Is racism dead? Comparing (expressive) means and (structural equation) models.

Much scholarship suggests that racism--belief in out-group inferiority--is unrelated to contemporary attitudes. Purportedly, a new form of racism, one which relies upon a belief in cultural difference, has become a more acceptable basis for such attitudes. The authors argue that an appropriate empirical assessment of racism (both 'old' and 'new') depends upon (1) clear conceptualization and operationalization, and (2) attention to both mean-level expression and explanatory value in structural equation models. This study assessed the endorsement of racism and belief in cultural difference as well as their association with a measure of general attitude in a secondary analysis of parallel representative surveys of attitudes toward different ethnic out-groups in France, The Netherlands, Western Germany and Britain (N = 3242; see Reif & Melich, 1991). For six of the seven out-group targets, racism was strongly related to ethnic majority attitudes, despite low mean-level endorsement. In a pattern consistent with a 'new', indirect racism, the relationship between British racism and attitudes toward Afro-Caribbeans was mediated by belief in cultural difference.