RACIAL PREJUDICE AND ATTITUDES TOWARD AFFIRMATIVE-ACTION

Theory: We examine the relationship between blatant racial prejudice a nd anger toward affirmative action. Hypotheses: (1) Blatantly prejudic ed attitudes continue to pervade the white population in the United St ates. (2) Resistance to affirmative action is more than an extension o f this prejudice. (3) White resistance to affirmative action is not un yielding and unalterably fixed. Methods: Analysis of experiments embed ded in a national survey of racial attitudes. Some of these experiment s are designed to measure racial prejudice unobtrusively. Results: Rac ial prejudice remains a major problem in the United States, but this p rejudice alone cannot explain all of the anger toward affirmative acti on among whites. Although many whites strongly resist affirmative acti on, they express support for making extra efforts to help African-Amer icans.