The Symbolic Racism 2000 Scale

TLDR

Symbolic racism was first conceptualized three decades ago, and although society has evolved, many of the original measurement items remain in use. This study introduces and evaluates an updated symbolic racism scale. The new scale demonstrates reliability, internal coherence, discriminant validity from older racial attitudes and political conservatism, superior predictive validity for white racial policy preferences, and applicability across college students, general adults, and minority groups, thereby refuting several prior critiques of the construct.

Abstract

The concept of symbolic racism was originally proposed 30 years ago. Much research has been done and the society itself has changed, yet many of the original items measuring symbolic racism remain in use. The primary objective of this paper is to present and evaluate an updated scale of symbolic racism. The scale proves to be reliable and internally coherent. It has discriminant validity, being distinctively different from both older forms of racial attitudes and political conservatism, although with a base in both. It has predictive validity, explaining whites' racial policy preferences considerably better than do traditional racial attitudes or political predispositions. Evidence is presented of its usefulness for both college student and general adult population samples, as well as for minority populations. Data using this scale contradict several critiques of the symbolic racism construct (most of which are speculative rather than based on new data) concerning the consistency of its conceptualization and measurement, the coherence of the symbolic racism belief system, possible artifacts in its influence over whites' racial policy preferences (due to content overlap between the measures of independent and dependent variables), and its differentiation from nonracial conservatism and old‐fashioned racism.