Race Public Opinion

To fully understand the effects of race on public opinion, one must first define several components of race and racism. First, prejudice refers to some negative attitude against a group to which one does not think that he/she belongs. Second, out-group opinions are those opinions that one group has against members of another group to which the former does not belong. Last, an in-group attachment describes how strongly one identifies with a given group. This attachment can transcend identity into consciousness, the belief that one’s group is being treated poorly and that group should work together to gain more of what it believes it deserves. Keeping all of these definitions in mind is critical to deciphering the impact of race on public opinion.

The old-fashioned biological racism is the idea that whites are inherently and naturally superior to black people. This position is a group-position that black people are threatening white’s natural dominant position. Their analysis presents an out-group opinion of how one group views another (in this case, whites against blacks). Meanwhile, the modern form of racism centers around the view that black people do not adhere to the Protestant work ethic. Negative feelings towards black currently correlate with the cognitive belief that black people do not work hard enough. Kinder and Sanders define this viewpoint as racial resentment, a negative emotion towards black people fueled with the belief that black people do not work hard enough. For Kinder and Sanders, this form of racial prejudice is the strongest predictor of public

He presents an out-group opinion on Latino prejudice against blacks. Piston begins by saying that the Latino population in the United States is rapidly increasing. Possibly, the force of prejudice will decline as a greater percentage of the population becomes Latino. Piston’s work shuts down the widespread idea that Latinos are not as prejudiced against blacks. His measures mainly involve stereotypes about work ethic and intelligence. Piston’s results show that while Latinos are more liberal on a number of policies and voted strongly for Obama, they did so in spite of and not because of blacks. Latinos are overwhelmingly and equally as racist towards blacks as white people