OPPOSITION TO RACE-TARGETING - SELF-INTEREST, STRATIFICATION IDEOLOGY, OR RACIAL-ATTITUDES

Although traditional anti-black prejudice among whites has decreased s ince the 1940s, social policies designed to assist blacks continue to face opposition and controversy. Accounts have pointed to self-interes t, American beliefs about inequality, or persistent negative racial at titudes as underlying causes of widespread opposition to race-targeted policies. We hypothesize that opposition hinges on the explicitness o f the race-targeting and whether the policy's goal is opportunity enha ncement or equality of outcomes. We also hypothesize that the influenc e of individuals' self-interest, beliefs about inequality, and racial attitudes on opinions differs by whether or not a policy is race-targe ted and by a policy's goal. We use data from the 1990 General Social S urvey to analyze opinion toward race-targeted versus income-targeted o pportunity-enhancing policies and toward race-targeted versus income-t argeted equal outcomes policies. Results of these analyses lend genera l support to our hypotheses, and in particular, underscore the influen ce of group self-interest and perceived discrimination on white opposi tion to race-targeted policy.