Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- Preface
- The Mass Media and the Dynamics of American Racial Attitudes
- 1 Toward a Dynamic Perspective on Racial Attitudes
- 2 Eras of Media Coverage of Race
- 3 Eras of Racial Liberalism and Conservatism
- 4 Media Framing and the Dynamics of Racial Policy Preferences
- 5 The Fusion of Race and the Welfare State in the Public Mind
- 6 A New American Dilemma for a New Millennium?
- Appendix
- References
- Index
5 - The Fusion of Race and the Welfare State in the Public Mind
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 January 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- Preface
- The Mass Media and the Dynamics of American Racial Attitudes
- 1 Toward a Dynamic Perspective on Racial Attitudes
- 2 Eras of Media Coverage of Race
- 3 Eras of Racial Liberalism and Conservatism
- 4 Media Framing and the Dynamics of Racial Policy Preferences
- 5 The Fusion of Race and the Welfare State in the Public Mind
- 6 A New American Dilemma for a New Millennium?
- Appendix
- References
- Index
Summary
The fact is that the black middle class of 1974, like that of earlier years, is a minority within the black community. In 1974, as in 1964, 1954 and in the decades stretching into the distant past, the social and economic reality of the majority of black people has been poverty and marginal status in the wings of our society.
– Newsweek, July 8, 1974Observers of American politics speak in terms of eras. Perhaps this intellectual habit comes from our collective fascination with realignment theories, which help us to organize American history. We think of American political history in chunks, like the Jacksonian era or the Progressive era, reducing the essential political divisions of the moment to bite-sized pieces. The two most recent overarching issues that have shaped all of American politics are the New Deal and race. The New Deal era – or, as I will call it, the welfare state – concerns the proper role of government involvement in securing the well-being of a society. And the issue of race revolves around the treatment of blacks in American society.
Although such shorthand is surely convenient for arranging our thoughts about politics, it is surprising how little we actually know about the relationship between the welfare state and race, how that relationship has evolved, and the causes and consequences of this evolution. We do have some sense that, at the mass level, the issue of race and the cluster of welfare-state issues used to be separate.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Mass Media and the Dynamics of American Racial Attitudes , pp. 106 - 129Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2003