Who do you identify as anti-racist? Racial identity, color blindness, and general liberalism

First published November 2, 2021 in Research Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/23780231211052945

Explanation

The terms "anti-racist/anti-racism" and "anti-racist/anti-racist" have come to be used by scholars, authors, and activists to convey the need for active opposition to racial injustice, but as the terms have become more mainstream, the social and ideological correlates of actually describing oneself as "anti-racist" have not been examined.

Using data from a study of public interest in the term "anti-racist/anti-racist," researchers found that blacks and Hispanics were significantly less likely than whites to describe themselves as "anti-racist," and that "very liberal" were more likely to identify with the label than with any other political orientation. Considering the correlates of ideology, progressive racial ideology is the strongest predictor for identifying as "anti-racist," while the second strongest correlate is describing oneself as "colorblind.

Analysis of the quadratic term suggests that this correlation is curvilinear in non-whites, but more linear in whites.

Originally, it conveyed a more radical and subversive ideal, but we now identify the white progressives most likely to self-identify as "anti-racist" as what we call "generally liberal" racial views.