This study concerns itself primarily with James Baldwin's treatment of the attitudes he thinks most white people hold. He desires to make the white man conscious of his attitude towards Negroes and to analyze the reasons for them, and incorporates his ideas into setting, characterization, and plot.

The current population of the United States is remarkably racially diverse relative to its past and to other nations. As a result, individuals have many opportunities to interact with others from differing racial backgrounds. However, close, intimate, friendships between individuals from differing racial groups remain uncommon, especially among European Americans. Given persistent racial tension within the U.S., it is important to understand how racial attitudes develop in children and how these attitudes influence interracial interactions. A common adage is that “hate is learned” and theorists have long argued that children adopt the racial attitudes of their family members (Allport, 1954). However, research provides inconsistent evidence for this claim. The primary goal of this dissertation is to examine the role of maternal race-related attitudes and behavior, especially mothers’ modeling of behavior during cross-race interactions, in shaping children’s racial attitudes. Specifically, we sought to test the hypothesis that Asian American, European American, and Latino mothers who exhibit more warm interactions with an African American confederate would be more likely to have children who have positive attitudes toward African American. Conversely, Asian American, European American, and Latino mothers who behave in an anxious or avoidant manner during an interaction with an African American confederate would be more likely to have children with negative attitudes toward African Americans. Additionally, we investigated the role of individual differences in predicting mothers’ nonverbal behavior in the cross-race interactions (i.e., levels of situational diversity, social network, racial attitudes, theories of prejudice, colorblindness). Mothers (N = 44; 29 to 48 years, M = 39.54) and their children (N = 44; 21 girls, 4 to 6 years ; M = 5.31 ) were placed in a room with an African American confederate. The interaction was unstructured (i.e., no task to be completed or predetermined topic to be discussed) and filmed in its entirety. Mothers and children were then separated post-interaction and completed several measures of racial attitudes. Results indicated mothers lived in moderately racially diverse environments. As expected, mothers' and children's attitudes toward African Americans were unrelated; mothers held slightly pro-African American attitudes, whereas children held slightly pro-European American attitudes. Mothers also discussed race with their children somewhat often as evidenced by their self-reported frequency of race-related messages and reported little apprehension about broaching the topic with their children. Contrary to expectations, none of the maternal measures assessed here (e.g., mothers’ racial socialization, racial beliefs, intergroup contact, nonverbal behavior) were significant predictors of their children’s racial attitudes. / text

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Empirical studies have shown that white racial attitudes tend to predict racial policy support. It has also been established that the relationship between whites' espoused racial tolerance and their support for ameliorative racial policies is imperfect, due to the principal-policy gap which characterized misalignment between individuals' espoused values for racial equity and their limited support for policies aimed at achieving those ends. Less consideration however, has been given to how the principal-policy gap changes over time. Using data from over 14,000 respondents who participated in the General Social Survey from 1994 through 2018, I show that the principal-policy gap is persistent, and that distances between principal and policy decline and expand over time. Using OLS regression models to analyze a sample of white adults, I find that the link between individuals' expressed liberal racial attitudes and their support for racial policies changed over the 24-year span. A noticeable narrowing of the principal-policy gap is also evident in the latter years of the sample. The reduction in the gap from 2014 through 2018 suggests that the influence of social movements like BLM may have been driving this trend.

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The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the differences and changes in integrated and segregated white students' self-concepts, racial attitudes, and academic achievements.

The study and measurement of attitudes toward racial and ethnic groups are important parts of the field of cross-cultural psychology. The present study examined a theory of racial attitudes, that of symbolic racism, and several demographic variables. The sample population consisted of 575 Caucasians and 122 Far-East Asian college students. Results indicated that Symbolic Racism is a unique theoretical construct, that Caucasian students were less racially biased than their Asian peers, and that group differences in racial attitudes existed across religious affiliation, number of reported interracial friendships, and gender.

Television often portrays African Americans in unfavorable positions in comparison to Caucasians. Typically these unfavorable depictions reinforce negative stereotypes associated with African Americans. Research indicates that television portrayals can influence people’s attitudes toward one another. A question left unanswered by current research: are mass-mediated images as influential at reversing or counteracting stereotypes as they are at reinforcing them? An experiment with undergraduate students was conducted to investigate the relationship between the positive portrayal of African Americans and subsequent racial attitudes. Participants viewed a video clip with either an African American or Caucasian chairman for the Georgia Division of Public Health. The clip included a still photograph of the chairman and was accompanied by a pre-recorded voice addressing treatments for lung cancer patients. At the beginning of each class, professors showed students the video after which the class lecture proceeded as scheduled. Just before the class ended a researcher entered the class and told students he/she was doing a survey on racial attitudes. Students were then given a questionnaire regarding racial attitudes toward African Americans. Between the time of the video viewing and the completion of the survey, students were not informed that one was related to the other. Subjects also completed an evaluation of the speaker in the video and of the health message.

This work is inspired by Lipsitz (1998) and Allport (1954) because both authors connect micro level processes to social macro level patterns. Allport’s Nature of Prejudice sought to understand patterns of anti-Semitism as connected to a larger social context. From this work, Allport developed the contact hypothesis which is premised on the idea that diversity helps alleviate racial tensions. Lipsitz’ Possessive Investment in Whiteness connects White racial privilege to a history of racial social inequality. In conintuum, I develop the nuances on prejudice formation as it leads to the denial of racial privilege or to the conflation of privileges as oppression. While I focus on White racial privilege, the theoretical contribution of my research develops the framework for individual privilege formation. I then draw upon Bonilla-Silva’s (2013) racial colorblind theory to emphasize the connection between privilege and larger patterns of racial attitudes. The macro level contribution of this dissertation focuses on patterns of overt and colorblind attitudes as affected by racial segregation, social inequality, and respondent characteristics. Data was gathered from the 2000 General Social Survey, 2010 GSS, and U.S. Census county data and applied to a hierarchical linear model. Due to sample selection, this research focuses on racial Whites’ attitudes about the racial Black population. I use measures of racial segregation as proxies for racial contact. I find patterns of racial tolerance through a ‘separate but equal’ storyline among White-Black segregation. When using, social demographics with all minorities included, I find that Whites’ attitudes about racial Blacks are attenuated. This finding supports the literature that non-Black racial minorities act as buffers for White-Black racial relations. Racial diversity is one element in helping alleviate negative racial sentiments, but patterns of segregation and social inequality impact the benefits of this racial diversity.

Few researchers have examined the contributing factors to racial identity development for White Americans. In order to better understand White racial identity development, the current study was designed to use Helms’s (1990) theory of White racial identity development to examine the associations between racial attitudes and status profiles of White racial identity, with particular interest in color-blind racial attitudes (i.e., the belief that race is a non-issue in modern society) and belief in a just world (i.e., the view that the world is fair and just). To gain further insight into profiles of White racial identity, additional social attitudes were included in the analyses, including social dominance orientation and internal and external motivation to avoid prejudice, as well as demographic variables. A sample of 350 White American adults recruited from Amazon’s MTurk completed measures of racial identity, racial attitudes, social desirability, and demographic information. K means cluster analyses were conducted to create five status profiles of White identity. Among all study variables, cluster group membership was primarily defined by color-blind racial attitudes, social dominance orientation, and age. Results revealed color-blind racial attitudes were the strongest variables across all five clusters, even those in which the primary racial identity status was autonomy. Belief in a just world, on the other hand, did not appear to be a prominent factor in determining cluster membership in the current study. These results pointed to implications for both research and theory on White racial identity statuses, given that participants who were autonomous were also high in color-blind racial attitudes, which is inconsistent with current conceptualizations of the autonomy ego status. The results indicated the possibility of an ego status prior to autonomy and hold implications for identifying additional statuses of White racial identity within Helms’s (1990) model. The study results hold further implications for future research in the exploration of connections between White racial identity and multicultural counseling competence.