Among whites, liking your own race is associated with liking blacks

SDA 3.3: Tables GSS 1972-2008 Cumulative Dataset

Oct 24, 2009 (Sat 05:07 AM PDT)

Variables Role Name Label Range MD Dataset Row COLDTOBLACKS 1-3 2 Column COLDTOWHITES 1-3 2 Filter RACE(1) RACE OF RESPONDENT(=WHITE) 1-3 0 1

Frequency Distribution Cells contain: -Column percent -Row percent -N of cases COLDTOWHITES 1 warm 2 neutral 3 cold ROW TOTAL COLDTOBLACKS 1: warm 73.0 95.6 1,199 7.9 2.6 33 22.0 1.8 22 58.0 100.0 1,254 2: neutral 16.5 41.3 271 86.9 55.5 364 21.0 3.2 21 30.3 100.0 656 3: cold 10.5 68.7 173 5.3 8.7 22 57.0 22.6 57 11.7 100.0 252 COL TOTAL 100.0 76.0 1,643 100.0 19.4 419 100.0 4.6 100 100.0 100.0 2,162 Means 1.38 1.97 2.35 1.54 Std Devs .67 .36 .82 .69

Color coding: <-2.0 <-1.0 <0.0 >0.0 >1.0 >2.0 Z N in each cell: Smaller than expected Larger than expected

Summary Statistics Eta* = .43 Gamma = .71 Chisq(P) = 1,008.34 (p= 0.00) R = .42 Tau-b = .46 Chisq(LR) = 906.95 (p= 0.00) Somers' d* = .56 Tau-c = .32 df = 4 *Row variable treated as the dependent variable.

Allocation of cases Valid cases 2,162 Cases excluded by filter 9,720 Cases with invalid codes on row or column variable 41,161 Total cases 53,043

Datasets 1 /html/D3/GSS08 2 /html/Npubvars/GSS08

CSM, UC Berkeley

White General Social Survey respondents were asked how warmly they felt toward 1) other whites and 2) blacks. The cross-tab above shows the results.

The finding that really jumps out at you is that if you answer warm about one race, you are very likely to answer warm about the other. There is a strong tendency among whites to either like everyone or to dislike everyone.

Let's call those who dislike both blacks and whites Misanthropists, and those who like both Philanthropists. We'll call those who are neutral towards everyone Neutralists. To keep things simple, we'll label a white person a SWPL (pronounced "swipple") if they give a warmer answer for blacks than for whites. Racialists will be those who give whites a higher score than blacks.

It is clear from the table that the majority of whites are Philanthropists--55 percent to be exact. (Taking the cell totals, I get: 1199/2162 = .55. I calculate subsequent percentages the same way). Seventeen percent are Neutralists, and only three percent are Misanthropists.

Four percent of whites are SWPLs, and 22 percent are Racialists.

It is interesting that the observed pattern contradicts the image of whites who like their race. We're told that Caucasians who are pro-white hate non-whites, but the vast majority of whites who feel warmly towards other whites feel the same way about blacks. Philanthropists are by far the largest category. And even if we look at Racialists, a majority of them like whites and are neutral toward blacks (271 out of 466). Only 11 percent of whites who feel warmly about others in their race say they have cool feelings about blacks.