A new study appearing in the March issue of the American Sociological Association’s Social Psychology Quarterly, finds that highly educated Whites and Blacks are no more likely than their less educated peers to support race-based affirmative action in the workplace. The study is authored by Geoffrey T. Wodtke, a doctoral student in sociology at the University of Michigan.
Wodkte states that highly educated people of all races who have “made it” may be less likely to support special help for others to achieve what they had accomplished on their own. He also says that another reason for a low level of support for these programs is that “affirmative action programs may have the unintended effect of stigmatizing people who have benefitted from them. As a result of this stigmatization, people who have seemingly benefitted from affirmative action may just lose faith in the efficacy of these programs to overcome racial discrimination in the labor market.”
