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What's the Matter with Arkansas? Symbolic Racism and 2008 Presidential Candidate Support
Author(s) -
FORD PEARL K.,
MAXWELL ANGIE,
SHIELDS TODD
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
presidential studies quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.337
H-Index - 5
eISSN - 1741-5705
pISSN - 0360-4918
DOI - 10.1111/j.1741-5705.2010.03774.x
Subject(s) - racism , presidential system , the symbolic , political science , ticket , voting , sociology , criminology , social psychology , gender studies , psychology , law , politics , computer security , computer science , psychoanalysis
The 2008 presidential election presented voters with the nation's first African American presidential candidate. Symbolic racism theory suggests that Obama's presence on the national ticket will activate a range of racial attitudes across the electorate. The authors examine two statewide surveys from Arkansas and Georgia in order to explore the importance of symbolic racism across different campaign contexts. The findings suggest that voting behavior was significantly influenced by symbolic racism. Consequently, the authors extend the symbolic racism literature by demonstrating the effects of these attitudes at the national level and across different campaign environments.