A comparison of black and white prejudice

The prejudice of White Americans has been extensively studied, but that of African Americans has been comparatively ignored in the social sciences. In this article, the prejudice of Black and White university students is compared. Black respondents were students at Mississippi State University and White respondents were students at Iowa State University in the spring and fall of 1993. After factoring prejudice into its component types, we found that Black students scored significantly higher on aversive and overall prejudice, but there was no significant racial difference on biological prejudice. There were few racial differences, however, in the correlates of overall prejudice. The perception of out-group threat was positively related to and voluntary intergroup contact was negatively related to prejudice for Black and White respondents alike. Stratification beliefs were a predictor of prejudice only for White respondents. These exploratory results suggest racial comparisons of prejudice should be on the research agenda.