Framing a policy as rectifying racial injustice decreases public support according to Yale study
Sadly, our country is just that sub-consciously racist.
Here's the Yale study describing this:
Racial Equality Frames and Public Policy Support
How do racial attitudes shape policy preferences in the era of Black Lives Matter and increasingly liberal views on racial issues? A large body of research finds that highlighting the benefits of progressive policies for racial minorities undermines support for those policies. However, Democratic elites have started centering race in their messaging on progressive public policies. To explore this puzzle, in this paper we offer an empirical test that examines the effect of describing an ostensibly race-neutral progressive policy with racial framing, as used by Democratic elites, on support for that policy. To benchmark these effects, we compare a race policy frame with class, class plus race, and neutral policy frames. We demonstrate that despite leftward shifts in public attitudes towards issues of racial equality, racial framing decreases support for race-neutral progressive policies. Generally, the class frame most successfully increases support for progressive policies across racial and political subgroups
In American politics, the question is not whether racial attitudes matter, but rather how and why racial attitudes matter. Despite progress, racial prejudice continues to play a central role in American society, with devastating impacts for both racial minorities and white Americans. What is the role of racial attitudes in shaping policy preferences?
Although most white Americans agree with the general principles of racial equality, a large literature finds that white Americans remain reluctant to endorse policies that are designed to actually achieve racial equality. For example, racial priming tends to activate racial attitudes and decrease support for social welfare policies and policies perceived to aid Black Americans (for review, see Valenzuela and Reny 2020). While “old-fashioned racism” may have declined, “the turbulence of the late 1960s gave rise to a ‘new racism’ wherein opposition to policies designed to assist blacks was born out of a blend of traditional American moral values and anti-black affect” (Hutchings and Valentino 2004, p. 390). A large body of research thus finds that in some form, racism remains a pernicious force in white Americans’ policy preferences.
Yet, in recent years, Democratic elites have started centering race in their messaging, even on topics not explicitly about race. Prominent Democratic pollsters and strategists argue that this is a way to both motivate the Democratic base and persuade voters. Recent research also suggests that white racial attitudes are shifting in a way that may have meaningful political ramifications, suggesting that explicit discussions of race could potentially be beneficial to racial equity causes(e.g., Sawyer and Gampa 2018; Jardina, Kalmoe and Gross 2020). This is surprising given how Republicans have historically used racialized language to decrease support for progressive policies(e.g., Hacker and Pierson 2020).
Are Democratic elites wise to explicitly use racial justice framing in promoting their ostensibly “race-neutral” progressive policies? Decades of political science research would suggest linking progressive policies with race would decrease support for those policies, particularly among white Americans. Yet, increasingly, Democratic elites are talking explicitly about race. Might Democratic elites’ messaging strategies, particularly in light of the heightened salience of racial inequities in American society and growing antiracist social movements, reflect a meaningful shift in public opinion that has not yet been incorporated in political scientists’ theorizing on the role of race in policy preferences?
https://osf.io/tdkf3/
This explains why the simple phrase "Black Lives Matter" receives so much push back from white voters that insist THAT is racist and "All Lives Matter".
The study went on to say that Black voters equally support a policy if it is framed on a racial basis or a class/economic basis, so politically with all voters it would be more effective to frame issues in class/economic terms.
This is something to keep in mind when it comes to messaging our Democratic positions on a host of issues like Pre-natal Care, Housing, and Voter Suppression Laws.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Framing anything in racial terms remains a live third rail in American politics, it just doesn't pay politically to go there.
Black and other minority voters are adept and realize that policies framed as class or economic issues are of course going to help them at least as much as white voters are helped.
Thanks.
