ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of work on aversive racism with a reinterpretation of the findings in terms of pro-ingroup biases rather than as primarily anti-outgroup biases. It examines an additional aspect of the nature of contemporary racial attitudes and how racial bias may be expressed by aversive racists. The chapter is about White Americans who possess genuinely egalitarian values, who identify with a politically liberal agenda, who believe that they are not prejudiced and that they do not discriminate against Blacks or other minorities. It reconsiders whether aversive racism is driven primarily by anti-Black feelings as we originally proposed, or whether this form of racism may plausibly be interpreted as reflecting pro-White biases. The chapter illustrates that evidence originally interpreted as indicating subtle anti-Black prejudice may instead represent pro-White bias. It examines the possibility that racial bias, particularly in its contemporary manifestations, may reflect a pro-White, not simply anti-Black, sentiment that many traditional theories and measures have implied.
