Subjective and Objective: Racial Attitudes, Inequality, and Public Policy

• In Event: Race, Place, and Identity in State Politics and Policy

Abstract

The question of how subjective constructed images relate to objective socioeconomic and compositional aspects of racial relations is old, important, and empirically under-studied. Drawing on broad schools of thought on the relation between racial ideology and material relations (including Oliver C. Cox and other scholars within the Marxist tradition, and W.E.B. DuBois along with other scholars in the constructivist tradition, as well as scholars in the relational tradition such as Pierre Bourdieu), we empirically explore the different theoretical predictions of these relationships. In previous work, we developed state-level objective measures of racial inequality, specifying these relations along dimensions of racial exclusion (i.e. unequal access to institutions, such as home ownership) and subordination (i.e. inferior positions within institutional boundaries, such as the value of owned homes) (Bruch, Rosenthal, and Soss 2019). In the first part of this paper, we draw on theories of racial ideology and material relations to create competing hypotheses about the degree to which subjective views are associated with variation in these same objective positions across states and over time. To test these hypotheses, we utilize several measures of racial attitudes aggregated at the state level, including explicit racial stereotypes, implicit racial attitudes, racial resentment, and Google search data. Drawing on data from 1990 to the present, we explore the descriptive patterns of these subjective measures before examining their association with the degree of objective white-Black Exclusion and white-Black Subordination. Preliminary analysis reveals a strong but contingent link between subjective and objective racial relations. In the second part of this paper, we analyze how state-level measures of subjective racial beliefs and objective racial relations are associated with punitive and restrictive state policy choices in two domains of policy – social welfare and criminal justice. Using time series modeling, we explore the association with several measures of state policy choice including front-door exclusion and sanctions in the TANF program, and sentencing policies within the criminal justice system. In providing empirical evidence of the important roles played by both subjective racial beliefs and objective racial inequality, these analyses will contribute to existing knowledge about political explanations for state policy that implicate race and race relations.

Authors

• Aaron Rosenthal, Simmons University

• Sarah Bruch, University of Delaware

• Jennifer Renee Daniels, University of Delaware