punishment.

On the Role of Police Shootings, Recognition of Systemic Racism, and Empathy on White Americans' Support for Police Reform.

The police kill Black Americans at disproportionate rates. Despite this, White Americans remain mixed on support for policing-related policy reform. We examined whether bearing witness to police violence leads to support for policy reforms. Across three studies (N = 943), White participants either viewed a news video about an unarmed Black man killed at the hands of police or in a car accident due to a collision with another driver. Participants lower but not higher in symbolic racism reported more empathy after viewing a police shooting (vs. car accident) news video (Studies 1-3). Empathy predicted policing-related policy reform support (Studies 1-3) and mediated the relationship between condition and policy reform support (Studies 1 and 3), among those lower in symbolic racism (Studies 1-2). Results suggest that empathy for Black victims of police violence predicts policy support but only among those who recognize that such violence is systemic in nature.

Critical Race Theory: How Policy Language Differentially Engages Symbolic Racism and Partisanship

Recent years have seen a marked shift in the salience and politicization of any incorporation of race into teaching at the elementary and secondary levels. “Critical race theory” (CRT) has become a prominent feature of the current debate, even as there is a good deal of misunderstanding about what CRT actually is. Drawing on a pre-registered survey experiment, we consider the impact of the phrase “critical race theory” in activating both racial biases and partisan identity. Our expectation was that CRT would tend to activate partisanship independent of symbolic racism. Results suggest otherwise: where support for culturally relevant pedagogy is concerned, CRT appears to engage partisanship particularly amongst those who exhibit high levels of symbolic racism.

Finding Antiracists: Construction of an Antiracism Attitude Scale

ABSTRACT While there have been many antiracism discussions, an instrument is needed to capture the degree of support of a popularized form of this philosophy. Such an instrument, contextualized to contemporary racial controversies, can be an upgrade from older measures of racial attitudes, such as the racial resentment scale. Furthermore, a scale assessing antiracism differs from previous scales by measuring racial progressiveness or radicalism rather than racial conservatism or overt racism. Exploratory factor analysis of survey data from two samples indicates that five statements—BLM, white fragility, slavery, government request, and blacks deserve—loaded .6 or higher on the first factor for both samples, and these statements have Cronbach’s alphas higher than .8 and explain more than half the variance. Two other statements—white supremacy and racist society—barely missed qualifying for the index, but further analysis with confirmatory factor analysis indicates that their inclusion in the index should be done with caution. Qualitative scale assessment indicates that respondents reflected themes from popular antiracism literature. The scale was tested with a national sample and found to be statistically sound with predictive validity. This scale assesses the degree to which racial attitudes reflect popular antiracism ideals and can assess the prevalence of antiracism.

Public support for reinvesting resources from enforcing drug possession to health-promoting alternatives: A nationally representative poll of adults in the United States

BackgroundThe legal enforcement of drug possession is associated with a host of negative consequences for people who use drugs (PWUD), has demonstrated little effectiveness at curbing drug use, and has contributed to lasting financial, social, and health-related racial disparities in Black and Brown communities in the United States (U.S.). One policy alternative is reinvesting resources typically used for enforcing drug possession into health-promoting services such as drug treatment or harm reduction that can better serve the needs of PWUD than the criminal legal system. We sought to characterize the prevalence and correlates of national public support for this reinvestment in the U.S. MethodsA nationally representative sample of U.S. adults (N = 1,212) completed the Johns Hopkins COVID-19 Civic Life and Public Health Survey (wave three, fielded November 11–30, 2020). The outcome is support for reinvestment of resources spent on enforcing drug possession into health-promoting alternatives (i.e., drug treatment, harm reduction, housing support, or community-based resources). We measured potential correlates including socio-demographics and social/political attitudes, including political ideology (conservative, moderate, liberal) and racial resentment toward the Black community. Analyses accounted for complex survey weights. ResultsWeighted prevalence of support for reinvestment of resources was 80 %. Multivariable logistic regression (controlling for confounders) showed that white respondents were more likely than Black (OR = 2.51, 95% CI = 1.08, 5.87) to favor reinvestment. Respondents with moderate (OR = 0.34, 95 % CI = 0.15–0.79) or conservative (OR = 0.21, 95 % CI = 0.09–0.50) political ideology (compared to liberal) and medium (OR = 0.26, 95 % CI = 0.09–0.74) or high (OR = 0.12, 95 % CI = 0.04–0.35) levels of racial resentment (compared to low) were less likely to support reinvestment. ConclusionThere is substantial national support for reinvesting resources into health-promoting alternatives, though political ideology and racial resentment temper support. Results can inform targeted messaging to increase support for moving drug policy from the criminal legal sphere toward public health.

Carceral Justification: Scale Development and Initial Validation

Black-led social movements have demanded sweeping changes to the criminal legal system by advancing abolitionist goals. Public attitudes about the criminal legal system influence what policy agendas are developed, legitimated, and implemented. In order to assess influences on such attitudes, there is a need for research that examines the underlying carceral logics people use to inform their opinions toward anti-carceral policy proposals. Applying System Justification Theory and a framework of carceral logics, we developed the Carceral Justification Scale (CJS) using data collected from 1,394 Alameda County, California registered voters. Items were developed via literature review, qualitative analysis of canvasser conversations, and expert review. Exploratory (N = 461) and confirmatory (N = 463) factor analyses suggested an oblique 2-factor structure and produced 6 items with the following factors: (a) System Works, and (b) System Necessary. Internal consistency estimates were .71 and above and the scales accounted for 28% and 27% of variance, respectively. Initial construct validity was established as CJS scores were associated with racial resentment, system justification, political ideology, and anti-Black bias awareness in ways consistent with theory. This measure is useful for the evaluation of community practice political interventions that aim to increase support for abolitionist policies.

How Political Identification and Individual Differences Influence Black Lives Matter Message Reactions

Consistency theory, positing that individuals process information based on preexisting attitudes, is particularly relevant in today’s polarized political climate. This study investigates the impact of political identification, demographics, and individual differences (dogmatism, authoritarianism, and symbolic racism), on liberals’ and conservatives’ agreement and endorsement tendencies toward Black Lives Matter (BLM) tweets. A diverse sample of 348 adults with equalized political ideologies evaluated tweets related to the BLM social movement on social media, providing ratings of agreement and willingness to endorse the messages. The findings reveal a positive correlation between conservatism and higher levels of dogmatism, authoritarianism, and symbolic racism. Younger age, conservatism, and higher scores on all individual differences were significant predictors of agreement with the conservative (anti-BLM) tweet. Having more education, holding liberal beliefs, and lower levels of symbolic racism were predictors of agreement with the liberal (pro-BLM) tweet. Overall, we demonstrate that factors explaining participants’ likelihood to endorse (clicking like or retweet) the conservative tweet continue to change, but the factors predicting endorsement of the liberal tweet, including the role of symbolic racism, remain consistent. The study informs academics and practitioners in understanding how various factors impact an individual’s information processing of racially conscious social movements.

By Any Means Necessary? How Black and White Americans Evaluate Protest Tactics in Response to a Police Killing

Abstract The majority of protests in support of racial justice are peaceful. However, since the racial reckoning of 2020, there has been debate about when and how exposure to violent or disruptive protest activities can shift public opinion towards a social movement. Using the Black Lives Matter Movement as a lens, we design a survey experiment to test the causal effects of different protest tactics on support for protesters and the movement itself among Black and white Americans. We include a control condition with no protest and manipulate the level of disruption in each treatment condition, ranging from a simple march in response to the police killing of an unarmed Black man to a protest in which participants set fire to an empty police headquarters. We use OLS regressions to estimate average treatment effects. Overall, we find that both Blacks and whites react negatively to more disruptive protests but whites tend to react more negatively than Blacks. Conversely, we also find that whites overall report more confidence in the ability of Black Lives Matter to facilitate racial equality after exposure to a protest, even when that protest employs disruptive tactics. We also test for the moderating effects of racial identity and racial resentment. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for the broader literature on social movements and public opinion.

Understanding Whether Representative Bureaucracy and Racial Resentment Impact Public Perceptions of the Distributive Justice of Government Programs

Within the representative bureaucracy literature, scholars argue that public perceptions of government will improve when their government looks like them. In particular, this study focuses on how the public perceives the fairness of policy outcomes, measured as distributive justice. We test this through a survey experiment that examines how perceptions of distributive justice are affected by the racial diversity of government employees. Respondents are presented with a vignette about grants allocated to small businesses, and then provided information about the racial diversity of agency employees. We further examine whether levels of racial resentment impact the relationship between diversity in government and the perceived distributive justice of policy outcomes. Racial resentment, frequently used in political science as a proxy for levels of prejudice, is included because reactions to information about race and government policy are likely to shape perceptions about the legitimacy of government action and views on representative bureaucracy. The experiment results indicate racial representation in government matters for Whites, and these effects vary by expressed levels of racial resentment. In contrast, distributive justice perceptions of non-White respondents are not changed by information on racial diversity within government agencies and do not vary by levels of racial resentment.

Locked and loaded: correlates of in-home firearm storage beliefs and behaviours

ObjectivesTo understand how crime and victimisation fears and risks operate alongside social status threats and motivations to shape unsafe in-home firearm storage practices and beliefs.MethodsUsing data from firearm owners identified...

Racism underlies seemingly race‐neutral conservative criticisms of DEI statements among Black and White people in the United States

AbstractWe examined how potential job candidates react to a hiring organization that requests diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) statements, which conservatives in the United States and elsewhere have criticized as being unrelated to job function and inappropriately political or ideological. Across three studies (two of which were pre‐registered), we compared reactions to requests for DEI (vs. teamwork or conservative values) statements as a function of race (Black vs. White), political conservatism and symbolic racism (Total N = 1108). When a DEI (vs. teamwork or politically conservative values) statement was requested, participants who were more (vs. less) conservative perceived the organization as less just, expressed less interest in the job, and expected poorer person‐organization fit, even when a job‐related rationale was provided. Further, participants who were more (vs. less) conservative evaluated a request for a statement consistent with conservative values more favourably. Thus, criticisms that DEI statements are overly political are not applied to other statements that might elicit similar concerns. Moreover, an internal meta‐analysis suggested that the relationships of conservatism to justice and interest (but not person‐organization fit) in response to requests for DEI (vs. teamwork) statements were not independent of racism. Findings were consistent with social dominance theory; racism may underlie seemingly race‐neutral backlash to DEI statements.

Linking Geographically Mediated Racial Threat and Racial Resentment

In recent years, the utility of the racial resentment scale for measuring specifically racialized attitudes of white Americans has come into question. This visualization shows that despite these critiques, racial resentment is highest in precisely the parts of the country where geographically mediated threat is most salient: the whitest parts of the least white states. This link between threat and resentment provides a helpful way to think about these two distinct but related theoretical concepts together.

The Most Modern Racism in Brazil: Policing and Racial Relations in the Federal Capital

Resumo Planejada para ser a representação da modernidade brasileira, Brasília - a “cidade mais moderna do Brasil” - foi construída com base em um modelo específico de controle populacional e de segregação sociorracial. Neste artigo, produto de pesquisa realizada entre 2017-2019, buscamos traçar relações entre dados produzidos pela Polícia Civil do DF, referentes às prisões em flagrante e mortes em decorrência de intervenção policial, e dados obtidos mediante a realização de entrevistas com oficiais negros da Polícia Militar do DF. Por um lado, questionamos a “supressão de conhecimento” estatístico acerca da raça/cor das pessoas presas em flagrante por parte das instituições de segurança pública; por outro, refletimos sobre as narrativas de policiais negros acerca do racismo em suas experiências dentro e fora da PM. Por fim, buscamos entender o papel da polícia na produção e na manutenção de fronteiras invisíveis que colaboram com a permanência das dinâmicas de segregação sociorracial no DF.

The Law of Racial Resentment

The Law of Racial Resentment

Beyond Glass Ceilings: Examining The Role of Racial Resentment, FIRE, and Hostile Sexism in Whites Evaluations of Vice President Kamala Harris

Beyond Glass Ceilings: Examining The Role of Racial Resentment, FIRE, and Hostile Sexism in Whites Evaluations of Vice President Kamala Harris

Cognitive and Apathetic Racism in Patterns of Gun Ownership and Gun Control Attitudes

Our objective is to expand upon the emerging literature that examines the role of multiple forms of racism in gun ownership and gun control attitudes among non‐Latino whites. While some of these studies, using standard measures of racial resentment, speculate about the color‐coded nature of crime and whether this partially motivates gun ownership, here we specifically consider whether cognitive and apathetic types of racism along with explicit racism are associated with gun ownership and attitudes. In doing so, we advance the literature by using novel measures of racism and focus on generalized racial attitudes, not just anti‐black views. We use data from the Guns in American Life Survey, an online survey using a national sample of adult respondents, and apply regression techniques to assess whether general racial attitudes, including fear of non‐whites, are associated with gun ownership and gun control attitudes net of control variables. The multivariate results suggest that racism, including fear of other races, is not associated with gun ownership. However, cognitive and apathetic indicators of racism influence gun control attitudes for at least some whites. The implications are that racism in various forms needs to be considered in all studies involving gun‐related issues.

Replicating and extending Sengupta et al. (2023): Contact predicts no within-person longitudinal outgroup-bias change.

Intergroup contact has long been touted as a premier means to reduce prejudice and forge positive bonds with outgroups. Given its origins in psychological research, it is perhaps of little surprise that contact is expected to induce change within people over time. Yet using random-intercepts crossed-lagged modeling that parses within-person from between-person effects, Sengupta et al. (2023) recently found no evidence of within-person change, only unexplained between-person effects, regarding contact's effects on outgroup solidarity in New Zealand. We conceptually replicated their study, focusing on modern racism and an affect thermometer as the outcomes, in a three-wave study of White British participants (NT1 = 946, NT2 = 667, NT3 = 591) and their attitudes toward foreigners. We replicated the general pattern described by Sengupta and colleagues, confirming between-person effects without within-person effects, suggestive of third-variable explanations. As a novel finding, we discover that differences in social dominance orientation (SDO) and right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) can account for the observed between-person effects. Problematically for contact theory, contact effects, at least those relying on self-reported accounts, increasingly appear to reflect differences between people (person factors) rather than being context-driven (situation factors)-such that those lower (vs. higher) in SDO and RWA are more favorable toward outgroups, rather than intergroup contact bringing about positive outcomes itself. Implications for theory development and intervention are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

States' racial resentment correlates with administrative distancing and lower rates of health plan selection in affordable care act marketplaces: a cross sectional analysis.

In the United States, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) pursued equity in healthcare access and treatment, but ACA implementation varied, especially limiting African Americans' gains. Marketplaces for subsidized purchase of coverage were sometimes implemented with limited outreach and enrollment assistance efforts. Reflecting state's ACA receptivity or reluctance, state's implementation may rest on sociopolitical stances and racial sentiments. Some states were unwilling to provide publicly supported healthcare to nonelderly, non-disabled adults- "the undeserving poor" -who evoke anti-black stereotypes. The present study assessed whether some states shunned Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces and implemented them less vigorously than other states, leading to fewer eligible persons selecting insurance plans. It assessed if states' actions were motivated by racial resentment, because states connote marketplaces to be government assistance for unworthy African Americans. Using marketplace and plan selection data from 2015, we rated states' marketplace structures along a four-level continuum indicating greater acceptance of marketplaces, ranging from states assuming sole responsibility to minimal responsibility. Using national data from a four-question modern racism scale, state-wide racial resentment estimates were estimated at the state level. Analysis assessed associations between state levels of racial resentment with states' marketplace structure. Further analysis assessed relationships between both state levels of racial resentment and states' marketplace structure with states' consumer plan selection rates-representing the proportion of persons eligible to enroll in insurance plans who selected a plan. Racial resentment was greater in states with less responsibility for the administration of the marketplaces than actively participating states. States higher in racial resentment also showed lower rates of plan selection, pointing to less commitment to implementing marketplace provisions and fulfilling the ACA's coverage-improvement mission. Differences persisted after controlling for differences in conservatism, uninsurance, poor health, and rejection of Medicaid expansion. Resentment of African Americans' purported irresponsibility and entitlement to government assistance may interfere with states structuring and operating marketplaces to maximize health insurance opportunities for everyone available under the ACA. N/A.