Racial Stereotypes and Whites' Political Views of Blacks in the Context of Welfare and Crime

The Changing Color of Welfare? How Whites’ Attitudes toward Latinos Influence Support for Welfare

“…The historic and enduring relationship between race and the welfare state is well established (Brown 1999;Edsall and Edsall 1992;Gilens 1995Gilens , 1996aGilens , 1996bGilens , 1999Lieberman 1998;Luttmer 2001;Peffley, Hurwitz, and Sniderman 1997;Quadagno 1990Quadagno , 1994Wright 1976). Nonetheless, Americans' contemporary ambivalence toward welfare has often been ex-plained primarily in terms of economic self-interest or principled individualism.…”

“…In a model that simultaneously assesses the impact of basic demographic characteristics, economic self-interest, individualism, political views, racial attitudes, and welfare recipient deservingness, Gilens finds that the stereotype that blacks are lazy is one of the most powerful predictors of welfare support, second only to the perception that welfare recipients are undeserving, which is itself highly correlated with the stereotype about black work ethic. Moreover, in order to show that this racial stereotype is truly at the heart of timid support for welfare and not generalized stereotypes about the work ethic of all people on welfare, Gilens uses what he terms "The Welfare Mother Experiment" (see also Peffley et al 1997). In this experiment, respondents were randomly assigned to answer one of two versions of a question about welfare mothers.…”

Race and the Local Politics of Punishment in the New World of Welfare

“…As a result, numerous studies confirm that racial attitudes operate today as a key determinant of public preferences regarding social programs and systems of punishment (Peffley, Hurwitz, and Sniderman 1997;Gilens 1999;Dyck and Hussey 2008). Likewise, studies suggest that as responsibility for welfare provision has shifted back to state and local governments in the wake of welfare reform, punitive policy tools have been adopted in a pattern that tracks with the racial composition of state populations (Hero 1998;Soss et al 2001;Jacobs and Carmichael 2002;Fording 2003;Fellowes and Rowe 2004).…”

Grasping the Interplay between the Verbal Cultural Diversity and Critical Thinking, and Their Consequences for African American Education

“…The focus will be the effect of stereotypes on learning and thinking in the African American learners. Stereotypes, are cognitive constructions which encompass a set of convictions and assumptions that are presumed, in the case of "racial stereotypes" here, to be shared among members of a same racial group, often in a negative context (Jewell, 1993;Peffley et al, 1997). These stereotypes are played out in society at large in their influence on public policies and opinions against particular groups.…”