Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T09:05:53.763Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

RACISM, GROUP POSITION, AND ATTITUDES ABOUT IMMIGRATION AMONG BLACKS AND WHITES1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 December 2014

Vincent L. Hutchings  and
Cara Wong
Vincent L. Hutchings*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science Center for Political Studies, University of Michigan
Cara Wong
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Illinois Center for Political Studies, University of Michigan
*
*Corresponding author: Professor Vincent Hutchings, Center for Political Studies, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, 426 Thompson Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48106. E-mail: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Previous research has shown that racial or ethnic prejudice is one of the most influential antecedents of opposition to more expansive immigration policies. In this paper, we explore whether a theoretical perspective derived from the group position model might represent an additional and complementary explanation for immigration attitudes. We also compare how well the prejudice and group position models explain immigration attitudes among both White and Black Americans. Most of the previous work in this literature focuses solely on Whites’ attitudes, and it remains unclear how well models designed with this group in mind might also apply to African Americans. We rely upon the 2004–2005 National Politics Study to explore the power of these models. In general, we find that measures derived from the group position model account for immigration attitudes even after controlling for various forms of out-group prejudice. The pattern of results also differs considerably across the two racial groups in our study.

Keywords

ImmigrationPrejudiceWhiteBlackRacial AttitudesGroup Conflict
Type
State of the Art
Information
Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , Fall 2014 , pp. 419 - 442
Copyright
Copyright © Hutchins Center for African and African American Research 2014 

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

Allen, Mike (2007). Talk Radio Helped Sink Immigration Reform. Politico, August 20. <http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0807/5449.html> (accessed August 30, 2012).Google Scholar
Allport, Gordon W. (1954). The Nature of Prejudice. Garden City, NY: Doubleday Anchor.Google Scholar
Blalock, Hubert M. Jr. (1967). Toward a Theory of Minority-Group Relations. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.Google Scholar
Blumer, Herbert (1958). Race Prejudice as a Sense of Group Position. Pacific Sociological Review, 1(1): 3–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bobo, Lawrence D. (2000). Race and Beliefs about Affirmative Action: Assessing the Effects of Interests, Group Threat, Ideology, and Racism. In Sears, David O., Sidanius, Jim, and Bobo, Lawrence (Eds.), Racialized Politics: The Debate About Racism in America, pp. 137–164. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Bobo, Lawrence D. and Hutchings, Vincent L. (1994). Race, Immigration, and the Sense of Group Position. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, New York, September 1–4.Google Scholar
Bobo, Lawrence D. 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(6): 951–972.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bobo, Lawrence D. and Tuan, Mia (2006). Prejudice in Politics: Group Position, Public Opinion, and the Wisconsin Treaty Rights Dispute. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bobo, Lawrence D. and Zubrinsky, Camille L. (1996). Attitudes on Residential Integration: Perceived Status Differences, Mere In-Group Preference, or Racial Prejudice? Social Forces, 74(3): 883–909.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brader, Ted, Valentino, Nicholas A., and Suhay, Elizabeth (2008). What Triggers Public Opposition to Immigration? Anxiety, Group Cues, and Immigration Threat. American Journal of Political Science, 52(4): 959–978.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brewer, Marilynn B. (1999). The Psychology of Prejudice: Ingroup Love or Outgroup Hate? Journal of Social Issues, 55(3): 429–444.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broder, John M. (2006). Immigration, From a Simmer to a Scream. New York Times, May 21. <http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/21/weekinreview/21broder.html?ref=immigrationandemigration> (accessed July 2, 2013).+(accessed+July+2,+2013).>Google Scholar
Burns, Peter and Gimpel, James G. (2000). Economic Insecurity, Prejudicial Stereotypes, and Public Opinion on Immigration Policy. Political Science Quarterly, 114(2): 201–225.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Citrin, Jack, Green, Donald P., Muste, Christopher, and Wong, Cara (1997). Public Opinion Toward Immigration Reform: The Role of Economic Motivations. Journal of Politics, 59(3): 858–881.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cummings, Scott and Lambert, Thomas (1997). Anti-Hispanic and Anti-Asian Sentiments among African Americans. Social Science Quarterly, 78(2): 338–353.Google Scholar
DiSipio, Louis (2007). Drawing New Lines in the Sand: An Early Assessment of the Medium and Long-Term Consequences of the 2006 Immigration Rights Protests. Paper presented at Conference on Understanding the Immigration Protests of Spring 2006: Lessons Learned, Future Trajectories, Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, UC Berkeley, April 20.Google Scholar
Dixon, Jeffrey C. (2006). The Ties That Bind and Those That Don’t: Toward Reconciling Group Threat and Contact Theories of Prejudice. Social Forces, 84(4): 2179–2204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doherty, Carroll (2006). Attitudes Toward Immigration: In Black and White. The Pew Research Center for The People & The Press, April 6. <http://pewresearch.org/pubs/21/attitudes-toward-immigration-in-black-and-white> (accessed May 30, 2012).+(accessed+May+30,+2012).>Google Scholar
Espenshade, Thomas J. and Calhoun, Charles A. (1993). An Analysis of Public Opinion Toward Undocumented Immigration. Population Research and Policy Review, 12: 189–224.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Esses, Victoria M., Dovidio, John F., Jackson, Lynne M., and Armstrong, Tamara L. (2001) The Immigration Dilemma: The Role of Perceived Group Competition, Ethnic Prejudice, and National Identity. Journal of Social Issues, 57(3): 389–412.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Esses, Victoria M., Jackson, Lynne M., and Armstrong, Tamara L. (1998). Intergroup Competition and Attitudes Toward Immigrants and Immigration: An Instrumental Model of Group Conflict. Journal of Social Issues, 54(4): 699–724.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gay, Claudine (2006). Seeing Difference: The Effect of Economic Disparity on Black Attitudes Toward Latinos. American Journal of Political Science, 50: 982–997.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herring, Mary, Jankowski, Thomas B., and Brown, Ronald E. (1999). Pro-Black Doesn’t Mean Anti-White: The Structure of African-American Group Identity. Journal of Politics, 61(2): 363–386.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Higham, John (1955). Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism, 1860–1925. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Hopkins, Daniel (2011). National Debates, Local Responses: The Origins of Local Concern about Immigration in the U.K. and the U.S. British Journal of Political Science, 41: 499–524.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hopkins, Daniel (2010). Politicized Places: Explaining Where and When Immigrants Provoke Local Opposition. American Political Science Review, 104: 40–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huddy, Leonie and Sears, David O. (1995). Opposition to Bilingual Education: Prejudice or the Defense of Realistic Interests? Social Psychology Quarterly, 58 (2): 133–143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hutchings, Vincent L., Wong, Cara, Jackson, James, and Brown, Ronald E. (2011). Explaining Perceptions of Competitive Threat in a Multiracial Context. In Charles, Guy-Uriel E., Gerken, Heather K., and Kang, Michael S. (Eds.), Race, Reform and Regulation of the Electoral Process: Recurring Puzzles in American Democracy, pp. 52–74. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kinder, Donald R. and Kam, Cindy D. (2009). Us Against Them: Ethnocentric Foundations of American Opinion. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kinder, Donald R. and Sanders, Lynn M. (1996). Divided by Color: Racial Politics and Democratic Ideals. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Kinder, Donald R. and Sears, David O. (1981). Prejudice And Politics: Symbolic Racism Versus Racial Threats To The Good Life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 40: 414– 431.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kohut, Andrew, Keeter, Scott, Doherty, Caroll, Dimock, Michael, and Christian, Leah (2012). Assessing the Representativeness of Public Opinion Surveys. The Pew Research Center for The People & The Press, May 15.Google Scholar
Mendelberg, Tali (2001). The Race Card: Campaign Strategy, Implicit Messages, and the Norm of Equality. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morris, Irwin L. (2000). African American Voting on Proposition 187: Rethinking the Prevalence of Interminority Conflict. Political Research Quarterly, 53(1): 77–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oliver, J. Eric and Wong, Janelle (2003). Intergroup Prejudice in Multiethnic Settings. American Journal of Political Science, 47(4): 567–582.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pettigrew, Thomas F., Wagner, Ulrich, and Christ, Oliver (2007). Who Opposes Immigration? Comparing German with North American Findings. Du Bois Review, 4(1): 19–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quillian, Lincoln (1995). Prejudice as a Response to Perceived Group Threat: Population Composition and Anti-Immigrant and Racial Prejudice in Europe. American Sociological Review, 60 (4): 586–611.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orey, Byron D. (2004). Explaining Black Conservatives: Racial Uplift or Racial Resentment. Black Scholar, 34 (Spring): 18–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perez, Efren O. (2010). Explicit Evidence on the Import of Implicit Attitudes: The IAT and Immigration Policy Judgments. Political Behavior, 32(4): 517–545.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schildkraut, Deborah J. (2008). Immigrant Resentment: When the Work Ethic Backfires. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Boston, MA, Aug 28–31.Google Scholar
Schuman, Howard, Steeh, Charlotte, Bobo, Lawrence D., and Krysan, Maria (1997). Racial Attitudes in America: Trends and Interpretations. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Sears, David O., Citrin, Jack, Cheleden, Sharmaine V., and Laar, Colette Van (1999). Cultural Diversity and Multicultural Politics: Is Ethnic Balkanization Psychologically Inevitable? In Prentice, Deborah A. and Miller, Dale T. (Eds.), Cultural Divides: Understanding and Overcoming Group Conflict, pp. 35–79. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Sears, David O. and Henry, P. J. (2005). Over Thirty Years Later: A Contemporary Look at Symbolic Racism and its Critics. In Zanna, M. (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, pp. 95–150. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Sears, David O. and Savalei, Victoria (2006). The Political Color Line in America: Many “Peoples of Color” or Black Exceptionalism? Political Psychology, 27(6): 895–924.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sniderman, Paul M., Hagendoorn, Louk, and Prior, Markus (2004). Predispositional Factors and Situational Triggers: Exclusionary Reactions to Immigrant Minorities. American Political Science Review, 98(1): 35–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suro, Robert (2007). Out of the Shadows, into the Light: Questions Raised by the Spring of 2006. Paper presented at Conference on Understanding the Immigration Protests of Spring 2006: Lessons Learned, Future Trajectories, Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, UC Berkeley, April 20.Google Scholar
Swarns, Rachel L. (2006). Growing Unease for Some Blacks on Immigration. New York Times, May 4. <http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/04/us/04immig.html?pagewanted=all> (accessed May 30, 2012).+(accessed+May+30,+2012).>Google Scholar
Taylor, Marylee C. (1998). How White Attitudes Vary with the Racial Composition of Local Populations: Numbers Count. American Sociological Review, 63(4): 512–535.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Valentino, Nicholas A., Brader, Ted, and Jardina, Ashley E.. (2013) Immigration Opposition Among U.S. Whites: General Ethnocentrism or Media Priming of Attitudes About Latinos? Political Psychology, 34(2): 149–166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, Thomas C. (2001). Americans’ Views on Immigration Policy: Testing the Role of Threatened Group Interests. Sociological Perspectives, 44(4): 485–501.CrossRefGoogle Scholar