White and Black Perceptions of Racial Values

This paper examines the association between white and blackracial values and the perceptions of white and black racialvalues. Data are presented that confirm recent findings regardingthe distorted conceptions that whites have of other whites'racial preferences. The data also show that the relationshipbetween values and perceptions accounts for patterned similaritiesand differences between white and black estimates of white supportfor segregation and their estimates of black support for desegregation.The findings support the hypothesis that individuals who arelocated in different parts of the social structure but who sharethe same values tend to perceive the social world in similarways.