Accounting for "Racism": Responses to Political Predicaments in Two States.

The article examines public response to socially unacceptable political situations by looking at two cases of statewide referenda involving racially-sensitive issues. The first referendum concerns a 1990 proposal to establish a holiday honoring Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. in Arizona. The second referendum deals with a 2001 proposal to replace the Confederate emblem on the state flag of Mississippi with a new design less offensive to African Americans. A discussion on the four fundamental types of accounts of political predicaments, namely denial, justification, excuse, and confession, is presented.