Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T04:23:25.193Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Racialized Preferences in Context: The Geography of White Opposition to Welfare

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 September 2018

Nina M. Yancy
Nina M. Yancy*
Affiliation:
Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Nina M. Yancy, University College, High Street, Oxford, OX1 4BH, UK. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

Research has shown that white Americans oppose welfare spending in part due to their racial prejudices. Yet, this conventional wisdom ignores the importance of local geography in determining whether whites are likely to view welfare in racialized terms. This article demonstrates that the effect of prejudice on whites’ welfare preferences depends on the salience of welfare's racialized image in a given geographic context. I present a novel application of the racial threat hypothesis—conceptualizing both prejudice and place as multidimensional—to argue that the racial geography of an area amplifies the effect of traditional racial stereotypes on welfare preferences, whereas economic geography amplifies the effect of symbolically racist attitudes. I test these propositions using geocoded data from the years following the 1996 U.S. welfare policy reforms. My analysis reveals that racial attitudes are more predictive of welfare preferences not simply where the stigmas of welfare are salient due to a large black population or high poverty rate, but more specifically where residential segregation makes black or poor households more visible from the viewpoint of whites. These findings highlight the subjectivity of the white perspective, and call for more scholarship theorizing whites’ agency in seeing racialized issues as threatening to white interests.

Keywords

Racial threatwelfareracial attitudessegregation
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics , Volume 4 , Issue 1 , March 2019 , pp. 81 - 116
Copyright
Copyright © The Race, Ethnicity, and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Allport, Gordon. 1954. The Nature of Prejudice. Cambridge, MA: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
Baldwin, James. 1953. “Stranger in the Village.” Harper's Magazine, October 1953.Google Scholar
Bamfield, Louise and Horton, Tim. 2009. Understanding Attitudes to Tackling Economic Inequality. York, UK: Joseph Rowntree Foundation.Google Scholar
Baybeck, Brady. 2006. “Sorting Out the Competing Effects of Racial Context.” Journal of Politics 68 (2): 386–96.Google Scholar
Behr, Roy L. and Iyengar, Shanto. 1985. “Television News, Real-World Cues, and Changes in the Public Agenda.” Public Opinion Quarterly 49 (1): 38–57.Google Scholar
Bischoff, Kendra and Reardon, Sean F.. 2014. “Residential Segregation by Income, 1970–2009.” In Diversity and Disparities: America Enters a New Century, ed. John Logan. New York: The Russell Sage Foundation, p. 43.Google Scholar
Blalock, Hubert M. 1967. Toward a Theory of Minority-Group Relations. New York; London: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.Google Scholar
Blumer, Herbert. 1958. “Race Prejudice as a Sense of Group Position.” The Pacific Sociological Review 1 (1): 3–7.Google Scholar
Bobo, Lawrence. 1983. “Whites’ Opposition to Busing: Symbolic Racism or Realistic Group Conflict?” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 45 (6): 1196–210.Google Scholar
Bobo, Lawrence and Kluegel, James R.. 1993. “Opposition to Race-Targeting: Self-Interest, Stratification Ideology, or Racial Attitudes?” American Sociological Review 58 (4): 443.Google Scholar
Branton, Regina P. and Jones, Bradford S.. 2005. “Reexamining Racial Attitudes: The Conditional Relationship between Diversity and Socioeconomic Environment.” American Journal of Political Science 49 (2): 359–72.Google Scholar
Brown, Robert D. 1995. “Party Cleavages and Welfare Effort in the American States.” American Political Science Review 89 (1): 23–33.Google Scholar
Carmines, Edward G. and Stimson, James A.. 1989. Issue Evolution: Race and the Transformation of American Politics. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Du Bois, W. E. B. 1903. The Souls of Black Folk. Chicago, IL: A.C. McClurg & Co.Google Scholar
Eberhardt, Jennifer L., Atiba Goff, Phillip, Purdie, Valerie J., and Davies, Paul G.. 2004. “Seeing Black: Race, Crime, and Visual Processing.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 87 (6): 876–93.Google Scholar
Edsall, Thomas Byrne and Edsall, Mary. 1991. Chain Reaction: The Impact of Rights, Race and Taxes on American Politics. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.Google Scholar
Ellison, Ralph. 1952. Invisible Man. New York: Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Enos, Ryan D. 2016. “What the Demolition of Public Housing Teaches Us about the Impact of Racial Threat on Political Behavior.” American Journal of Political Science 60 (1): 123–42.Google Scholar
Fossett, Mark A. and Kiecolt, K. Jill. 1989. “The Relative Size of Minority Populations and White Racial Attitudes.” Social Science Quarterly 70 (4): 820–35.Google Scholar
Fotheringham, A. Stewart and Wong, David W. S.. 1991. “The Modifiable Areal Unit Problem in Multivariate Statistical Analysis.” Environment and Planning 23 (7): 1025–44.Google Scholar
Fox, Cybelle. 2012. Three Worlds of Relief: Race, Immigration, and the American Welfare State from the Progressive Era to the New Deal. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Frankenberg, Ruth. 1993. White Women, Race Matters: The Social Construction of Whiteness. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Gilens, Martin. 1995. “Racial Attitudes and Opposition to Welfare.” Journal of Politics 57 (4): 994–1014.Google Scholar
Gilens, Martin. 1996. “Race Coding’ and White Opposition to Welfare.” American Political Science Review 90 (3): 593–604.Google Scholar
Gilens, Martin. 1999. Why Americans Hate Welfare: Race, Media, and the Politics of Anti-Poverty Policy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Giles, Micheal W. 1977. “Percent Black and Racial Hostility: An Old Assumption Reexamined.” Social Science Quarterly 58 (3): 412–7.Google Scholar
Giles, Micheal W. and Buckner, Melanie A.. 1993. “David Duke and Black Threat: An Old Hypothesis Revisited.” Journal of Politics 55 (3): 702.Google Scholar
Gingrich, Jane and Ansell, Ben. 2012. “Preferences in Context: Micro Preferences, Macro Contexts, and the Demand for Social Policy.” Comparative Political Studies 45 (12): 1624–54.Google Scholar
Glaser, James M. 2001. “The Preference Puzzle: Educational Differences in Racial-Political Attitudes.” Political Behavior 23 (4): 313–34.Google Scholar
Hacker, Jacob S. 2004. “After Welfare.” The New Republic, 11th October 2004.Google Scholar
Hancock, Ange-Marie. 2004. The Politics of Disgust: The Public Identity of the Welfare Queen. New York: NYU Press.Google Scholar
Harris-Lacewell, Melissa V. 2003. “The Heart of the Politics of Race: Centering Black People in the Study of White Racial Attitudes.” Journal of Black Studies 34 (2): 222–49.Google Scholar
Hero, Rodney E. and Tolbert, Caroline J.. 1996. “A Racial/Ethnic Diversity Interpretation of Politics and Policy in the States of the US.” American Journal of Political Science 40 (3): 851–71.Google Scholar
Hersh, Eitan D. and Nall, Clayton. 2016. “The Primacy of Race in the Geography of Income-Based Voting: New Evidence from Public Voting Records.” American Journal of Political Science 60 (2): 289–303.Google Scholar
Hooks, Bell. 1992. Black Looks: Race and Representation. Boston: South End Press.Google Scholar
Hopkins, Daniel J. 2010. “Politicized Places: Explaining Where and When Immigrants Provoke Local Opposition.” American Political Science Review 104 (1): 40–60.Google Scholar
Hurwitz, Jon and Peffley, Mark. 1997. “Public Perceptions of Race and Crime: The Role of Racial Stereotypes.” American Journal of Political Science 41 (2): 375–401.Google Scholar
Jargowsky, Paul A. 1996. “Take the Money and Run: Economic Segregation in U.S. Metropolitan Areas.” American Sociological Review 61 (6): 984–98.Google Scholar
Johnson, Martin. 2001. “The Impact of Social Diversity and Racial Attitudes on Social Welfare Policy.” State Politics & Policy Quarterly 1: 27–49.Google Scholar
Katz, Daniel. 1960. “The Functional Approach to the Study of Attitudes.” Public Opinion Quarterly 24 (2): 163–204.Google Scholar
Katz, Michael B. 1989. The Undeserving Poor. New York: Pantheon.Google Scholar
Kaufmann, Eric and Harris, Gareth. 2015. “‘White Flight’ or Positive Contact? Local Diversity and Attitudes to Immigration in Britain.” Comparative Political Studies 48 (12): 1563–90.Google Scholar
Kellstedt, Paul M. 2003. The Mass Media and the Dynamics of American Racial Attitudes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Key, V. O. 1949. Southern Politics in State and Nation. New York: Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Kinder, Donald R. and Mendelberg, Tali. 1995. “Cracks in American Apartheid: The Political Impact of Prejudice among Desegregated Whites.” Journal of Politics 57 (02): 402.Google Scholar
Kinder, Donald R. and Sanders, Lynn M.. 1996. Divided By Color: Racial Politics and Democratic Ideals. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Kinder, Donald R. and Sears, David O.. 1981. “Prejudice and Politics: Symbolic Racism Versus Racial Threats to the Good Life.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 40 (3): 414–31.Google Scholar
King, Desmond S. and Smith, Rogers M.. 2005. “Political Racial Orders in American Development.” American Political Science Review 99 (1): 75–92.Google Scholar
Krysan, Maria and Bader, Michael. 2007. “Perceiving the Metropolis: Seeing the City through a Prism of Race.” Social Forces 86 (2): 699–733.Google Scholar
Laurence, James. 2014. “Reconciling the Contact and Threat Hypotheses: Does Ethnic Diversity Strengthen or Weaken Community Inter-Ethnic Relations?” Ethnic and Racial Studies 37 (8): 1328–49.Google Scholar
Lippmann, Walter. 1922. Public Opinion. New York: Transaction Publishers.Google Scholar
Logan, John R. 2011. Separate and Unequal: The Neighborhood Gap for Blacks, Hispanics and Asians in Metropolitan America. Providence, RI: Brown University.Google Scholar
Logan, Trevon D. and Parman, John M.. 2017. “The National Rise in Residential Segregation.” Journal of Economic History 77 (1): 127–70.Google Scholar
Massey, Douglas and Denton, Nancy. 1993. American Apartheid. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Massey, Douglas S. and Sampson, Robert. J.. 2009. “Moynihan Redux: Legacies and Lessons.” The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 621 (1): 6–27.Google Scholar
McConahay, John B. 1986. “Modern Racism, Ambivalence, and the Modern Racism Scale.” In Prejudice, Discrimination, and Racism, eds. Dovidio, John F. and Gaertner, Samuel L.. New York: Academic Press, pp. 91–126.Google Scholar
Mendelberg, Tali. 2001. The Race Card: Campaign Strategy, Implicit Messages, and the Norm of Equality. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Oliver, J. Eric and Mendelberg, Tali. 2000. “Reconsidering the Environmental Determinants of White Racial Attitudes.” American Journal of Political Science 44 (3): 574–89.Google Scholar
Omi, Michael and Winant, Howard. 1986. Racial Formation in the United States: From the 1960s to the 1980s. New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Pattillo, Mary. 2009. “Investing in Poor Black Neighborhoods ‘As Is’.” In Public Housing and the Legacy of Segregation, eds. Turner, Margery Austin, Popkin, Susan J., and Rawlings, Lynette. Washington, D.C.: The Urban Institute Press, pp. 31–46.Google Scholar
Pettigrew, Thomas F., Wagner, Ulrich, and Christ, Oliver. 2010. “Population Ratios and Prejudice: Modelling Both Contact and Threat Effects.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 36 (4): 635–50.Google Scholar
Quillian, Lincoln. 1995. “Prejudice as a Response to Perceived Group Threat: Population Composition and Anti-Immigrant and Racial Prejudice in Europe.” American Sociological Review 60 (4): 586.Google Scholar
Quillian, Lincoln. 1996. “Group Threat and Regional Change in Attitudes Toward African-Americans.” American Journal of Sociology 102 (3): 816.Google Scholar
Quillian, Lincoln. 2002. “Why Is Black-White Residential Segregation So Persistent? Evidence on Three Theories from Migration Data.” Social Science Research 31 (2): 197–229.Google Scholar
Reeves, Andrew and Gimpel, James G.. 2012. “Ecologies of Unease: Geographic Context and National Economic Evaluations.” Political Behavior 34 (3): 507–34.Google Scholar
Rocha, Rene R. and Espino, Rodolfo. 2009. “Racial Threat, Residential Segregation, and the Policy Attitudes of Anglos.” Political Research Quarterly 62 (2): 415–26.Google Scholar
Sampson, Robert J., Morenoff, Jeffrey D., and Earls, Felton. 1999. “Beyond Social Capital: Spatial Dynamics of Collective Efficacy for Children.” American Sociological Review 64 (5): 633–60.Google Scholar
Schuman, Howard, Steeh, Charlotte, Bobo, Lawrence, and Krysan, Maria. 1997. Racial Attitudes in America: Trends and Interpretations. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Sidanius, Jim, Pratto, Felicia, and Bobo, Lawrence. 1996. “Racism, Conservatism, Affirmative Action, and Intellectual Sophistication: A Matter of Principled Conservatism or Group Dominance?” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 70 (3): 476–90.Google Scholar
Sniderman, Paul M. and Piazza, Thomas. 1993. The Scar of Race. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Soss, Joe and Schram, Sanford F.. 2007. “A Public Transformed? Welfare Reform as Policy Feedback.” American Political Science Review 101 (1): 111–27.Google Scholar
Spitzer, Steven. 1975. “Toward a Marxian Theory of Deviance.” Social Problems 22 (5): 638–51.Google Scholar
Strolovitch, Dara Z. 1998. “Playing Favorites: Public Attitudes Toward Race- and Gender-Targeted Anti-Discrimination Policy.” NWSA Journal 10 (3): 27–53.Google Scholar
Stults, Brian J. and Baumer, Eric P.. 2007. “Racial Context and Police Force Size: Evaluating the Empirical Validity of the Minority Threat Perspective.” American Journal of Sociology 113 (2): 507–46.Google Scholar
Tam Cho, W. K. and Baer, N.. 2011. “Environmental Determinants of Racial Attitudes Redux: The Critical Decisions Related to Operationalizing Context.” American Politics Research 39 (2): 414–36.Google Scholar
Tarman, Christopher and Sears, David O.. 2005. “The Conceptualization and Measurement of Symbolic Racism.” Journal of Politics 67 (3): 731–61.Google Scholar
Taylor, Marylee C. 1998. “How White Attitudes Vary with the Racial Composition of Local Populations: Numbers Count.” American Sociological Review 63 (4): 512.Google Scholar
Tesler, Michael. 2012. “The Spillover of Racialization into Health Care: How President Obama Polarized Public Opinion by Racial Attitudes and Race.” American Journal of Political Science 56 (3): 690–704.Google Scholar
Tobler, Waldo R. 1970. “A Computer Movie Simulating Urban Growth in the Detroit Region.” Economic Geography 46: 234–40.Google Scholar
Turner, Bobbie Green. 1993. Federal/State Aid to Dependent Children Program and its Benefits to Black Children in America, 1935–1985. New York: Garland Publishing.Google Scholar
Valentino, Nicholas A., Hutchings, Vincent L., and White, Ismail K.. 2002. “Cues That Matter: How Political Ads Prime Racial Attitudes during Campaigns.” American Political Science Review 96 (1): 75–90.Google Scholar
Velez, Yamil Ricardo and Lavine, Howard. 2017. “Racial Diversity and the Dynamics of Authoritarianism.” Journal of Politics 79 (2): 519–33.Google Scholar
Voss, D. Stephen. 1996. “Beyond Racial Threat: Failure of an Old Hypothesis in the New South.” Journal of Politics 58 (4): 1156.Google Scholar
Weber, Christopher R., Lavine, Howard, Huddy, Leonie, and Federico, Christopher M.. 2014. “Placing Racial Stereotypes in Context: Desirability and the Politics of Racial Hostility.” American Journal of Political Science 58 (1): 63–78.Google Scholar
Wilson, William Julius. 1987. The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Wong, Cara, Bowers, Jake, Williams, Tarah, and Drake Simmons, Katherine. 2012. “Bringing the Person Back In: Boundaries, Perceptions, and the Measurement of Racial Context.” Journal of Politics 74 (4): 1153–70.Google Scholar
Zaller, John. 1992. The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Yancy supplementary material

Yancy supplementary material 1

Download Yancy supplementary material(File)
File 65.4 KB