Roundtable on Race and Racism -An Interdisciplinary Conversation

Nov. 13, 2004

OSU Memorial Union Rm 209, 1-5 PM

Bill Loges, Sociology

"The sociology of values and racism"

Since the late 1960s, Americans have changed many of the beliefs they hold about racial equality. Survey researchers have noted that Americans seem to have become increasingly supportive of racial integration, but that their support of specific policies to bring about integration has been ambiguous. To more fully understand beliefs about race that seem paradoxical it is important to understand the way that beliefs are conceptualized and measured. This is especially true if one wishes to use attitudes or values as indicators of future behavior. The concept of values developed by Milton Rokeach offers a better basis for gauging public sentiment toward social policies and toward day-to-day life in an integrated society than conventional attitude measures, since values reflect beliefs that are more deeply held and more abstract than attitudes.