The role of whiteness in persisting racism

Committee members: Garry Rolison (chair), Kristin Bates, Alicia Gonzales, Dreama MoonWhiteness research has found popularity in a number of academic spheres. However, due to the nature of the topic, the concept of Whiteness has primarily been explored qualitatively. This work seeks an innovative approach to exploring the topic of Whiteness through quantitative methodology. The idea for this study design was built on the foundation of existing racial attitudes and symbolic racism models. After delineating Whiteness from symbolic racism, proxy variables for Whiteness are identified for analysis. This study uses data from the year 2000 General Social Survey and examines data for a sub-sample of white Americans. A series of multivariate multiple regression analyses are performed using Whiteness as an independent variable used to predict both old and new forms of racism. Measures of Whiteness prove to be significant predictors of both old ("Jim Crow") and new ("symbolic") racism. These results suggest the need for further studies of Whiteness that include specific measures constructed to examine Whiteness directly. Considering the very recent election of our first African American president, this study provides a timely and socially relevant call to research as our nation looks to a progressive future