Back to the Black Belt: Racial Environment and White Racial Attitudes in the South

In this study, I look at the relationship of black population and white racial attitudes in the contemporary South. Merging county-level census data with individual-level N.E.S. data from the 1980s to create a variable tapping "racial environment," I also use this study to test the validity of a group conflict theory of racial-political attitudes. I find that racial environment has a strong and consistent effect on racial-political attitudes, but little-to-no effect on measures of prejudice. Moreover, this racial environment effect is pronounced among those most affected by black political progress (southern Democrats evaluating Jesse Jackson). Contrary to a symbolic racism approach to the study of racial-political attitudes, these three findings support the contention that threat, in the form of group conflict, influences political positions on racial issues.