The Influence of Attitudes on Affirmative Action and Racial Identity on Judgments Involving Black Celebrity Defendants

In a continuing project designed to explore the role of racial identity in determining reactions to racially charged, highly salient (''obtrusive'') events, a structural equation model was developed that identified factors influencing the impact of (a) race and (b) media exposure patterns on perceptions of the guilt or innocence of an African American celebrity-athlete defendant. Included in the hypothesized model were attitudes toward affirmative action, the perceived reality of television, and perceptions of a ''mean world.'' Undertaking a secondary analysis of public opinion data on the O. J. Simpson Murder case, we have ''shuffled the race card'' with a slim deck of alternative factors, eliminating race as a strong, direct causal agent. And, we have identified a number of ways in which media exposure serves as an important-yet indirect-predictor of attitudes towards African American celebrity-athletes.