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The Next Link in the Chain Reaction: Symbolic Racism and Obama's Religious Affiliation
Author(s) -
Maxwell Angie,
Dowe Pearl Ford,
Shields Todd
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
social science quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.482
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1540-6237
pISSN - 0038-4941
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-6237.2012.00899.x
Subject(s) - racism , politics , presidential system , state (computer science) , presidential campaign , presidential election , sociology , public opinion , political science , social psychology , gender studies , psychology , law , algorithm , computer science
Objectives During the 2008 presidential election, questions about Barack Obama's religious affiliations spread rapidly over the Internet and became a regular story in the national news. Despite Obama's repeated testimony that he is a Christian, surveys indicated that a sizeable portion of the public believed that he was a Muslim, while others indicated that they were “unsure” of his religious allegiances. We evaluate the extent to which racial attitudes played a role in how the public viewed Obama's religious affiliations. Methods We used nationally representative surveys conducted by the Pew Foundation and a state‐level survey conducted in Arkansas. Results Our findings suggest that attitudes about Obama's religious affiliation were significantly influenced by symbolic racism. Conclusions These findings suggest that the American public dialogue about racial politics has evolved in recent years to include religious denominations.