Racial resentment scale

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The racial resentment scale is a measure of symbolic racism created by Donald Kinder and Lynn M. Sanders for the American National Election Studies in the 1980s. It has been considered the dominant measure of symbolic racism since its inception. [1] [2]

Contents

History

The racial resentment scale was developed in the 1980s by Donald Kinder and Lynn M. Sanders, who developed it on behalf of the American National Election Study. [1] In 2020, a review listed it as the dominant measure of symbolic racism in the decades since its creation. [1] It has also been called the most commonly utilized measure of racial resentment. [2] The scale has three pillars: anti-black affect, belief in the idea that African Americans have not conformed to the Protestant work ethic, and denial of ongoing discrimination against African Americans. [3]

Purpose and structure

Results of a YouGov poll after the 2016 US presidential campaign. Sample size 1000. Date: December 6-7, 2016 KinderSanders Racial Resentment YouGov poll questions December 2016.svg
Results of a YouGov poll after the 2016 US presidential campaign. Sample size 1000. Date: December 6–7, 2016

Kinder and Sanders defined racial resentment as "the conjunction of whites' feelings towards blacks and their support for American values, especially secularized versions of the Protestant ethic". They referred to racial resentment as "new racism", stating that it was less a belief in the innate inferiority of African Americans, but rather, the notion that they do not live up to American values like Protestant morality and a hard work ethic. [5] Thus, the racial resentment scale's stated purpose was to identify White Americans who were "generally sympathetic" to Black Americans, or conversely, unsympathetic. [2]

The standard racial resentment scale is a list of four statements, with respondents indicating how strongly they agree or disagree with each one: [1]

  1. Irish, Italian, and Jewish ethnicities overcame prejudice and worked their way up. Blacks should do the same without any special favors.
  2. Generations of slavery and discrimination have created conditions that make it difficult for blacks to work their way out of the lower class.
  3. Over the past few years, blacks have gotten less than they deserve.
  4. It's really a matter of some people just not trying hard enough: if blacks would only try harder they could be just as well off as whites.

In the expanded version, a further two statements are included: [6]

  1. Government officials usually pay less attention to a request or complaint from a black person than from a white person
  2. Most blacks who receive money from welfare programs could get along without it if they tried

Results and effectiveness

In the US, surveys have found that typically, Republicans score higher on the scale than Democrats. Additionally, in the 2016 United States presidential election, supporters of then-candidate Donald Trump had higher racial resentment scores than supporters of other Republican candidates. The racial resentment scale has been criticized for not separating racism from ideas like conservatism or individualism. Some political scientists have attributed Republicans' higher resentment scores to the fact that they typically favor less government intervention; they are more averse to government assistance to the poor, regardless of race. Believers in the Just-world hypothesis, who therefore believe that one's fate is morally fair and a direct result of one's own actions, also score higher on the racial resentment scale. [5]

Given the scale's original definition as measuring the feelings of whites towards blacks, very few studies have used responses to the scale by blacks. However, according to a 2023 study, the racial resentment scale can largely explain also black support for Trump in both the 2016 and 2020 elections. [7]

Several studies have found that racial resentment scores are lower among younger Americans. [1]

The wording of the statements has been criticized for being vague or otherwise imprecise. For example, in the statement, "Over the past few years, blacks have gotten less than they deserve," it is not stated what Black Americans have gotten less of, or relative to whom. [2]

In 1997, Paul Sniderman and Ed Carmines reported in Reaching Beyond Race the results of an experiment where they switched the beneficiary from Blacks to New Immigrants. They find that both Whites and Blacks' opposition to special favors remains unchanged, suggesting that the opposition is not rooted in racism. [8]

According to a 2021 study, measures of explicit anti-black prejudice predicted discrimination by white Americans against blacks during an Ultimatum Game, but racial resentment did not. [9]

Related Research Articles

Racism is discrimination and prejudice against people based on their race or ethnicity. Racism can be present in social actions, practices, or political systems that support the expression of prejudice or aversion in discriminatory practices. The ideology underlying racist practices often assumes that humans can be subdivided into distinct groups that are different in their social behavior and innate capacities and that can be ranked as inferior or superior. Racist ideology can become manifest in many aspects of social life. Associated social actions may include nativism, xenophobia, otherness, segregation, hierarchical ranking, supremacism, and related social phenomena.

Discrimination based on skin color, also known as colorism or shadeism, is a form of prejudice and discrimination in which people of certain ethnic groups or people who are perceived as belonging to a darker-skinned race are treated differently based on their darker skin color.

Institutional racism, also known as systemic racism, is defined as policies and practices that exist throughout a whole society or organization that result in and support a continued unfair advantage to some people and unfair or harmful treatment of others based on race. It manifests as discrimination in areas such as criminal justice, employment, housing, healthcare, education and political representation.

White privilege, or white skin privilege, is the societal privilege that benefits white people over non-white people in some societies, particularly if they are otherwise under the same social, political, or economic circumstances. With roots in European colonialism and imperialism, and the Atlantic slave trade, white privilege has developed in circumstances that have broadly sought to protect white racial privileges, various national citizenships, and other rights or special benefits.

Racism has been reflected in discriminatory laws, practices, and actions at various times in the history of the United States against racial or ethnic groups. Throughout American history, white Americans have generally enjoyed legally or socially sanctioned privileges and rights, which have been denied to members of various ethnic or minority groups at various times. European Americans have enjoyed advantages in matters of education, immigration, voting rights, citizenship, land acquisition, and criminal procedure.

Social dominance orientation (SDO) is a personality trait measuring an individual's support for social hierarchy and the extent to which they desire their in-group be superior to out-groups. SDO is conceptualized under social dominance theory as a measure of individual differences in levels of group-based discrimination; that is, it is a measure of an individual's preference for hierarchy within any social system and the domination over lower-status groups. It is a predisposition toward anti-egalitarianism within and between groups.

Reverse racism, sometimes referred to as reverse discrimination, is the concept that affirmative action and similar color-conscious programs for redressing racial inequality are forms of anti-white racism. The concept is often associated with conservative social movements and reflects a belief that social and economic gains by black people and other people of color cause disadvantages for white people.

Internalized racism is a form of internalized oppression, defined by sociologist Karen D. Pyke as the "internalization of racial oppression by the racially subordinated." In her study The Psychology of Racism, Robin Nicole Johnson emphasizes that internalized racism involves both "conscious and unconscious acceptance of a racial hierarchy in which whites are consistently ranked above people of color." These definitions encompass a wide range of instances, including, but not limited to, belief in negative stereotypes, adaptations to white cultural standards, and thinking that supports the status quo.

Realistic conflict theory (RCT), also known as realistic group conflict theory (RGCT), is a social psychological model of intergroup conflict. The theory explains how intergroup hostility can arise as a result of conflicting goals and competition over limited resources, and it also offers an explanation for the feelings of prejudice and discrimination toward the outgroup that accompany the intergroup hostility. Groups may be in competition for a real or perceived scarcity of resources such as money, political power, military protection, or social status.

Aversive racism is a theory proposed by Samuel L. Gaertner & John F. Dovidio (1986), according to which negative evaluations of racial/ethnic minorities are realized by a persistent avoidance of interaction with other racial and ethnic groups. As opposed to traditional, overt racism, which is characterized by overt hatred for and discrimination against racial/ethnic minorities, aversive racism is characterized by more complex, ambivalent expressions and attitudes nonetheless with prejudicial views towards other races. Aversive racism arises from unconscious personal beliefs taught during childhood. Subtle racist behaviors are usually targeted towards African Americans. Workplace discrimination is one of the best examples of aversive racism. Biased beliefs on how minorities act and think affect how individuals interact with minority members.

Laissez-faire racism is closely related to color blindness and covert racism, and is theorised to encompass an ideology that blames minorities for their poorer economic situations, viewing it as the result of cultural inferiority. The term is used largely by scholars of whiteness studies, who argue that laissez-faire racism has tangible consequences even though few would openly claim to be, or even believe they are, laissez-faire racists.

Symbolic racism is a coherent belief system that reflects an underlying one-dimensional prejudice towards a racialized ethnicity. These beliefs include the stereotype that black people are morally inferior to white people, and that black people violate traditional White American values such as hard work and independence. However, symbolic racism is more of a general term than it is one specifically related to prejudice towards black people. These beliefs may cause the subject to discriminate against black people and to justify this discrimination. Some people do not view symbolic racism as prejudice since it is not linked directly to race but is indirectly linked through social and political issues.

African Americans, and African American males in particular, have an ethnic stereotype in which they are portrayed as dangerous criminals. This stereotype is associated with the fact that African Americans are proportionally over-represented in the numbers of those that are arrested and convicted for committing crimes. It has appeared frequently in American popular culture, reinforcing the negative consequences of systemic racism.

Ambivalent prejudice is a social psychological theory that states that, when people become aware that they have conflicting beliefs about an outgroup, they experience an unpleasant mental feeling generally referred to as cognitive dissonance. These feelings are brought about because the individual on one hand believes in humanitarian virtues such as helping those in need, but on the other hand also believes in individualistic virtues such as working hard to improve one's life.

Racial inequality in the United Statesof America identifies the social inequality and advantages and disparities that affect different races within the country. These can also be seen as a result of historic oppression, inequality of inheritance, or racism and prejudice, especially against minority groups.

David O’Keefe Sears is an American psychologist who specializes in political psychology. He is a distinguished professor of psychology and political science at the University of California, Los Angeles where he has been teaching since 1961. He served as dean of social sciences at UCLA between 1983 and 1992. Best known for his theory of symbolic racism, Sears has published many articles and books about the political and psychological origins of race relations in America, as well as on political socialization and life cycle effects on attitudes, the role of self-interest in attitudes, and multiculturalism. He was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1991.

A race-conscious policy is a policy that aims to improve the conditions of racial minorities. In the United States, such policies are typically aimed at improving the status of African-Americans. Many different kinds of race-conscious policies exist, ranging from nondiscrimination policy to strict numerical racial quotas. Their main purpose is twofold: to compensate for past discrimination against the target race, and to increase equality of opportunity.

The term shooting bias, also known as "shooter bias", is a proposed form of implicit racial bias which refers to the apparent tendency among the police to shoot black civilians more often than white civilians, even when they are unarmed. In countries where white people aren't the majority, shooting bias may still apply, with different minority groups facing discrimination.

Old-fashioned racism (OFR) is a type of racism that asserts that minorities are biologically inferior to white people. OFR is also associated with the belief that minorities should be segregated from white society, and that minorities do not deserve policies to help mitigate the barriers of discrimination.

White Americans, as the largest racial group in the United States, have historically had better health outcomes than other oppressed racial groups in America. However, in recent years, the scholarly discourse has switched from recognition of the immense positive health outcomes of white Americans towards understanding the growing persistence of negative outcomes unique to this racial group. Scholars have discussed the effects of racial prejudice and its negative effect on health outcomes to not only those being oppressed but also those being given privileges. In addition to the effects of living in a racialized society, white Americans have the highest rate of suicide and lifetime psychiatric disorders of any other ethnicity or racial category. In conjunction with these psychiatric issues, the population presents higher rates of alcohol usage alongside lower levels of psychological flourishing. Given this information, the health status of white Americans has gained increasing importance due to the differences in health outcomes between white Americans and white people from other parts of the world.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Cramer, Katherine (2020). "Understanding the Role of Racism in Contemporary US Public Opinion". Annual Review of Political Science. 23: 153–169. doi: 10.1146/annurev-polisci-060418-042842 .
  2. 1 2 3 4 Wilson, David C.; Davis, Darren W. (2011). "Reexamining Racial Resentment: Conceptualization and Content". The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 634: 117–133. doi:10.1177/0002716210388477. S2CID   144453745.
  3. ↑ Kam, Cindy D.; Burge, Camille D. (2018). "Uncovering Reactions to the Racial Resentment Scale across the Racial Divide". The Journal of Politics. 80: 314–320. doi:10.1086/693907. S2CID   148693345.
  4. ↑ "YouGov Poll summary: "HPDeserve" December 6-7, 2016" (PDF). YouGov. YouGov. December 7, 2016. Retrieved 2021-05-27.
  5. 1 2 Konicki, John (8 January 2018). "Can We Measure Racial Resentment". Vanderbilt Political Review. Retrieved 18 June 2020.
  6. ↑ Feldman, S.; Huddy, L. (2005). "Racial resentment and white opposition to race‐conscious programs: Principles or prejudice?". American Journal of Political Science. 49 (1): 168–183. doi:10.1111/j.0092-5853.2005.00117.x.
  7. ↑ Sommer, Udi; Franco, Idan (2023). "Trump's African Americans? Racial resentment and Black support for Trump in the 2020 elections". Groups, Politics, and Identities. doi:10.1080/21565503.2023.2265899.
  8. ↑ https://github.com/soodoku/tldr/blob/master/src/reaching_beyond_race/special_favors.jpg
  9. ↑ Peyton, Kyle; Huber, Gregory A. (2021). "Racial Resentment, Prejudice, and Discrimination". The Journal of Politics. 83 (4): 1829–1836. doi:10.1086/711558. ISSN   0022-3816. S2CID   225311597.
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