September 11, 2024 | Noon to 1:00 PM EST
Zoe Walker, University of Michigan
Despite long-standing racial disparities in wealth, housing, and education, many Black Americans still believe in the American Dream. What are the political consequences of believing America provides fair opportunities for economic mobility under conditions of ongoing racial inequality? In this paper, I propose the American Dream narrative undermines Blacks’ awareness of racial barriers in society and, in turn, weakens support for policies to reduce inequality. To test my claims, I introduce a novel measure of Attitudes about the American Dream (AAD) to assess how much an individual believes the American opportunity structure is open to people who work hard. I then combine analyses of qualitative and quantitative data from three original surveys of Black American adults. Across two observational studies, I find the American Dream narrative is associated with increased support for stereotypes about Black Americans as a group, increased opposition to spending on social welfare programs, and diminished support for government intervention to reduce racial disparities. In a third study, I analyze over 1,000 open-ended responses to the AAD measure. Using a structural topic model, I find Blacks who score high on the AAD are significantly less likely to discuss racism when describing the American opportunity structure. I conclude by discussing how this study of Black public opinion provides compelling evidence of the linkage between economic beliefs, explicit racial attitudes and racially conservative policy preferences among disadvantaged groups.