Aversive Racism

Abstract

This chapter begins by reviewing the nature of aversive racism, including the contributing psychological factors and the potential conflict between whites' conscious endorsement of egalitarian principles and unconscious negative feelings and beliefs about blacks. It considers basic evidence about the operation of aversive racism and its moderating factors. Special emphasis is given on the influence of contemporary racial biases of whites toward blacks because of the central role that racial politics has played in the history of the United States. Within the United States, aversive racism relates to varying degrees to orientations toward women and more recently to homosexuals. The chapter proposes that many of the principles of aversive racism also apply more generally to the responses of the majority group to minority groups in the context in which egalitarian ideals are valued and discrimination is censured. It demonstrates empirically the ways in which aversive racism affect outcomes for blacks and shapes interracial interactions.