Race, Representation, and Trust: Changes in Attitudes After the Election of a Black Mayor

This article addresses the general proposition that changesin leadership images precipitate changes in public opinion.Specifically, the purpose of this research is to determine ifchanges in the levels of political trust expressed by blackand white city residents can be attributed to the election ofa city's first black mayor. The attitudes of black and whiteresidents of the City of Atlanta before and after the electionof a black mayor are compared, and changes occurring duringthe study period are compared to similar national data. Alternateexplanations for the changes observed are explored. The dataexamined suggest that increased identification with city governmentamong blacks is stimulated by the election of a black mayor.     

RACE, CLASS, AND OPPORTUNITY: CHANGING REALITIES AND PERCEPTIONS

Michael Hout provided empirical validation of the part of William J. Wilson's controversial 1978 claim concerning the increased influence of class on social mobility but not of his claim that the influence of race became less important than that of class. Anomia/despair as an indication of Americans'perceptions of life chances in 1973, 1976, 1980 and 1984 is used in this article. The findings show no agreement between perception and reality (that Wilson described) on the declining influence of race and the increasing influence of class. In addition, Wilson's dominant theme of deteriorating conditions for lower-class blacks and continuing progress for upper-class blacks was contrary to the data on perception. Barriers to continued mobility faced by more successful blacks is given as a possible explanation of the discrepancy between black mobility and black perception of life chances.     

The Limits of Black Politics in the Post–Civil Rights Era

Pluralist theorists have long contended that to exercise power and influence in the American political system, blacks should come together like any other organized interest group, form coalitions with other like-minded people (white liberals), and advocate for policy reforms. Beginning during the “Black Power” era, the goal of putting black faces in high places to help address black concerns became a driving force in black politics. The deteriorating social and economic status of many in the black community, however, has not been prevented by either the political incorporation of more than 11,000 black elected officials or even the election of the nation’s first black president. This article will show how the inherent limitations of the pluralist interest-group strategy and a growing white backlash fueled by an awareness of changing demographics in the country has spawned an economic and political crisis in black America.     

Reply to Sloan

Abstract

While previous studies have used trust in the government as an exogenous variable to measure political protest and other forms of social unrest, we treat it as a dependent variable. Thus, we attempt to identify variables that affect trust in government, and we also distinguish between those variables that transcend race and those that differentially affect black and white respondents. Using data from the 1987 General Social Survey, we regress trust in the government on a variety of demographic and ideological measures. Results show that political apathy and belief that the government is unresponsive to the needs of the people lead to low levels of trust, regardless of the respondent's race. However, ideological variables such as political and religious views display different patterns for black and white respondents. While these variables do not affect black respondents' attitudes toward the government, they have a strong effect for white respondents. Implications of this study are discussed.     

The Social Participation of Blacks: A Proposed Synthesis of Two Competing Theories

Discrepant findings have typified the research concerning the social participation of blacks in America. The bulk of the findings would seem to posit three competing theories, one emphasizing low participation levels on the part of blacks, and the later two emphasizing high levels of social participation. These theories are examined and a synthesis of the "isolation" and "compensation" models is proposed. By examining both formal and informal types of social participation on the part of blacks, it is argued that both theories are viable toward explaining variation within black participation levels in particular and toward mediating the discrepant findings as they have been previously offered in general. Some support is found for such a proposed synthesis.     

A Postmodern Perspective on Black Suicides in the United States

Abstract

This paper offers an alternative explanation to the rationalist perspective of black suicides in the United States. It assumes a deconstructionist approach, offering the proposition that the social construction of reality in the black community is such that suicide among blacks occurs at a far greater number than their quantitative measures reveal.

The postmodern turn is far more interpretive in placing the reality of black suicide in context than the modernist language of Durkheim and others. The postmodern turn suggests that there is more to black suicides in the United States than meets the eye-more, in that the word, suicide, carries “traces” of other words and texts. Social workers, as enablers and facilitators, must grasp the significance of this social reconstruction if they are to have an impact upon the intertextual nature of black suicides.     

Spill‐Up and Spill‐Over of Trust: An Extended Test of Cultural and Institutional Theories of Trust in South Korea1

In comparison to the heated debate over the origins of trust in political institutions, few studies have empirically examined the linkage between trust in political and nonpolitical institutions at the individual level. In this study, we utilize a two‐step methodology to investigate attitudes toward the government in the broader context of attitudes toward related nonpolitical institutions in South Korea. Results from latent class analysis reveal that political trust is an integrated part of a more general set of attitudes toward social and economic institutions. In addition, results from multinomial logistic regression analysis corroborate past studies that found a positive relationship between perceptions of institutional performance and trust in institutions while partially supporting theories advocating the importance of interpersonal trust for institutional trust. This study points to the possibility of interpersonal trust “spilling up” to trust in institutions and the likelihood that trust in one institution “spills over” to trust in other related institutions.     

Between trust and distrust in research with participants in conflict context

Trust is often treated as a binary where research participants either trust researchers or not, whereas in reality trust is multi-layered. Drawing on 10 months of fieldwork working with internally displaced persons and their non-displaced neighbours in rural Colombia, this article provides a more nuanced discussion of trust in research. It identifies ways in which participants are vulnerable, provides fieldwork strategies to address these vulnerabilities, and questions the assumption that extended time spent in the field necessarily results in greater trust. It argues that such beliefs underestimate the complexity of conflict and post-conflict research contexts where political and social relations are often unstable. Demonstrating that trust may be compartmentalised, and that trust and distrust can coexist, it proposes that the question researchers should ask themselves is not whether participants trust us or not but rather in what capacity and to what degree they (dis)trust us and what influences their level of trust.     

Black Mayors/White Mayors: Explaining Their Approval

Performance models have been the norm in research on nationaland state executives, but oddly this model has rarely been extendedto the next level of executive office, mayors. The increasingnumber of African American mayors suggests that race may complicatethe performance model of approval at the local level. This researchtests a performance model of mayoral approval that takes racialfactors into account. The model is tested in two white citieswith white mayors and two black cities with black mayors. Performanceis measured by citizen evaluations of a variety of urban conditions,some of which citizens can observe firsthand. Findings indicatethat (1) performance matters in evaluating black and white mayors,and its influence does not seem to be related to the race ofthe mayor; (2) performance has more explanatory power over mayoralapproval than race, a pattern that holds for both black andwhite mayors; (3) race has more impact on the approval of blackmayors than on white mayors; and (4) blacks in black citieshave lower evaluations of local government performance in theircities than blacks in white cities. We conclude that the performancemodel is generalizable to the local level, even with the complicationsof race.     

Constructions of a Lynching

This paper examines the effects of white violence as carried out against a subordinate black community in a small southern town during 1900. The aftermath, as perceived by present-day residents, and the emergent constructions of the event are explored. It is suggested that the present reality constructions of blacks and whites continue to reflect the significance these historical events have had for group meanings and intergroup relations.     

Race and imprisonments: vigilante violence, minority threat, and racial politics

The effects of lynchings on criminal justice outcomes have seldom been examined. Recent findings also are inconsistent about the effects of race on imprisonments. This study uses a pooled time-series design to assess lynching and racial threat effects on state imprisonments from 1972 to 2000. After controlling for Republican strength, conservatism, and other factors, lynch rates explain the growth in admission rates. The findings also show that increases in black residents produce subsequent expansions in imprisonments that likely are attributable to white reactions to this purported menace. But after the percentage of blacks reaches a substantial threshold—and the potential black vote becomes large enough to begin to reduce these harsh punishments—reductions in prison admissions occur. These results also confirm a political version of racial threat theory by indicating that increased Republican political strength produces additional imprisonments.     

CONVERGENCE,POLARIZATION, OR WHAT?

Wilson (1978, 1987) argues that since the 1960s, race has become a less important determinant of the life chances and outlooks of individual blacks than has sociocconomic status; moreover, he suggests that as race has declined in its significance, the black community has become more socioeconomically differentiated and polarized. Using data from the 1964 through 1984 American National Election Surveys, this article examines hypotheses derived from both Wilson's "declining significance of race" thesis and his "polarization" thesis. The results show that (1) race declined in its significance to a limited degree, but continued to be an important determinant of attitudes and outlooks; (2) blacks at all income levels continued to be more similar to other blacks with different incomes than to nonblacks with incomes similar to their own; (3) the black community did not undergo social, political, and economic polarization; and (4) socioeconomic standing did not become more important than race as a determinant of the social, political, and economic attitudes and outlooks examined.     

THE EFFECTS OF RACE OF THE INTERVIEWER ON MEASURES OF ELECTORAL PARTICIPATION BY BLACKS IN SRC NATIONAL ELECTION STUDIES

This study investigates the effect of the race of the intervieweron self-reported voting, actual voting, and political attitudesof black respondents, based on the SRC/CPS National ElectionStudies (NES) of 1964, 1976, 1978, 1980, and 1984. The impactof race of the interviewer in the NES surveys has not been analyzedpreviously. Over the course of the five studies, the proportionof black respondents who were interviewed by black interviewersdeclined sharply, particularly in the South. Almost all whiterespondents were interviewed by whites. Except for southern blacks in the pre-Voting Rights Act electionof 1964, black nonvoters in the presidential election surveys     

Populist political right opinions and political trust among Norwegian youth

Recent decades have seen the growth of various strands of right-wing populist political orientations, where populism and critique of immigration policies have been central. These ideological developments have caused concern for the legitimacy of social and political institutions. The question explored in this paper, based on Norwegian survey data, is ‘Which types of right political orientations exist among young people, and how do these political attitudes affect trust in social and political institutions?’ The results reveal the existence of both a populist ‘new right’ political orientation similar to the ideology of the Progress Party and a nativist ideology. The new right orientation contains two sets of variables: (i) economic liberalism/state scepticism and (ii) nationalist values. For trust in political institutions, the emerging picture is complex because the nationalist dimension of both the populist orientation and the nativist ideological orientation implies a high level of trust in political institutions. To the extent the new right political orientations causes mistrust, it seems to come from the liberal economic, anti-statist values included in this ideology. Based on these findings, future researchers should distinguish more clearly between the ideological dimensions going into populist political right orientations and the relationship between attitudes and more practical implications of such ideologies.     

RACE AND THE EDUCATIONAL EXPECTATIONS OF PARENTS AND CHILDREN: The Case of South Africa

South Africa, a country that is highly stratified by race, is an important location for studying the relationship between race and educational expectations. Using a longitudinal data set, we examine the educational expectations of black (African), colored (mixed race), and white (European ancestry) parents and children in Cape Town, South Africa. We find that parents and children have high educational expectations regardless of race, but black parents and children have higher educational expectations than coloreds and whites once socioeconomic and other factors are controlled. We also find that parents' and children's expectations tend to agree more and are more closely correlated among coloreds and whites than blacks. We test two explanations for the educational expectations of parents and children, finding more support for the status attainment perspective among coloreds and whites than blacks and support for the family social capital perspective among blacks and coloreds only.     

"Some of my best friends are black...": Interracial Friendship and Whites' Racial Attitudes

We examine the major tenets and assumptions of the well-knowncontact theory of prejudice, and we compare them with the morecynical reasoning implied by the infamous "Some of my best friendsare black, but..." expression. After assessing the extant evidencefor the contact theory, we use a unique set of national surveydata to address the central postulates of that theory. We examinethe racial beliefs, feelings, social dispositions, and policyviews of whites who have contact with blacks as friends, acquaintances,or neighbors. Our results suggest that personal interracialcontact is selective in its effects on whites' racial attitudes,that intimacy is less important than variety of contacts, andthat any effects are contingent on the relative socioeconomicstatus of black contacts. On the basis of our analysis, we reassessthe contact theory and propose a more political conception ofthe attitudes of dominant groups toward subordinates. We arguethat the message contained in the relationship between personalcontact with subordinates and intergroup attitudes is less benignthan is suggested by the contact theory.     

A comparison of “black” and “white” integration attitudes on a deep‐south campus: A research note

A survey of “racial” attitudes on a deep‐South university campus indicates that both “black” and “white” students strongly support desegregation—equality of political and economic rights including access to public facilities. Although “blacks” are receptive to integration also, the majority of “whites” reject “blacks” socially.     

Trends and incidence of childlessness by race: indicators of black progress over three decades

Patterns in childlessness rates for blacks and whites in the U.S. from 1950-1972 were examined using 1940, 1950, and 1960 census data and data from Current Population Reports for 1969 and 1972. Among ever married women, aged 15-49, the proportion of childless black women declined from 29.1%-13.6% from 1940-1972, while the porportion of childless white women declined from 22.9%-14.3% from 1940-1969 and then increased slightly to 15.6% in 1972. The decline in childlessness observed for both blacks and whites during this period was attributable, at least in part, to improved medical care. When age specific rates were examined 2 diverse patterns emerged. For females, aged 15-24, childlessness rates for blacks were lower than for whites throughout 1940-1972, and the differences between blacks and whites increased over time. However, for females, aged 30-39, childlessness rates were higher for blacks than for whites throughout 1940-1972, and the gap between white and black rates decreased over time. In general the data demonstrated a convergence in childlessness patterns for blacks and whites. Childlessness rates were viewed as an indication of social integration. Childlessness is not a norm in American society. The general decline in childless rates among blacks and especially among blacks over 30 years of age indicated that the wider society was serving as a reference group for blacks. Among blacks under 25 years convergence was less apparent and indicated that younger black women were less integrated into the larger society than older black women. On the basis of recent trends it was predicted that convergence between black and white childlessness patterns would continue; however, in view of the upturn in the childlessness rate observed for whites since 1969, it was expected that the childlessness rates for both blacks and whites would increase somewhat in the coming years.     

It Takes a Tragedy to Arouse Them: Collective Memory and Collective Action during the Civil Rights Movement

This paper examines the impact that collective memories of key events related to the civil rights movement had on black political activism during the 1960s. It proposes a theory that examines the effects of collective memory on collective action by considering how events and collective memories are appropriated by political entrepreneurs for collective action. Examining four events through a rare opinion survey of blacks taken in 1966, the analysis specifies a framework that illustrates how events evolve into collective memories and how collective memories are appropriated for collective action as time passes from the original event. Qualitative materials from historical accounts, including autobiographies, biographies, and oral histories, are used to make inferences about the meaning of events to political actors. The analysis shows that one event among the four, the murder of Emmett Till, had a stronger residual effect on black activism than the other events. The findings suggest that scholarship on the movement may have underestimated the impact of Till's murder on the generation of black insurgency in the 1950s.     

Family Structure and Educational Attainment: Sex Differences among Urban Blacks

Abstract

This research evaluates the impact of family structure on the educational attainment of northern urban blacks. Separate analyses of male and female adults reveal little support for the traditional view that the “broken home” lowers the achievement of black males. Rather, we find it is black females, especially in segregated contexts, who have been most adversely affected by parental absence. These findings are interpreted as reflecting the different relationship of males and females to the family under conditions of structurally-induced poverty.