The partial U.S. map below shows the proportion of the population that was identified as enslaved in the 1860 census. County by county, it reveals where the economy was most dominated by slavery.
A new paper by Avidit Acharya, Matthew Blackwell, and Maya Sen has discovered that the proportion of enslaved residents in 1860 — 153 years ago — predicts race-related beliefs today. As the percent of the population in a county accounted for by the enslaved increases, there is a decreased likelihood that contemporary white residents will identify as a Democrat and support affirmative action, and an increased chance that they will express negative beliefs about black people.
Avidit and colleagues don’t stop there. They try to figure out why. They consider a range of possibilities, including contemporary demographics and the possibility of “racial threat” (the idea that high numbers of black people make whites uneasy), urban-rural differences, the destruction and disintegration caused by the Civil War, and more. Controlling for all these things, the authors conclude that the results are still partly explained by a simple phenomenon: parents teaching their children. The bias of Southern whites during slavery has been passed down intergenerationally.
Cross-posted at Pacific Standard.
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Comments 21
Coltrane — October 2, 2013
I'm not sure if the causation is direct or whether it operates via the way in which these counties have resisted, or been excluded from, social and economic development generally. I'd like to see if there's a correlation between these racial attitudes and the educational and industrial underdevelopment of the counties relative the US average.
myblackfriendsays — October 2, 2013
remind me to avoid the border between mississippi and louisiana when traveling.
FYouMudFlaps — October 2, 2013
Germany shook off their Nazis twice as fast in half the time.
devans00 — October 2, 2013
When part of your identity includes hating a certain group of people, it's hard to let go. Actually I'm pretty impressed they've kept it going almost 5 generations.
Jolie — October 3, 2013
My first explanation was cognitive dissonance. We like to believe our direct ancestors, our great-great-grandparents were good people rather than bad people; that we come from a lineage of decent, hardworking, kind individual, rather than a family of oppressors and exploiters.
Racist attitudes may be what helps people in the south reconcile their knowledge of their ancestors being slave-owners, slave-beating abusive supervisors, slave-hunters or otherwise supporting the system with seeing them still as good people.
[links] Link salad for the last days of a better nation | jlake.com — October 3, 2013
[...] 150 Years of Racism: Attitudes in the American South — A new paper by Avidit Acharya, Matthew Blackwell, and Maya Sen has discovered that the proportion of enslaved residents in 1860 — 153 years ago — predicts race-related beliefs today. As the percent of the population in a county accounted for by the enslaved increases, there is a decreased likelihood that contemporary white residents will identify as a Democrat and support affirmative action, and an increased chance that they will express negative beliefs about black people. [...]
Marie — October 4, 2013
I am from the NW and when I moved to GA for the first time (for work) I was shocked to discover that at least half the black people I encountered where very prejudice and barely tolerated white people. So, it seems silly to me that the media and academics keep talking about white people being racist - simply due to America's past - instead of also reviewing racism in other groups (as if only whites could be racist). On top of that, from my experience, when white and black people were friends or dated, it was the black people who were more vocally against interracial relations (the racists whites kept their mouths shut). There isn't a taboo that keeps racist blacks from spewing racism. Why not produce a more balanced report that shows racism in other groups - not just whites.
Sunday Morning Link Brunch | Society and Sports — October 6, 2013
[...] 150 Years of Racism: Attitudes in the American South- [...]
Ghosts, and Children of Slavery | joelfrominwood — October 10, 2013
[...] second, from Sociological Images, 150 Years of Racism: Attitudes in the American South, links to a study that discovered that “the proportion of enslaved residents in 1860 — 153 [...]
150 Years of Racism: Attitudes in the American South — October 11, 2013
[...] post originally appeared on Sociological Images, a Pacific Standard partner [...]
Bill R — October 31, 2013
The politics of inclusion/exclusion expresses itself in many ways and is frequently instantiated by family values. Oddly, the incredible cultural and ethnic diversity in America seems to reinforce the need to exclude, to maintain a sense of belonging to the ingroup. Humans...