Racism, Rational Choice, and White Opposition to Racial Change: A Case Study of Busing

Despite significant declines in traditional prejudice, white resistance to desegregation and affirmative action has led some to argue that a new symbolic racism has emerged as the principal impediment to racial change in America. Studies of opposition to busing, however, suggest a nonracial or rational choice explanation; whites oppose busing because it is believed to have too many costs and not enough benefits. Using data from a medium-sized midwestem city, this study estimates a multiple indicator model for the effects of traditional prejudice, symbolic racism, and rational choice on four types of opposition to busing—attitudes toward two-way busing, one-way busing, protest, and white flight. Traditional prejudice and symbolic racism are found to be partially independent dimensions whose effects on busing opposition are entirely mediated by certain expected costs of busing. Thus, the findings support both racism and rational choice explanations. There is, however, no support for the notion that symbolic racism is a more important source of opposition to racial change than is traditional prejudice.