Racial Attitudes Towards African Americans

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Pg. 1 This annotated bibliography will focus on how such beliefs have changed, theories of Americans' beliefs, and the factors that affect where Americans stand on this important question. Ansell, Amy and Statman, James. “‘I Never Owned Slaves’ The Euro-American Construction of the Racialized Other.” Research in Politics and Society. 1999. 6. Pgs: 151-173. Bibliography: There is a sentiment amongst Caucasians that they never owned slaves and therefore they should not feel guilty about slavery or the state of our nation. The article states that many Caucasians in America feel like victims of the current racial social order. Talking about slavery causes Caucasians to become defensive. The public views whites as overtly racist. Whites…show more content…
The article asks if we as a society have had racial progress since the civil rights movement. The hypothesis of the scholarship is that those who have positive attitudes towards blacks will also have positive attitudes towards the civil rights movement. Also predicts that liberals, women, blacks, the more educated and the poor will most likely have positive attitudes towards blacks. To test the various hypotheses, the author used the 2002 General Social Survey data set as well as interviewed people. In this model, the author found a correlation between both racial attitudes towards Blacks and how close one feels to Blacks are predictive of positive attitudes toward civil rights. Education is positively associated with civil rights attitudes. The model predicts that males will have lower civil rights attitudinal scores than females, and the model also predicts that Whites will have lower civil rights attitudinal scores than minorities. Last, the region of residence positively associated with attitudes toward civil rights. Those that reside in non-southern areas have greater civil rights attitudinal scores than those who live in the South. Civil rights attitudes have changed drastically from the pre- 1960’s when essentially race was the strongest predictor of positive civil rights…show more content…
In 1968, the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders stated: "Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white- separate and unequal." By mid 1965, public concern over the Vietnam War placed it as the nation's most important problem, rising above civil rights. Polls conducted by several organizations showed blacks, in sharp contrast to whites, and were extremely pessimistic about their future under Reagan. Civil rights activities in the 1970's and early 1980's sharply decreased. On Pg. 72 Schuman begins by measuring polls based on principles, implementation, social distance and then miscellaneous racial questions. The PRINCIPLES section asked respondents whether they endorse broad principles of nondiscrimination and desegregation in important areas of social life. The IMPLEMENTATION section asked questions about steps the government might take either to reduce discrimination, segregation, or to improve the economic status of blacks. The SOCIAL DISTANCE questions asked how the reactant would react in particular situations that involve some degree of integration at a personal level. Then there were MISCELLANEOUS RACIAL QUESTIONS. By 1982, 9 out of 10 Americans in the national sample were pro-integration. Measured racial attitudes for principles in terms of schools, public accommodations, residential integration, black presidential candidate, inter-marriage, and

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