Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-07T23:18:21.428Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A DREAM DEFERRED?

Privileged Blacks’ and Whites’ Beliefs about Racial Inequality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2017

Jason E. Shelton*
Affiliation:
Center for African American Studies and Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Texas at Arlington
*
*Corresponding author: Jason E. Shelton, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, 601 Nedderman Drive Room #430, Arlington, Texas 76019. Office Phone: (817) 272–3800; Fax: (817) 272–3759; E-mail: [email protected].

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to determine whether a privileged class position operates similarly in shaping Blacks’ and Whites’ beliefs about the causes of racial inequality. Existing studies have established that socioeconomic variation drives intraracial differences in commitments to individualistic and structural attributions. However, scholars have yet to determine whether Blacks and Whites positioned at some of the highest levels of the American class structure report corresponding beliefs about the roots of racial disparities. Pooled data from the 1985–2012 General Social Surveys indicate that class-based attitudinal differences are more prevalent and pronounced among Whites rather than Blacks. However, a privileged class position often operates similarly in shaping commitments to select structural attributions. The implications of the findings are discussed, and suggestions for future research are offered.

Type
State of the Art
Copyright
Copyright © Hutchins Center for African and African American Research 2017 

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

Alba, Richard, and Nee, Victor (2003). Remaking the American Mainstream. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Anderson, Elijah (1999). Code of the Street. New York: W.W. Norton.Google Scholar
Apostle, Richard A., Glock, Charles Y., Piazza, Thomas, and Suelzle, Marijean (1983). The Anatomy of Racial Attitudes. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Bobo, Lawrence, and Hutchings, Vincent L. (1996). Perceptions of Racial Group Competition: Extending Blumer’s Theory of Group Position to a Multiracial Social Context. American Sociological Review, 61: 951972.Google Scholar
Bobo, Lawrence, and Kluegel, James (1993). Opposition to Race-Targeting: Self-Interest, Stratification Ideology, or Racial Attitudes? American Sociological Review, 58: 443464.Google Scholar
Bobo, Lawrence, and Kluegel, James (1997). Status, Ideology, and Dimensions of Whites’ Racial Beliefs and Attitudes: Progress and Stagnation. In Tuch, Steven A., and Martin, Jack K. (Eds.), Racial Attitudes in the 1990’s, pp. 93120. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.Google Scholar
Bobo, Lawrence, Kluegel, James, and Smith, Ryan A. (1997). Laissez-Faire Racism: The Crystallization of a Kinder, Gentler, Antiblack Ideology. In Tuch, Steven A., and Martin, Jack K. (Eds.), Racial Attitudes in the 1990’s, pp. 1542. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.Google Scholar
Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo (2006). Racism Without Racists: Colorblind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Cose, Ellis (1993). The Rage of a Privileged Class. New York: HarperCollins.Google Scholar
Dawson, Michael (1994). Behind the Mule: Race and Class in African American Politics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Dawson, Michael (2001). Black Visions: The Roots of Contemporary African American Political Ideologies. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Du Bois, W. E. B. (1948). The Talented Tenth: Memorial Address. Boulè Journal, 15: 313.Google Scholar
Dyson, Michael Eric (2005). Is Bill Cosby Right? Or Has the Black Middle Class Lost Its Mind? New York: Basic Civitas Books.Google Scholar
Farley, Reynolds, and Allen, Walter (1987). The Color Line and the Quality of Life in America. New York: The Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Feagin, Joe (1975). Subordinating the Poor. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Feagin, Joe, and Sikes, Melvin (1994). Living with Racism: The Black Middle Class Experience. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Frazier, E. Franklin (1957). Black Bourgeoisie. New York: Free Press Paperbacks.Google Scholar
Gay, Claudine (2004). Putting Race in Context: Identifying the Environmental Determinants of Black Racial Attitudes. American Political Science Review, 98: 547562.Google Scholar
Grimes, Michael D., Jenkins, Pamela J., and Reavis, Rebel M. (1996). Class, Self-Perception, and Racial Group Identification among African Americans. Critical Sociology, 22(1): 7391.Google Scholar
Gurin, Patricia, Hatchett, Shirley, and Jackson, James (1989). Hope and Independence: Blacks’ Response to Electoral and Party Politics. New York: Russell Sage.Google Scholar
Handy, Kathleen M. (1984). Race and Class Consciousness among Southern Blacks. Sociological Spectrum, 4: 383403.Google Scholar
Hochschild, Jennifer (1995). Facing Up to the American Dream. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Huber, Joan, and Form, William H. (1973). Income and Ideology. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Hughes, Michael (1997). Symbolic Racism, Old-Fashioned Racism, and Whites’ Opposition to Affirmative Action. In Tuch, Steven A., and Martin, Jack K. (Eds.), Racial Attitudes in the 1990’s, pp. 4575. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.Google Scholar
Hughes, Michael, and Tuch, Steven A. (2000). How Beliefs about Poverty Influence Racial Policy Attitudes: A Study of Whites, African Americans, Hispanics, and Asians in the United States. In Sears, David O., Sidanius, Jim, and Bobo, Lawrence (Eds.), Racialized Politics: The Debate About Racism in America, pp. 165190. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Hunt, Matthew O. (1996). The Individual, Society, or Both? A Comparison of Black, Latino, and White Beliefs about the Causes of Poverty. Social Forces, 75(1): 293322.Google Scholar
Hunt, Matthew O. (2004). Race/Ethnicity and Beliefs about Wealth and Poverty. Social Science Quarterly, 85(3): 827853.Google Scholar
Hunt, Matthew O. (2007). African American, Hispanic, and White Beliefs about Black/White Inequality, 1977–2004. American Sociological Review, 72: 390415.Google Scholar
Hwang, Sean-Shong, Fitzpatrick, Kevin M., and Helms, David (1998). Class Differences in Racial Attitudes: A Divided Black America? Sociological Perspectives, 41(2): 367380.Google Scholar
Jackman, Mary (1996). The Velvet Glove. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Kinder, Donald R., and Mendelberg, Tali (2000). Individualism Reconsidered. In Sears, David O., Sidanius, Jim, and Bobo, Lawrence (Eds.), Racialized Politics: The Debate about Racism in America, pp. 4474. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Kluegel, James R. (1990). Trends in Whites’ Explanations for the Black-White Gap in Socioeconomic Status, 1977–1989. American Sociological Review, 55(4): 512525.Google Scholar
Kluegel, James R., and Bobo, Lawrence (1993). Dimensions of Whites’ Beliefs about the Black-White Socioeconomic Gap. In Sniderman, Paul, Tetlock, Phillip E., and Carmines, Edward G. (Eds.), In Prejudice, Politics, and the American Dilemma, pp. 127147. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Kluegel, James R., and Smith, Eliot R. (1982). Whites Beliefs about Blacks’ Opportunity. American Sociological Review, 47: 518532.Google Scholar
Kluegel, James R., and Smith, Eliot R. (1986). Beliefs about Inequality. New York: Aldine DeGruyter.Google Scholar
Krysan, Maria (2000). Prejudice, Politics, and Public Opinion: Understanding the Sources of Racial Policy Attitudes. Annual Review of Sociology, 26: 135168.Google Scholar
Lacy, Karyn (2007). Blue-Chip Black. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Marx, Gary (1967). Protest and Prejudice. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.Google Scholar
Massey, Douglas S., and Denton, Nancy A. (1993). American Apartheid. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Pattillo, Mary (2003). Negotiating Blackness, for Richer or for Poorer. Ethnography, 4(1): 6193.Google Scholar
Pattillo-McCoy, Mary (1999). Middle Class, Yet Black: A Review Essay. African American Research Perspectives, 5(1): 111.Google Scholar
Pew Research Center (2007). Optimism about Black Progress Declines: Blacks See Growing Values Gap Between Poor and Middle Class. Survey conducted in association with National Public Radio.Google Scholar
Pinkney, Alphonso (1984). The Myth of Black Progress. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Reynolds, Jeremy, and Xian, He (2014). Perceptions of Meritocracy in the Land of Opportunity. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 36: 121137.Google Scholar
Robinson, James (2009). American Poverty Cause Beliefs and Structured Inequality Legitimation. Sociological Spectrum, 29: 489518.Google Scholar
Schuman, Howard, and Krysan, Maria (1999). A Historical Note on Whites’ Beliefs about Racial Inequality. American Sociological Review, 64: 847855.Google Scholar
Sears, David O., Hetts, John J., Sidanius, Jim, and Bobo, Lawrence (2000). Race in American Politics. In Sears, David O., Sidanius, Jim, and Bobo, Lawrence (Eds.), Racialized Politics: The Debate about Racism in America, pp. 143. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Shelton, Jason E., and Emerson, Michael O. (2010). Extending the Debate over Nationalism versus Integration: How Cultural Commitments and Assimilation Trajectories Influence Beliefs about Black Power. Journal of African American Studies, 14: 312336.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shelton, Jason E., and Greene, Anthony D. (2012). Get Up, Get Out, and Git Sumthin’: How Race and Class Influence African Americans’ Attitudes about Inequality. American Behavioral Scientist, 56(11): 14801507.Google Scholar
Shelton, Jason E., and Wilson, George (2006). Socioeconomic Status and Racial Group Interests among Black Americans. Sociological Spectrum, 26: 184204.Google Scholar
Shelton, Jason E., and Wilson, George (2009). Race, Class, and the Basis of Group Alignment: An Analysis of Support for Redistributive Policy among Privileged Blacks. Sociological Perspectives, 52(3): 385408.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sigelman, Lee, and Welch, Susan (1991). Black Americans’ Views of Racial Inequality. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Smith, Tom W., Marsden, Peter V., Hout, Michael, and Kim, Jibum (2012). General Social Surveys, 1972–2012. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago, National Opinion Research Center.Google Scholar
Sniderman, Paul, and Piazza, Thomas (1993). The Scar of Race. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press/Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Sniderman, Paul, and Piazza, Thomas (2002). Black Pride and Black Prejudice. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Tate, Katherine (1993). From Protest to Politics. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Tourè (2011). Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness? What It Means to Be Black Now. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Walters, Ronald (2003). White Nationalism, Black Interests. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press.Google Scholar
Waters, Mary, and Ueda, Reed with Helen Marrow (2007). The New Americans: A Guide to Immigration Since 1965. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Webster, Bruce, and Bishaw, Alemayehu (2007). Income, Earnings, and Poverty Data from the 2006 American Community Survey. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Administration, U.S. Census Bureau.Google Scholar
Wilson, George (1996). Toward a Revised Framework for Examining Beliefs about the Causes of Poverty. Sociological Quarterly, 37(3): 413428.Google Scholar
Wilson, George (2001). Support for Redistributive Policies among the African American Middle Class: Race and Class Effects. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 18: 97115.Google Scholar
Wilson, William (1978). The Declining Significance of Race. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Wilson, William (1987). The Truly Disadvantaged. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar