The Influence of Attitudes on Affirmative Action and Racial Identity on Judgments Involving Black Celebrity Defendants

Abstract

In a continuing project designed to explore the role of racial identity in determining reactions to racially charged, highly salient (“obtrusive”) events, a structural equation model was developed that identified factors influencing the impact of (a) race and (b) media exposure patterns on perceptions of the guilt or innocence of an African American celebrity-athlete defendant. Included in the hypothesized model were attitudes toward affirmative action, the perceived reality of television, and perceptions of a “mean world.” Undertaking a secondary analysis of public opinion data on the O. J. Simpson Murder case, we have “shuffled the race card” with a slim deck of alternative factors, eliminating race as a strong, direct causal agent. And, we have identified a number of ways in which media exposure serves as an important—yet indirect—predictor of attitudes towards African American celebrity-athletes.

KEYTERMS:

• affirmative action
• celebrity defendent
• media effects
• racial attitudes

Notes

Note. n = 198.

∗p < .05 (all correlation coefficients with an absolute value of .14 or greater), two-tailed.

Other prominent events involving race that emerged after 1990 include Rodney King's beating and subsequent race riots in Los Angeles, the State of California's move to end Affirmative Action in university admissions, publication of Hernnstein and Murray's controversial best-seller addressing racial I.Q. gaps and Minister Louis Farrakhan's Million Man March.

Thernstrom (1996) maintains that race became the very theme of the Simpson murder trial. From the beginning, Simpson supporters portrayed him as a victim of the crime, a victim of overt racism. Simpson's defense team lambasted the forensic evidence presented against him, offering theories of a possible frame-up by racist police officers (Dershowitz, 1996). As Thaler (1997) recounts, this report fit into a series of Simpson defense team leaks that played to a “turbulent history involving the LAPD and the minority communities of Los Angeles” that had been “simmering under the surface” for some years. When the predominantly Black jury returned a “not guilty” plea for Simpson in less than three hours, outcries emerged from the public and the press (Director, 1995). Predictions of an increasing “racial divide” abounded. Researchers began to identify race as an important determinant of one's beliefs in Simpson's innocence (Driscoll & Salwen, 1987).

Television use was a first stage value in their heuristic causal chain, and stereotypes of African Americans were the second stage; the most explanatory paths were from perceived negative TV attributes to stereotypes–and stereotypes to opinions.

They found linkages suggesting that (a) the role of racial prejudice in promoting opposition to affirmative action is minor; (b) rather than opposition to affirmative action signaling a refusal to acknowledge the discrimination and exploitation that Black Americans have suffered, a substantial majority of White Americans believe that an extra effort should be made to see that Blacks are treated fairly; (c) opposition to affirmative action is not peculiar to White Americans; (d) opposition to affirmative action does not hinge on the race of the group who benefits but rather on whether the procedures involved are judged to be fair; (e) in addition to the dislike of Blacks leading to dislike of affirmative action, dislike of affirmative action fosters dislike of Blacks; and (f) opposition has burst conventional political channels—it is now as prevalent on the left among liberals and Democrats, as with Conservatives on the right.

Numerous other indicators in the survey tapped additional standard social indicators (e.g., gender, age, educational level, marital status), attitudes toward crime, poverty, racial stereotyping, and problems facing society, and additional media habits and preferences (e.g., books read, radio listening). Multiple regression analyses eliminated these as important influences on attitudes toward O. J. Simpson's innocence or guilt.

Turning to linkages not found significant in the model, there is no evidence of a cultivation function for negative media portrayals of Blacks (TV and Neg AfAm Media are relatively unrelated; r = .03). And as noted before, the two interaction terms and race (AfAm), all with significant zero-order relationships with their posited outcomes, fail to consistently provide significant contributions when the full model is tested.