White Opposition to Racial Transformation. Is it Racism?

Abstract

This article endeavours to investigate predictors of opposition to different categories of policy that aim to bring about racial transformation in South Africa. A sample of 134 white university students was used to investigate the structure of racial attitudes and the predictors of racial policy opinion. Factor analysis showed clear distinctions between opinions towards three categories of policy: competitive affirmative action policy, non-competitive reconstruction and development policy, and legislation to outlaw racial discrimination. On the basis of a review of studies conducted in the USA, three sets of variables were included as predictors of racial policy opinion: (a) "symbolic" and "old-fashioned" racism, (b) political and economic intergroup comparisons, and (c) beliefs and values, including egalitarianism and individualism. Regression analysis showed that each type of policy opinion had a different profile of predictors, but that old-fashioned racism was the strongest predictor in all three instances.

The Principle‐Implementation Gap in Attitudes Towards Racial Equality (and How to Close It)

“…Moreover, we found that the strongest predictor of our latent prejudice variable was old‐fashioned racism. Along similar lines, Durrheim () reported that the strongest predictor of White opposition to racial change policies was old‐fashioned rather than modern prejudice, as measured by overtly racist items such as: “Blacks come from a less able race” and “White people have a right to keep Blacks out of their neighbourhoods.”…”

“…The role of policy type in shaping opposition to race‐targeted interventions has been clarified by some of our other research. Durrheim () surveyed the opinions of 134 White South African university students about a range of policies. Exploratory factor analysis yielded three factors: Affirmative action : Items evaluating preferential contracts and tax breaks to Black businesses; redistributing land by settling Black South Africans on White‐owned farms; paying the victims of apartheid money as reparation for the history of discrimination; racial quotas in national sports teams; preferential hiring and promotion of Blacks in employment; and affirmative action policies in admitting Black students to universities. Reconstruction and Development : Items evaluating spending more money on the schools in largely Black neighborhoods, especially for preschool and early education; and building houses and providing water and electricity for Black people. Policy‐Related Laws : Items evaluating the Discrimination Bill, which makes racism an offence, and the Employment Equity Bill, which makes it a criminal offence to discriminate against people on the basis of their skin color. …”

Challenging the Stubborn Core of Opposition to Equality: Racial Contact and Policy Attitudes

“…This possibility is supported by the extensive sociological literature on predictors of policy attitudes, which has identified prejudice as an important predictor of Whites' support for race‐targeted interventions (e.g., see Krysan, 2000, for a review). To cite a relevant illustration: Durrheim's (2003) survey indicated that “old fashioned” racism—defined in terms of respondents' willingness to endorse crude racial stereotypes of Black people—was a strong predictor of White attitudes towards race‐targeted reforms in post‐apartheid South Africa. In so far as positive contact has consistently been found to decrease this kind of prejudice (Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006), we predicted that it might also indirectly decrease Whites' tendency to oppose the implementation of racial equality.…”

Racial Contact and Change in South Africa

“…Black people are more strongly in favor of policies directed at transformation and integration than other groups. Whites are most opposed to policies such as affirmative action, land redistribution, and racial quotas in sports teams, and this policy opposition is strongly related to racial prejudice and to threat perceptions (Durrheim, 2003; Durrheim et al, in press). In a qualitative study, Durrheim and Dixon (2005) also found that Black and White perceptions of desegregation were rooted in a sense of threat among Whites: “The form that desegregation has taken, with Blacks entering previously exclusive White spaces, is experienced as loss by Whites but as gain by Blacks” (p. 169).…”