Symbolic Racism and Desegregation

A CCORDING TO ONE RECENT INTERPRETATION of annual National Opinion Research Center General Social Survey data, 1970 Americans have moved steadily toward approval of racial integration.1 This interpretation is derived from responses to a five-item scale included annually the NORC survey. There have been fairly steady increases the percentages of whites who say that they oppose segregated schools, do not object to a black dinner guest, do not favor exclusion of blacks from neighborhoods, and do not favor laws against interracial marriage. The fifth item, Blacks shouldn't push themselves where they're not wanted, shows an increase the percentage of whites agreeing since 1970. On this basis, the authors disagree with those who view the 1970s as a decade of white backlash. On the other hand, there are NORC General Social Survey data which suggest a less sanguine view of attitudes toward integration. For example, the 1977 NORC survey, 80 percent of the respondents opposed busing for racial integration. Among respondents, 73 percent felt that blacks should not push where they are not wanted, and 42 percent felt that whites have a to keep blacks out of their neighborhood. While 70 percent of whites said they would not object to a black dinner guest, 77 percent of whites also reported that no one their family had actually brought home a black dinner guest during the past few years. One might therefore suggest that, while an increasing percentage of whites state that they do not favor laws requiring segregation, many nevertheless believe the right of whites to practice segregation and oppose specific means of bringing about integration. Thus, support for or opposition to racial integration cannot be measured simply by recording attitudes toward laws requiring racial segregation. Professed support for desegregation in principle may be used to avoid being labeled a racist when opposing specific desegregation policies. One must measure attitudes toward specific policies being considered or used at a given time a given place to further integration. One must identify the code words or symbols used to express a segregationist stance at a given time a given place

Desegregation · Perception · Political science · Psychoanalysis · Race (biology) · Racism · Sociology · The Symbolic · White (mutation) · Gender Studies · Law · Psychology · School Choice and Performance · Social Psychology