Cultivating Color-blindness?: The Impact of TV-viewing, Racial Policy Reasoning, and Colorblind Racism on Opposition toward Affirmative Action Policy

• Main Author: Stoddard, Carmella N
• Format: Others
• Published: ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst 2015
• Subjects: race; discrimination; policy reasoning; abstract liberalism; colorblind racism; affirmative action; Communication; Social and Behavioral Sciences
• Online Access: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/masters_theses_2/300; https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1296&context=masters_theses_2

I examine the effect of television viewing and ideological orientations associated with “modern” racism such as minimization of the impact of racial discrimination and individual attribution on opposition toward preferential hiring of Blacks. Using cross-sectional General Social Survey (GSS) responses from U.S. adults between 2004 and 2010, I estimate ordered logistic regression models predicting attitudes toward preferential hiring of Blacks. Additionally, I compare agreement with key tenets of abstract liberalism to the findings of previous policy reasoning studies to determine the importance of these attitudes in predicting support for affirmative action policy. In this study, I aim to address the potential real-world implications of television exposure and abstract liberalism in influencing minority group incorporation, acceptance, and societal integration.