To build support for reducing racial inequality among white Americans, we must focus on structural racism.

For many Americans, the idea of ​​racism is about individuals, not about the system of laws and policies that create and reproduce racial inequalities, known as structural racism. New research Leah Christiani, Nathan J. Kelly, AND Jana Morgan to examine what happens when white Americans are exposed to direct information about structural racism in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. They find that when white Americans read about structural racism, they become—particularly Republicans—more supportive of government policies aimed at reducing racial inequities in health care, as well as policies that target race more generally.

Panic over the alleged teaching of “critical race theory” and other “divisive concepts” in schools has erupted across the U.S. in recent years. While critical race theory is not actually taught in any widespread way outside of law schools, far-right activists have worked to make the term synonymous with teaching about race, racial inequality, and racial oppression.

To the extent that the moral panic about “critical race theory” has gained traction among the broader American public, resistance to seeing racism as a structural rather than an individual phenomenon has likely played a role. Many Americans prefer to think of racism as something that comes from a few individual bad apples rather than a system of laws and policies that produce and reproduce racial inequality.

Information on structural racism and political attitudes

In this broader context, we wanted to know what happens when white Americans are directly confronted with information about structural racism. Does information about structural racism influence their other political attitudes? Based on the existing literature, we were unsure whether this would motivate increased support for—or opposition to—policies aimed at combating racial inequality.

To answer this question, we conducted a survey experiment. Respondents were randomly assigned to read different news articles. Respondents in both groups read about the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of lives lost, and the initial efforts to distribute vaccines. However, respondents in one group did not read anything about race (the control group), while respondents in the other group read about the racial disparities that emerged in the number of lives lost and access to vaccines (the “treatment” group). The article explicitly noted that barriers to accessing vaccines were not due to individual choice but to structural factors that are unrelated to COVID-19 and stem from “long-standing inequalities in American society.” The goal was to ensure that respondents were informed about structuralnot the individual nature of racial inequality.

Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash

After reading the article and reflecting on what they had read in a short written response, respondents answered several questions that measured their support for race-specific public policies. These policies included health care policies and extended beyond them to other areas such as taxes and schools. Figure 1 shows predicted agreement with race-specific policies by treatment condition. For each policy area, reading an article about structural racism in the COVID-19 pandemic increased white respondents’ support for race-specific policies aimed at reducing such racial inequalities.

Figure 1 – Information about structural racism leads to increased support for race-specific policies

Note: All differences statistically significant at the 95% confidence level or higher. Non-Hispanic white respondents who completed at least 1 attention check were included. Dependent variables scaled from 0 to 1, with higher values ​​indicating greater support for egalitarian public policies.

Reading about racial inequality increases white Americans and Republicans’ support for race-based policies

As white Americans read about structural racism in the COVID-19 pandemic, they became more supportive of the idea that the government should work to reduce racial inequalities in health care. They also became more supportive of policies that would guarantee access to vaccines for black people in the US. This increased support for race-specific policies in the health care domain also spilled over into more general race-specific policies—leading to increased support for tax breaks for businesses that are located in black neighborhoods, funding for majority-black schools, and scholarships for black students. These results suggest that, overall, explaining the structural barriers that black Americans face has the potential to motivate white Americans to support policies that aim to reduce such racial disparities.

Our work also reveals some differences by respondent’s party identification. For variables related to reducing racial inequality, prioritizing African Americans for vaccines, and increasing funding for majority-black schools, white Republicans were more likely to increase their support for race-specific policies in response to reading about racial disparities (compared to white Democrats). Based on a qualitative analysis of written responses from those who had read about racial disparities, we suggest that unfamiliarity with this information is a likely mechanism. Respondents who were particularly surprised by the way structural racism led to racial disparities in the COVID-19 pandemic were also most likely to increase their desire to “do something” to address this problem. Because of the way media is insular and polarized, Democrats (on average) may be more likely to be exposed to framings of racism as structural, whereas Republicans are not.

Our findings have important implications for policy messaging—suggesting that framing racial inequality as structural may have the potential to motivate increased support for egalitarian policies. They also help us understand why opponents of racial equality are threatened by efforts to teach about structural inequality—since understanding the structural nature of racism may increase support for public policies that seek to challenge such inequality.

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