White Backlash to Workplace Affirmative Action: Peril or Myth?

Abstract

This project uses 1990 General Social Survey data to address an issue that is central to current public policy debates: How is the racial perspective of whites affected by firsthand exposure to race-targeted remedies, such as workplace affirmative action? Theories giving a central role to self-interest generate predictions that race-targeted intervention will evoke white backlash. Contrary predictions are suggested by evidence that school, employment, and housing desegregation brought attitude shifts toward congruence with institutional policy. Comparing reports from white workers whose employers do and do not practice affirmative action, we find no indication that proximity to this form of race targeting creates white resentment and polarizes the groups involved. Instead, the fait accompli dynamic seems to operate: Whites from affirmative-action firms are more supportive of certain race-targeted remedies and more likely to hold beliefs that serve as rationales for intervention on behalf of minorities.