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24 - A History of the New Racisms: Symbolic Racism, Modern Racism, and Racial Resentment

from Section VI - Explicit Prejudice; Alive and Well?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 December 2024

By
David O. Sears
Edited by
Jon A. Krosnick ,
Tobias H. Stark  and
Amanda L. Scott
Jon A. Krosnick
Affiliation:
Stanford University, California
Tobias H. Stark
Affiliation:
Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Amanda L. Scott
Affiliation:
The Strategy Team, Columbus, Ohio
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Summary

This chapter traces the development of the concept of “symbolic racism,” now more commonly known as “racial resentment,” using explicit measures, unlike the implicit biases featured in other chapters. It was first introduced in a survey about the 1969 Los Angeles mayoral election, as a new form of white racial prejudice, more common and more politically powerful than the “old-fashioned racism” of the prior century, especially in white suburbs and outside the old South. I begin with the historical context of the time, as influenced by national events, the local political situation, and my personal background and that of my principal collaborators. I closely examine the original research as it appeared over the next decade, which seems to have focused more on rejecting the role of traditional racial prejudice than on fully developing the idea of a new racism. The growing clarification of the conceptualization and measurement of the new racisms over the next two decades is described. The case is made for its great, and increasing, utility for understanding the politics of the white mass public over the last half-century. I describe the main critiques of this research and our rejoinders and comment on the acrimony of these controversies.

Keywords

explicit measures of racismmodern racismpolitical attitudesracial resentmentsymbolic racism
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Implicit Bias and Racism , pp. 616 - 649
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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