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'''Symbolic racism''' (modern-symbolic racism, symbolic prejudice) is a theorized set of beliefs in which the subject covertly or unconsciously views an entire [[Race (classification of humans)|race]] as symbolized by an abstract group with certain negative attributes (e.g., that set of black people who are always trying to be lazy) rather than as a collection of specific individuals (e.g., the full set of people with black skin), and in so doing dehumanizes the entire group as a whole, without being racist in a classical sense towards the individuals within that group.
'''Symbolic Racism''' (modern-symbolic racism, symbolic prejudice) is a theorized set of beliefs in which the subject covertly or unconsciously views an entire [[Race (classification of humans)|race]] as symbolized by an abstract group with certain negative attributes (e.g., that set of black people who are always trying to be lazy) rather than as a collection of specific individuals (e.g., the full set of people with black skin), and in so doing dehumanizes the entire group as a whole, without being racist in a classical sense towards the individuals within that group.


The theory of symbolic racism proposes that, in response to public abhorrence of overt racism, prejudice has gone underground, finding its expression in more subtle forms, which may sometimes manifest through socialization and therefore transpire without elements of conscious awareness. According to the symbolic racism model, bigots of the current era will cloak their racist sentiments under the guise of statements or actions supposedly in defence of noble and important values.
The theory of symbolic racism proposes that, in response to public abhorrence of overt racism, prejudice has gone underground, finding its expression in more subtle forms, which may sometimes manifest through socialization and therefore transpire without elements of conscious awareness. According to the symbolic racism model, bigots of the current era will cloak their racist sentiments under the guise of statements or actions supposedly in defence of noble and important values.

Revision as of 07:45, 4 November 2012

Symbolic Racism (modern-symbolic racism, symbolic prejudice) is a theorized set of beliefs in which the subject covertly or unconsciously views an entire race as symbolized by an abstract group with certain negative attributes (e.g., that set of black people who are always trying to be lazy) rather than as a collection of specific individuals (e.g., the full set of people with black skin), and in so doing dehumanizes the entire group as a whole, without being racist in a classical sense towards the individuals within that group.

The theory of symbolic racism proposes that, in response to public abhorrence of overt racism, prejudice has gone underground, finding its expression in more subtle forms, which may sometimes manifest through socialization and therefore transpire without elements of conscious awareness. According to the symbolic racism model, bigots of the current era will cloak their racist sentiments under the guise of statements or actions supposedly in defence of noble and important values.

History

After the Civil Rights Act of 1964, many people in America found old-fashioned (or “Jim Crow”) racism dissolving along with segregation. Symbolic racism is a term that was coined by David Sears & John McConahay [1](1973) to explain why most White Americans supported principles of equality for Black Americans but less than half were willing to support programs designed to implement these principles. While equal rights are fought for vehemently, symbolic racism is still prominent today in the United States and possibly acts as a mask for old-fashioned racism sentiments.

Symbolic racism was the first described form of modern racism, which has now come to include aversive racism and racism stemming from ambivalent prejudice. The original theory behind the concept of symbolic racism emerged in 1971 and described three definitive aspects of this form of racism:[2]

1. A new form of racism had replaced old-fashioned Jim Crow racism, as it was no longer popular and could no longer be influential in politics as only a small minority still accepted it.

2. Opposition to Black politicians and racially-targeted policies is more influenced by symbolic racism than by any perceived or true threat to Whites' own personal lives.

3. The origins of this form of racism lay in early-socialized negative feelings about Blacks associated with traditional conservative values.

Evidence

Bobocel et al. (1998) [3] found that prejudice can be rationalized as a concern for justice. Opposition to preferential Affirmative Action programs (those that assign a larger weight to demographic and give preference to target group members) was uniquely predicted by an individual’s belief in merit principles. That is, regardless of prejudice level, individuals tend to oppose preferential treatment programs because they violate traditional norms of meritocracy. However, the higher an individual’s level of prejudice, the more likely he was to construe an undefined Affirmative Action program (e. g. not necessarily preferential) as violating the merit principle and, in turn, oppose the undefined Affirmative Action program. These high-prejudice individuals were able to rationalize their prejudice as a concern for justice, although no traditional justice norms had been explicitly violated. In this way, symbolic racism functions through rationalization as a concern for traditional norms without conscious awareness.

Scale

The Symbolic Racism 2000 Scale was first published by Sears and Henry in 2002 in the journal Political Psychology. It consists of a series of statements relating to race and politics to which the participant must state their agreement on a scale of "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree." Example statements include:

Irish, Italian, Jewish, and many other minorities overcame prejudice and worked their way up. Blacks should do the same.
Over the past few years, Blacks have gotten more economically than they deserve.

Examples

Public opinion researchers polled White Americans in the early 1970s on their backing for racial equality and their support for government intervention that would enforce equality. The results revealed high levels of support from White Americans, ranging from 75 percent to nearly 100 percent, regarding the principles for school integration, equal opportunity employment, and open housing. Support from the same White Americans was significantly lower for implementation of these abstract principles; less than 50% supported implementation.[4]

College students who had completed a modern-symbolic prejudice measure early in the semester evaluated the résumés of 10 job applicants and recommend two. The applicants consisted of three qualified Blacks, two qualified Whites, and five unqualified Whites. The students were split into two groups: one containing students rated high in modern-symbolic prejudice and once containing students rated low. Each student received a memo from the president of the company. Half of the students obtained memos in which the president of the company asked the student to abstain from hiring a worker of a minority group because the person hired would be dealing mainly with White employees. The memo for the second group did not contain this message from the president. The results were very stark between the groups. The group that did not receive any reasoning from the president of the company recommended a Black candidate 61% of the time, regardless of high or low rated modern-symbolic prejudice. In the group that had received justification from the president to abstain from minority hiring, 37% of the students low in modern-symbolic prejudice recommended a Black candidate whereas only 18% of the students high in modern-symbolic prejudice recommended a Black candidate. The results show that symbolic prejudice is expressed most strongly when non-explicitly racist justifications are given for discriminatory action.[5]

Criticism

The concept of symbolic racism is not without its critics. "Hurwitz and Peffley 1998[6]; Sniderman, Crosby, and Howell 2000[7]; Sniderman and Piazza 1993[8]; [and] Sniderman and Tetlock 1986a, 1986b[9][10]" all find flaws in the theory, please see Taman and Sears (2004).[11] Sniderman and Tetlock, for example, find several flaws to the reasoning of this categorization. Among these are crtitiques of "major inconsistencies in the operationalization of the construct" and "the tendency to pose a very restrictive conception of self-interest as the major explanatory alternative to symbolic racism interpretations of policy preferences."[12]

White Symbolic Racism in America

[Symbolically prominent symbolically racist beliefs include] the stereotype that Black people are morally inferior to White people, and that they violate traditional White American values such as hard-work and independence. [Symbolically racist] beliefs may cause the subject to discriminate against a certain race and to justify this discrimination as a concern for justice.[13] However, these beliefs operate to maintain the racial status quo in a manner described by Social Dominance Theory.[14] Some prejudiced people do not view symbolic racism as prejudice since it is not linked directly to race but indirectly through social and political issues.[15] Sears & Henry [16](2005) created five characterizing themes that justify the opposition to social policies designed to promote equality, while still supporting the abstract idea of equality:

1. Racial prejudice and discrimination no longer exists.
2. Any Black-White differences in economic outcomes is a result of Black people’s lack of motivation to work hard.
3. Black people’s anger over inequality is unjustified since they are unwilling to work to get what they want.
4. Black people seek special favors rather than working to get ahead.
5. Relative to White people, Black people have been getting more economically than they deserve.

Symbolic racism is a form of modern racism, as it is more subtle, indirect, and rationalizable than old-fashioned, more overt forms of racism,[17] such as those characterized in Jim Crow Laws. As symbolic racism develops through socialization and its processes occur without conscious awareness,[18] an individual with symbolic racist beliefs may genuinely oppose racism and believe he is not racist.[19] Symbolic racism is perhaps the most prevalent racial attitude today. [20]

See also

References

  1. ^ • Sears, D.O., & McConahay, J.B. (1973). The politics of violence: The new urban Blacks and the Watts riot. Boston. Houghton-Mifflin.
  2. ^ Sears & Kinder. 1971. Racial tensions and voting in Los Angeles. Los Angeles: Viability and prospects for metropolitan leadership. New York, NY: Praeger.
  3. ^ Bobocel, D., Son Hing, L. S., Davey, L. M., Stanley, D. J., & Zanna, M. P. (1998). Justice-based opposition to social policies: Is it genuine?. Journal Of Personality And Social Psychology, 75(3), 653-669. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.75.3.653
  4. ^ • Schuman, H., Steeh,C., Bobo, L., & Krysan, M. (1997). Racial attitudes in America: Trends and interpretations (rev. ed.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
  5. ^ • Brief, A.P., Dietz, J., Cohen, R.R., Pugh, S.D., & Vaslow, J.B. (2000). Just doing business:Modern racism and obedience to authority as explanations for employment discrimination. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 81, 72-97.
  6. ^ Hurwitz, Jon, and Mark Peffley. 1998. “Introduction.” In Perception and Prejudice: Race and Politics in the United States, eds. J. Hurwitz and M. Peffley. New Haven: Yale University Press, pp. 1–16
  7. ^ Sniderman, Paul M., Gretchen C. Crosby, and William G. Howell. 2000. “The Politics of Race.” In Racialized Politics: The Debate About Racism in America, eds. D. O. Sears, J. Sidanius and L. Bobo. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 236–79.
  8. ^ Sniderman, Paul M., and Thomas Piazza. 1993. The Scar of Race. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
  9. ^ Sniderman, Paul M., Tetlock, Philip E (1986). "Symbolic Racism: Problems of Motive Attribution in Political Analysis," Journal of Social Issues, vol. 42, issue2, Blackwell Publishing Ltd, p.129-150,
  10. ^ Sniderman, Paul M., and Philip Tetlock. 1986b. “Reflections on American Racism.” Journal of Social Issues 42(2): 173–87
  11. ^ THE JOURNAL OF POLITICS, Vol. 67, No. 3, August 2005, Pp. 731–761
  12. ^ Sniderman, Paul M., Tetlock, Philip E (1986). "Symbolic Racism: Problems of Motive Attribution in Political Analysis," Journal of Social Issues, vol. 42, issue2, Blackwell Publishing Ltd, p.129-150,
  13. ^ Bobocel, D., Son Hing, L. S., Davey, L. M., Stanley, D. J., & Zanna, M. P. (1998). Justice-based opposition to social policies: Is it genuine?. Journal Of Personality And Social Psychology, 75(3), 653-669. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.75.3.653
  14. ^ • McConahay, J.B., & Hough, J.C., Jr. (1976). Symbolic racism. Journal of Social Issues, 32(2), 23-45.
  15. ^ • McConahay, J.B., Hardee, B.B., & Batts, V. (1981). Has racism declined in America? It depends on who is asking and what is asked. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 25, 563-579.
  16. ^ • Sears, D.O, & Henry, P.J. (2005). Over thirty years later: A contemporary look at symbolic racism. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 37, 95-150.
  17. ^ James, E., Brief, A. P., Dietz, J., & Cohen, R. R. (2001). Prejudice matters: Understanding the reactions of Whites to affirmative action programs targeted to benefit Blacks. Journal Of Applied Psychology, 86(6), 1120-1128. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.86.6.1120
  18. ^ Whitley, B. E., Jr. & Kite, M.E. (2010). The psychology of prejudice and discrimination (2e). Belmont, CA: Thomson-Wadsworth.
  19. ^ Harrison, D. A., Kravitz, D. A., Mayer, D. M., Leslie, L. M., & Lev-Arey, D. (2006). Understanding attitudes toward affirmative action programs in employment: Summary and meta-analysis of 35 years of research. Journal Of Applied Psychology, 91(5), 1013-1036. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.91.5.1013
  20. ^ Race and Politics: The Theory of Symbolic Racism. Henry & Sears, 2002.
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