Three University of Arkansas political science professors, including Clinton School interim associate dean Todd Shields, recently analyzed the 2008 presidential election in two southern states, finding that voting behavior was influenced by “modern symbolic racism.”
Shield and his UA colleagues, Pearl K. Ford and Angie Maxwell, discuss their findings in an article in the June issue of Presidential Studies Quarterly. The professors researched the affects of Barack Obama’s candidacy in Arkansas and Georgia.
Here’s more from a UA news release:
Their research contributes to the scholarly understanding of symbolic racism and for the first time examines its impact on a national election. Their research results spanned political parties and the patterns held true for both Republicans and Democrats.
“To understand the New South,” Shields said, “we’re going to have to understand the new politics of race.”
Ford points to Obama’s election as “a significant achievement.” Yet, she said, “There is continual evidence of racism in America and the American South that still needs to be addressed. The symbolic racism we’re measuring has significant impact on policy and political choices.”
Despite claims by some scholars that race is no longer a primary factor in southern politics, the researchers wrote, “Our analysis of the way in which symbolic racism was activated by the first African American presidential candidate indicates that in the 2008 election symbolic racism was a strong and significant predictor of candidate support in both a peripheral and deep southern state.”
Much of the research on symbolic racism began in the post-Civil Rights era. When people were surveyed about their attitudes toward civil rights, Ford said, researchers at that time noticed “a disconnect between what people said and the policies they supported. For example, people would say they believed that all children had the right to attend integrated and quality public schools, but they were against policies such as busing or the redrawing of school district lines to achieve equity in education.”
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