OPPOSITION TO RACE-TARGETING - SELF-INTEREST, STRATIFICATION IDEOLOGY, OR RACIAL-ATTITUDES

Although traditional anti-black prejudice among whites has decreased since the 1940s, social policies designed to assist blacks continue to face opposition and controversy. Accounts have pointed to self-interest, American beliefs about inequality, or persistent negative racial attitudes as underlying causes of widespread opposition to race-targeted policies. We hypothesize that opposition hinges on the explicitness of the race-targeting and whether the policy's goal is opportunity enhancement or equality of outcomes. We also hypothesize that the influence of individuals' self-interest, beliefs about inequality, and racial attitudes on opinions differs by whether or not a policy is race-targeted and by a policy's goal. We use data from the 1990 General Social Survey to analyze opinion toward race-targeted versus income-targeted opportunity-enhancing policies and toward race-targeted versus income-targeted equal outcomes policies. Results of these analyses lend general support to our hypotheses, and in particular, underscore the influence of group self-interest and perceived discrimination on white opposition to race-targeted policy.