Abstract
Critical Race Theory (CRT) has become a flashpoint of elite political discord, yet how Americans actually perceive CRT is unclear. We theorize that Republican elites utilized a strong framing strategy to re-define CRT as an empty signifier representing broader racial and cultural grievances. Using a survey and a pre-registered experiment among U.S. adults (N = 19,060), we find that this strategy worked. Republicans exhibit more familiarity with CRT and hold more negatively valenced (and wide ranging) sentiments toward CRT, relative to Democrats. Moreover, compared to teaching the legacy of racism in schools, Republicans are significantly more opposed to teaching CRT while Democrats express greater uncertainty. Our findings suggest that by framing CRT as a broad term that envelopes many grievances (including those beyond the scope of CRT), Republican elites have shaped a subset of Americans' understanding of and attitudes toward CRT.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 157-181 |
| Number of pages | 25 |
| Journal | Journal of Race, Ethnicity and Politics |
| Volume | 9 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 1 2024 |
Funding
We acknowledge financial support from the National Science Foundation under grants SES-2029292, SES-2029297, and SES-2116645, the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, the Knight Foundation, and the Russell Sage Foundation. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation, the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, the Knight Foundation, or the Russell Sage Foundation. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. This study was approved under Harvard IRB20-0593.
Keywords
- CRT
- Critical race theory
- elite cues
- empty signifier
- framing
- race
- racism
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Anthropology
- Sociology and Political Science