“Happy Talk” No More? Assessing Change and Persistent Patterns in Americans’ Diversity Attitudes

• In Event: Racial and Ethnic Minorities Section Roundtables Session
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table Ten: Racialized Ideologies, Epistemologies, and Social Discourses

Abstract

Recent attacks on “DEI” programs in American society raise questions about if and how the strong, positive attitudes that Americas have had about diversity since at least the turn of the millennium. In this paper we analyze recent new (2024) data from a nationally representative survey to assess these questions. The paper is presented in three parts. In part 1, we look at the current patterns and compare them to a decade ago. On the one hand, Americans, taken as a whole, are still quite positive about diversity in general; on the other hand, some new points of variation and divergence have appeared. Part 2 then takes a closer look at some of the key drivers of variation. Political cleavages have sharpened, and some gender and class variations have emerged. Race is not as powerful a predictor as previously. Part 3 then compares attitudes about diversity to attitudes about immigration and affirmative action. These comparisons help us to better understand the distinctiveness of diversity attitudes. In the conclusion, we discuss how to interpret these findings in the context of recent political developments, what they may suggest in terms of the relationships between public opinion and public policy, and what future research will be needed to better assess and track these patterns.

Authors

• Neeraj Rajasekar, University of Illinois at Springfield

• Doug Hartmann, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities