African American, Hispanic, and White Beliefs about Black/White Inequality, 1977-2004

Abstract

Do African Americans, Hispanics, and non-Hispanic whites differ in their explanations of the socioeconomic divide separating blacks and whites in the United States? Have such explanations changed over time? To answer these questions, I use data from the 1977 to 2004 General Social Surveys (GSS) to map race/ethnic differences in support for, trends in, and the determinants of seven “modes of explanation” for blacks' disadvantage. Trends over time indicate the continuation of a long-standing decline in non-Hispanic whites' use of an ability-based (innate inferiority) explanation. Non- Hispanic whites' beliefs in a purely motivational and a purely educational explanation are increasing, however, along with the view that none of the explanations offered in the GSS explain blacks' disadvantage. African Americans and Hispanics also evidence increases in a purely motivational explanation, but they differ from non-Hispanic whites in demonstrating clear declines in structural beliefs—especially the perception that discrimination explains blacks' lower socioeconomic status. These conservative shifts in blacks' and Hispanics' beliefs result in greater similarity with non-Hispanic whites over time. Notably, however, significant “static” race/ethnic group differences remain: non- Hispanic whites score highest, and blacks lowest, on a purely motivational explanation, while African Americans are more likely than both non-Hispanic whites and Hispanics to endorse a discrimination-based explanation. I conclude by discussing the implications of these findings for racial policy support.

Exposure to rising inequality shapes Americans’ opportunity beliefs and policy support

“…Prior studies have recognized the motivating importance of opportunity beliefs as a cause of inequality beliefs and policy preferences but measured them in a relatively limited way: namely, as perceptions of either intergenerational mobility or the role of individual effort in getting ahead (8,26). To explore opportunity beliefs as a key outcome of rising economic inequality, the present work instead uses a wider set of indicators drawn from, and established in, the survey literature on beliefs about economic opportunity (14,27). This measurement approach allows us to examine how structural factors (e.g., coming from a wealthy family) and individual factors (e.g., hard work) are each affected by information about rising inequality whereas prior research typically has employed a bipolar scale or a forced-choice, single-question format wherein participants must choose whether individual or structural factors are more important (16,19,26).…”

Inequality Is a Problem of Inference: How People Solve the Social Puzzle of Unequal Outcomes

“…For instance, some studies investigate the socio-demographic correlates of people's explanations for unequal outcomes in general, while others focus on specific explanations for poverty [45,54] or racial inequality [46,55]. This difference in focus is reflected also in the different data sources used, ranging from theoretical samples [54] to probability samples of city or state populations [45,51,56] and the General Social Survey (GSS), representative of the entire US population [16,46,49,55,57].…”

“…3 Another likely source of different findings stems from authors' measurement strategy. Important decisions include how to measure individualist and structuralist responses, whether or not to include a mixed-category in-between, and whether to investigate differences in beliefs by race [15], gender [46], or both [55]. Such choices have substantial implications.…”

“…Reflective of their greater exposure to discrimination, women generally are less likely than men to understand outcomes in purely meritocratic terms [14,45,51,55], and so are African Americans, as compared with white Americans [7,15,16,44,52]. These associations however depend on context, which may explain why some surveys report contradictory patterns.…”

The Connection between Worship Attendance and Racial Segregation Attitudes among White and Black Americans

“…A number of studies also contain questions of special interests, such as religion in 1991, 1998, and 2008. And, while the exact wording for some questions has changed from survey to survey, the cumulative data file retains consistency across surveys [34]. In total, the 1972-2010 GSS has roughly 5,400 variables, time-trends for nearly 2,000 variables, and 257 trends with over 20 data points.…”