The effects of demographic variables, ethnic prejudice, and attitudes toward immigration on opposition to bilingual education

The majority of quantitative research on race relations focuses on Whites' opposition to policies that are designed to help Blacks. The current study looks beyond this White/Black model of racism and focuses on opposition to bilingual education. It is hypothesized that demographic variables, prejudice against Latinos, and attitudes toward immigration increase opposition to bilingual education. The results support these hypotheses. It is also found that education has a significant positive relationship with opposition to bilingual education. This result was unexpected and needs to be explored in the future. The positive relationship between prejudice against Latinos and opposition to bilingual education suggests that this is a race issue. However, the significance of attitudes toward immigration suggests that anti-Latino prejudice works differently than prejudice against Blacks. Therefore, future research on race relations should focus on all minority groups to gain an inclusive understanding of racial/ethnic inequality.