What Happens When Race Is Over: Post-Racial Objections, Anti-Race Stereotypes and Affirmative Action in the US

• In Event: 21061 - Section on Race, Gender, and Class Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 1: Political Ideologies, Action, and Movements

Abstract

Despite social scientists’ long-standing interest in analyzing public attitudes towards affirmative action policies, scholars have not settled the debate about the factors influencing public opposition to affirmative action policies. Previous research shows that post-racial assumptions of merit including an emphasis on individual efforts and denial of structural inequalities, strongly influence public's opposition to ‘hard’ affirmative action policies like preferential hiring for blacks. However, limited progress has been made in analyzing the influence of post-racial beliefs of merit on ‘soft’ affirmative action policies like governmental aid for blacks, which are often perceived as non-threatening as compared to hard affirmative action policies. Using the 2022 cross-sectional data from the General Social Survey, this study analyzes the extent to which post-racial beliefs of merit influence support or opposition to ‘soft’ affirmative action policies. Evidence from multinomial logistic regression analysis reveals that those who strongly believe in post-racial principles of merit are more likely to oppose governmental aid for blacks. The paper concludes by advocating for educational policy recommendations that address and mitigate newer forms of racist social hierarchies built on post-racial meritocratic ideologies.

Author

• Namrata Namrata, Arizona State University-Tempe