Old-Fashioned Racism and New Forms of Racial Prejudice

Abstract

In past studies, researchers have drawn a conceptual distinction between old-fashioned and newer forms of racial prejudice but questions persist about their distinctiveness. We reexamine the differences between these two forms of prejudice, arguing that negative racial stereotypes are the active political ingredient in the new prejudice. We explore the differing impact of old-fashioned racism and negative racial stereotypes on opposition to social welfare programs aimed at all impoverished. African Americans and individualistic programs targeted at a subset of deserving blacks. The findings of this study suggest that old-fashioned racists oppose all racial policies including individualistic programs, whereas individuals who endorse negative stereotypes only oppose social welfare programs. Moreover, evidence that old-fashioned prejudice and negative stereotypes have different political effects and distinct origins poses a serious challenge to advocates of the new racism thesis, who argue that negative stereotypes are simply old-fashioned racism in another guise. Multivariate regression analyses of data from the 1990. General Social Survey are used to test the hypotheses.