An Examination of the Racial Attitudes of Black U.S. Residents in Relation to Shifts in Systemic Racial Inequalities

Shifts in systemic racism and racial inequalities in the U.S. over the last several decades have been mixed—some things have improved whereas others have remained unchanged or even worsened. Although school segregation is now illegal and the country has had its first Black president, the racial wealth gap continues to widen. In the current work, we examine whether shifts in racial inequalities in key structural areas in recent decades predict implicit and explicit racial attitudes among Black U.S. residents (N = 38,448). We observed some evidence of more pro-Black attitudes in states where racial inequalities in income, unemployment, and being uninsured decreased over time. However, the most robust association was between decreased racial inequalities in high school completion rates and decreased pro-Black attitudes. Thus, the current findings provide empirical evidence convergent with the notion that the public education system in the U.S. might be contributing to internalized racism among Black people in the U.S.