Reaching Beyond Race

If white Americans could reveal what they really thought about race, without the risk of appearing racist, what would they say? This book aims to illustrate aspects of white American thinking about the politics of race previously hidden from site. Follow-up analysis points the way towards public policies that could gain wide support and reduce the gap between black and white Americans. The authors show that prejudice, although by no means gone, has lost its power to dominate the political thinking of white Americans. Concentrating on the new race-conscious agenda, they introduce a method of hidden measurement which reveals that liberals are just as angry over affirmative action as conservatives and that racial prejudice, while more common among conservatives, is more powerful in shaping political thinking of liberals. They also find that the good will many whites express to blacks is not fiegned but represents a genuine regard for blacks, which they will stand by even when given a perfectly acceptable excuse to respond negatively to blacks.