Abstract
Recent events have brought attention to Confederate monuments positioned across the USA and polarized debates about their proper placement; however, prior research examining support for Confederate symbols is largely limited to white Americans. This study examines public support for the South Carolina Confederate flag using four perspectives of racial stratification—black/nonblack, combined race-ethnicity, ethnoracial pentagon, and nonwhite/white. Using data from two nationally representative surveys of noninstitutionalized US adults collected in 2000 and 2015 (n = 7638), we identify associations between theories of racial stratification and Confederate flag stances. Multiple model fit indices indicate that the combined race-ethnicity theory of racial stratification best mapped onto public support followed by the ethnoracial pentagon and black/nonblack perspectives. The nonwhite/white model exhibited the poorest fit. Findings from logistic regressions showed that whites had significantly higher odds of supporting the Confederate flag compared to blacks and Latinos. Additionally, blacks had lower odds of flag support than Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, Pacific Islanders, and multiracial respondents. We argue that an overlooked aspect of Confederate monuments is their signified antiblackness demonstrated in this study by greater support for the flag among all nonblack racial-ethnic groups. Findings imply that prioritizing whites’ views in discussions of Confederate monuments offers an inadequate depiction of public opinion by race-ethnicity. Disaggregating views via the combined race-ethnicity measure highlights racial-ethnic variation in support of the South Carolina Confederate flag.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
In additional analyses, we found that estimating Models 2 and 3 using only respondents surveyed in 2015 uncovers significantly higher odds of support for the Confederate flag for Asian Americans compared to white Americans. We urge caution in extrapolating from this finding too broadly given the small cell size, but view it as important for future research investigating support for Confederate monuments.
References
Akaike, H. (1974). A new look at the statistical model identification. IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, 19(6), 716–723.
Alba, R. D., & Nee, V. (2009). Remaking the American mainstream: Assimilation and contemporary immigration. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Allison, P. (1999). Logistic regression using the SAS System: Theory and application. SAS Publishing.
Amott, T., & Mattheai, L. (1991). Race, gender, and work: A multicultural history of women in the United States. Boston, MA: South End Press.
Bell, D. (1992). Faces at the bottom of the well: The permanence of racism. New York: Basic Books.
Bonilla-Silva, E. (2004). From bi-racial to tri-racial: Towards a new system of racial stratification in the USA. Ethnic and Racial Studies,27(6), 931–950.
Bonilla-Silva, E. (2017). Racism without racists: Color-blind racism and racial inequality in contemporary America (5th ed.). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Carmines, E. G., Sniderman, P. M., & Easter, B. C. (2011). On the meaning, measurement, and implications of racial resentment. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science,634, 98–116.
Chou, R., & Feagin, J. (2008). The myth of the model minority: Asian Americans facing racism. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Books.
Cisneros, J. (2019). Dozens gather for pro-Confederate flag rally at SC state house. WIS News. Retrieved 27 July 2019 from: https://www.wistv.com/2019/07/13/dozens-gather-pro-confederate-flag-rally-sc-state-house/.
Clark, J. A. (1997). Explaining elite attitudes on the Georgia flag. American Politics Quarterly,25(4), 482–496.
Cobas, J., & Feagin, J. (2008). Latinos/as and the White racial frame. Sociological Inquiry,78, 39–53.
Cooper, C. A., & Knotts, H. G. (2006). Region, race, and support for the South Carolina Confederate flag. Social Science Quarterly,87(1), 142–154.
Coski, J. M. (2005). The Confederate battle flag: America’s most embattled symbol. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Press.
Davis, J. W. (1998). An air of defiance: Georgia's state flag change of 1956. Georgia Historical Quarterly,82(2), 305–330.
Delgado, R., & Stefancic, J. (2017). Critical race theory: An introduction. New York: New York University Press.
Du Bois, W. E. B. (1900 [2014]). The present outlook for the dark races of mankind. In N. D. Chandler (Ed.), The problem of the color line at the turn of the twentieth century: The essential early essays (pp. 111–137). Fordham University Press.
Dubenko, A. (2017). Right and left on the violence in Charlottesville. New York Times, August 14. Retrieved 5 Aug 2018 from: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/14/us/politics/trump-charlottesville-left-right-react.html.
Ehrlinger, J. E., Plant, A., Eibach, R. P., Columb, C. J., Goplen, J. L., Kunstman, J. W., et al. (2011). How exposure to the confederate flag affects willingness to vote for Barack Obama. Political Psychology,32(1), 131–146.
Foner, N. (2005). In a new land: A comparative view of immigration. New York University Press.
Forman, T., Goar, C., & Lewis, A. E. (2002). Neither black nor white? An empirical test of the Latin Americanization thesis. Race and Society,5, 65–84.
Gans, H. J. (2005). Race as class. Contexts,4(4), 17–21.
Griffin, J. D., & Newman, B. (2007). The unequal representation of Latinos and Whites. Journal of Politics,69(4), 1032–1046.
Holley, P., & DeNeen, B. (2015). Woman takes down Confederate flag in front of South Carolina Statehouse. Washington Post, June 27. Retrieved 25 Aug 2018 from: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2015/06/27/woman-takes-down-confederate-flag-in-front-of-south-carolina-statehouse/?utm_term=.5b872b658ffe.
Hollinger, D. A. (2006). Postethnic America: Beyond multiculturalism. New York: Basic Books.
Holyfield, L., Moltz, M. R., & Bradley, M. S. (2009). Race discourse and the US Confederate flag. Race, Ethnicity, and Education,12(4), 517–537.
Hosmer, D. W., & Lemeshow, S. (1980). Goodness of fit tests for the multiple logistic regression model. Communications in Statistics, 9(10), 1043–1069.
Howell, J. & Emerson, M. O. (2017). So what “should” we use? Evaluating the impact of five racial measures on markers of social inequality. Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, 3(1), 14–30.
Hutchings, V. L., Walton, H., Jr. & Benjamin, A. (2010). The impact of explicit racial cues on gender differences in support for Confederate symbols and partisanship. The Journal of Politics,72(4), 1175–1188.
Kendi, I. X. (2016). Stamped from the beginning: The definitive history of racist ideas in America. New York: Nation Books.
Krysan, M., Lewis, A. E., & Forman, T. (Eds.). (2004). Changing terrain of race and ethnicity. New York: Russell Sage.
Lee, J., & Bean, F. D. (2010). The diversity paradox: Immigration and the color line in twenty-first century America. New York: Russell Sage.
Long, J. S., & Freese, J. (2014). Regression models for categorical dependent variables using stata (3rd ed.). College Station, TX: Stata Press.
Massey, D. S., & Denton, N. A. (1998). American apartheid: Segregation and the making of the underclass. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
McFadden, D. (1973). Conditional logit analysis of qualitative choice behavior. In P. Zarembka (Ed.), Frontiers in Econometrics (pp. 105–142). New York: Academic Press.
Mora, G. C. (2014). Making Hispanics: How activists, bureaucrats and media constructed a new American. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Orey, B. D. (2004). White racial attitudes and support for the Mississippi state flag. American Politics Research,32(1), 102–116.
Pencina, M. J., D’Agostino, R. B., Sr., D’Agostino, R. B., Jr., & Ramachandran, S. V. (2008). Evaluating the added predictive ability of a new marker: From area under the ROC curve to reclassification and beyond. Statistics in Medicine, 27(2), 157–172.
Pew Research Center (Pew). (2015). July 2015 Political survey Pew Research Center, Washington, D.C. Retrieved 1 June 2018 from: https://www.people-press.org/2015/07/20/july-2015-political-survey/.
Prince, K. M. (2004). Rally ‘round the flag, boys! South Carolina and the Confederate flag. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press.
Ray, V. E., Randolph, A., Underhill, M., & Luke, D. (2017). Critical race theory, Afro-pessimism, and racial progress narratives. Sociology of Race and Ethnicity,3(2), 147–158.
Reingold, B., & Wike, R. S. (1998). Confederate symbols, southern identity, and racial attitudes: The case of the Georgia state flag. Social Science Quarterly,79(3), 568–580.
Roediger, D. (1991). The wages of whiteness: Race and the making of the American working class. New York: Verso.
Romer, D., Kenski, K., Waldman, P., Adasiewicz, C., & Jamieson, K. H. (2004). Capturing campaign dynamics: The National Annenberg Election Survey design, method, and data. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge Press.
Roos, J. M., Hughes, M., & Reichelmann, A. (2019). A puzzle of racial attitudes: A measurement analysis of racial attitudes and policy indicators. Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World, 5, 1–14.
Ross, C. E., & Mirowsky, J. (1992). Households, employment, and the sense of control. Social Psychology Quarterly,55(3), 217–235.
Roth, W. (2012). Race migrations: Hispanics and the cultural transformation of race. Redwood City, CA: Stanford University Press.
Saperstein, A., & Penner, A. (2013). Racial fluidity and inequality in the United States. American Journal of Sociology,118(3), 676–727.
Sears, D. O., & Henry, P. J. (2005). Over thirty years later: A contemporary look at symbolic racism. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology,37, 95–150.
Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). (2016). Whose heritage? Public symbols of the Confederacy. Retrieved 2 June 2018 from: https://www.splcenter.org/20160421/whose-heritage-public-symbols-confederacy.
Strother, L., Piston, S., & Ogorzalek, T. (2017). Pride or prejudice? Racial prejudice, Southern heritage, and white support for the Confederate battle flag. Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race,14(1), 295–323.
Talbert, R. D. (2017). Culture and the Confederate flag: Attitudes toward a divisive symbol. Sociology Compass,11(2), 1–10.
Waldman, P., & Jamieson, K. H. (2003). Rhetorical convergence and issue knowledge in the 2000 presidential election. Presidential Studies Quarterly,33(1), 145–163.
Webster, G. R., & Leib, J. (2012). What would Robert E. Lee do? Race, religion, and the debate over the Confederate battle flag in the American South. In D. Jacobson, & N. Wadsworth (Eds.), Faith and race in american political life (pp. 103–124). Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press
Wodtke, G. T. (2012). The impact of education on intergroup attitudes: A multiracial analysis. Social Psychology Quarterly,75(1), 80–106.
Woliver, L. R., Ledford, A. D., & Dolan, C. J. (2001). The South Carolina Confederate flag: The politics of race and citizenship. Politics & Policy,29(4), 708–730.
Zuberi, T., Patterson, E. J., & Stewart, Q. T. (2015). Race, methodology, and social construction in the genomic era. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science,661(1), 109–127.
Acknowledgements
An earlier version of this article was presented at the 2017 Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association. The Pew Research Center bears no responsibility for the analyses or interpretations of the data presented here.
Funding
The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, or publication of this article.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no potential conflict of interest.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Talbert, R.D., Patterson, E.J. Racial Stratification and the Confederate Flag: Comparing Four Perspectives to Explain Flag Support. Race Soc Probl 12, 233–245 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12552-020-09288-y
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12552-020-09288-y