"Race Coding" and white opposition to welfare
By: GILENS, Martin
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ArticlePublisher: New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, September 1996American Political Science Review 90, 3, p. 593-604Abstract: Crime and welfare are now widely viewed as "coded" issues that activate white Americans´negative views of blacks without explicitly raising the "race card". But does the desire of whites to combat crime or curtail welfare really stem from their deslike of blacks? Are these not pressing problems about wich Americans rightly should be concerned - apart from any associations these issues may have with race? In this paper I assess the extent to wich white Americans opposition to welfare is rooted in their attitudes toward blacks. Using convetional survey modeling techniques and a randomized survey-based experiment from a national telephone survey. I find that radical attitudes are the single most important influence on white´s welfare views. I also show that whites hold similar views of comparably described black and white welfare mothers, but that negative views of black welfare mothers are more politically potent, generating greater opposition to welfare than comparable views of white welfare mothers
Crime and welfare are now widely viewed as "coded" issues that activate white Americans´negative views of blacks without explicitly raising the "race card". But does the desire of whites to combat crime or curtail welfare really stem from their deslike of blacks? Are these not pressing problems about wich Americans rightly should be concerned - apart from any associations these issues may have with race? In this paper I assess the extent to wich white Americans opposition to welfare is rooted in their attitudes toward blacks. Using convetional survey modeling techniques and a randomized survey-based experiment from a national telephone survey. I find that radical attitudes are the single most important influence on white´s welfare views. I also show that whites hold similar views of comparably described black and white welfare mothers, but that negative views of black welfare mothers are more politically potent, generating greater opposition to welfare than comparable views of white welfare mothers
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