Beyond Prejudice? Young Whites’ Racial Attitudes in Post–Civil Rights America, 1976 to 2000

Abstract

A key finding from previous research on trends in Whites' racial attitudes is that much of the decline in the expression of racial prejudice over the past seven decades can be attributed to the replacement of older, less tolerant White cohorts by younger, more tolerant cohorts of Whites in the U.S. population (i.e., cohort replacement). An implicit assumption of much of this work is that cohort replacement will continue to produce unidirectional liberalizing trends in Whites' racial attitudes because of the more tolerant attitudes of each younger cohort. In this article, we reexamine the cohort replacement hypothesis focusing on young Whites' racial attitudes and whether change is in substance or form. We develop a theoretical argument about the shifting nature of young Whites' racial attitudes and understandings in the post-civil rights era by building on Forman's concept of racial apathy and the expanding literature on color-blind racism, which posits that during the post-civil rights era, subtle forms of racial prejudice have become more prevalent than overt forms. We empirically test this argument by investigating trends in, and determinants of, young Whites' racial attitudes from 1976 to 2000, using nationally representative samples of White high school seniors. Although we find a liberalizing trend for some racial attitudes, we do not find a similar pattern for contemporary forms of prejudice, particularly racial apathy. In addition, we find that the social determinants of young Whites' social distance attitudes (traditional prejudice) and expressions of racial apathy (contemporary prejudice) have been remarkably consistent over time. Collectively, these results indicate the need for greater attention to the expression of subtle forms of prejudice among young Whites generally, and to the potentially destructive force of rising levels of racial apathy specifically.

It’s All in the Definition: Color‐Blind Interpretations of School Diversity

“…I also found support for the hypothesis that engaging in a racialized practice (picking a whiter school) mediates the relationship between percent minority in schools and the type of diversity frame employed. This provides evidence in support of color-blind theories-namely, that one mechanism for why color-blind ideology arises in times of racial threat is because it affords individuals the ability to justify practices that could be perceived as racist (Apfelbaum, Sommers, and Norton 2008;Berrey 2015;Forman and Lewis 2015). When individuals defined diversity more broadly, picking a whiter school may have been rationalized to have had nothing to do with race such that those who selected the school could perceive their actions to not be about race.…”

“…Tests for mediation indicate that 85% of the effect of percent black is explained by picking a whiter school and the effect is completely reduced for percent Latinx (p < .001). This evidences that engaging in a racialized behavior (picking a whiter school) helps explain a significant proportion of why racial threat leads to color-blind attitudes-likely because color-blind attitudes can be used as a justification for racialized practices (Forman and Lewis 2015).…”

“…Many Americans have color-blind attitudes-believing that race is no longer consequential in society, that race should not be openly discussed, and that racial inequality existed only in the past (Apfelbaum et al 2012;Bonilla-Silva 2017;Feagin 2010;Forman 2004;Forman and Lewis 2015;Lewis 2004). Because many Americans believe that there is equality for all, considering race for any reason-including for achieving racial justice-is increasingly viewed as unfair and perhaps even disadvantaging whites (Bobo and Kluegel 1993;Warikoo and de Novais 2015).…”

“…Implicit in color-blind theory is an argument that color blindness arises to protect white privilege and power-particularly when there is a perception that these advantages are threatened (Beeman 2015;Smith and Mayorya-Gallo 2017). Color blindness is often described as a purposeful tool that arose in reaction to the implementation of civil rights legislation (Feagin 2010;Forman 2004;Forman and Lewis 2015;Lewis 2004). Because whites view their power in society as normative (Anderson 2015), any shifts that threaten this power are viewed as disadvantaging whites instead of as necessary to reduce systemic racial inequality (Bobo 1999).…”

“…Therefore, color-blind attitudes are thought to contribute to racial inequality by allowing people to ignore the perpetuation of racial discrimination and negating the need for systemic changes to address it (Bonilla-Silva 2017). There are two key assumptions implied in color-blind theory: (1) racial threat, such as increased minority rights or population size, activates color blindness because there is a need to protect white privilege (Smith and Mayorga-Gallo 2017), and (2) racial threat does so because color blindness is a tool that can justify racist practices and policies and relieve white Americans of responsibility for racial injustice (al-Gharbi 2019;Forman and Lewis 2015).…”