Prejudice, politics, and public opinion: understanding the sources of racial policy attitudes

This review examines the intersection of prejudice, politics, and public op inion. It focuses specifically on research that seeks to understand the sou rces of attitudes toward policies intended to benefit African Americans and other racial/ethnic minorities by ensuring equal treatment, providing oppo rtunity enhancement, or striving for equal outcomes. After a review of the main patterns of white and African-American public opinion on this topic, t hree central theoretical interpretations of racial policy attitudes-new rac ism, politics and nonracial principles and values, and group conflict theor ies-are described and compared. The empirical evidence for each approach is assessed. Finally, directions of research that pursue a more complex view of racial policy attitudes are introduced. These include efforts to incorpo rate insights across theoretical domains as well as correcting an overempha sis on cognitive issues to the exclusion of affect. In addition, gaps in ou r understanding of "non-white" attitudes, nonprejudiced respondents, nonrac ial policies, and non-Americans are identified as potentially fertile groun d for future research aimed at understanding the complexity of racial polic y attitudes and what these can reveal about contemporary US race relations.